Macron’s energy intervention has seriously backfired

He intervened decisively. He showed the ability of the state to make a difference. And he demonstrated that greedy, self-interested corporations should not be allowed to exploit ordinary consumers. Only a few weeks ago, the French President Emmanuel Macron was being celebrated by left-leaning economists and pundits for forcing the French energy giant EDF to slash the cost of power. But hold on. Now, the government has had to bail-out the company from the inevitable financial hit. It turns out that the government can’t dictate the price of energy after all – and it just creates a bigger mess when it tries to.

Even by the standards of French industrial policy the shenanigans around EDF have a surreal quality to them. Last month, Macron, who seems to have forgotten everything he learned as a young banker, decided there was an easy solution to soaring energy prices.