Two bits of interesting news yesterday: 1. France – while the eurozone is in financial meltdown – is allowing some of its workers to retire early; 2. China – while the eurozone is in financial meltdown – is on a shopping spree, buying European assets on the cheap. Perhaps there we have, in a nutshell, the pattern of what is to follow in the coming months.
Francois Hollande’s lowering of the pension age by two years to 60 applies to only a small class of workers, but it appears to be just the start of a slew of changes to employment laws — today, his government announced it would make it more expensive for companies to lay off workers. At any rate, the message to the world is clear — the new president is taking his ‘Socialist’ mantle seriously. How his latest jobs measures, which will require money his nation does not have, are ‘pro-growth’ is less clear.
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