Pave: Président de la « feuille de paye »

Le jour 217 de Sarko

Le but de la politique que je propose n'est pas de maintenir stable le pouvoir d'achat, il est de l'augmenter. Le but, ce n'est pas la stagnation, c'est le progrès. Le but, ce n'est pas le minimum, mais le maximum.

[The goal of the policies that I am proposing is not to keep purchasing power stable, it is to increase it. The goal is not stagnation, it is progress. The goal is not the minimum, but the maximum.]

Sarko,
then aspiring candidat du pouvoir d’achat,
now Président de la République and pocket reformer
Ensemble (Paris: XO Editions, 2007)

Sarko, the autoproclamé paycheck president, convinced a lot of people buying power would be the government's priorité des priorités, -- displacing that other priorité des priorités, intractable unemployment.

SARKOZY'S PLANS TO BOOST
FRENCH PURCHASING POWER
PARIS November 9, 2007 (Reuters)

France is underwhelmed.

Où est passé le candidat du pouvoir d’achat ? ...
Six mois après son élection, c'est peu dire que les Français ne voient pas la différence dans leur porte-monnaie.

[Whatever became of the purchasing power candidate? ... Six months after his election, it’s a bit of an understatement to say that the French see no difference in the contents of their wallets.]

Ludovic Vigogne,
journalist, Sarko biographer,
wondering aloud about the effect
of the paycheck president on the French paycheck
November 15, 2007 (Le Parisien)

FRENCH CABINET APPROVES BILL
TO BOLSTER PURCHASING POWER

PARIS December 12, 2007 (IHT) - The cabinet of President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday approved a bill that...aims to bolster consumer spending as rising food and energy costs dent household purchasing power.

... The new bill "is more likely to underpin consumer spending, at least temporarily," than the August [€9B tax cut] package, said Jean-Christophe Caffet, an economist at Natixis in Paris.

"Its impact on growth should be relatively limited, around 0.15 percentage point," helping the French economy expand 1.7 percent next year after the 1.9 percent growth expected for 2007, Caffet said.

Hhmmm. Obviously M. Caffet is not on the Élysée payroll.

LET THEM EAT CAKE
Food Inflation Used To Be A Problem For Poor Countries.
Now The French Are Feeling The Pinch.

December 24, 2007 Issue (Newsweek) - The [food inflation] issue may be arising first in France because the country spends so much of its income on eating—about 14 percent of total household spending,* versus 7 percent in the United States. "The perception of inflation seen from the consumer side took off in August and since then is really skyrocketing," says Eric Chaney, who is Morgan Stanley's chief economist for Europe, "and the only rational reason for that perception is the rise in food prices."

... A poll last week showed Sarkozy's overall approval rating drop from 55 to 51 percent in a month, while half the respondents don't think his policies will help their purchasing power, and a quarter think it will get worse. ... No wonder recent reform efforts have been halfhearted.

... Last month's insistence that striking transport unions give up their special pension arrangements was undermined economically, if not politically, by compromises on wage increases. Meanwhile, Sarkozy is reluctant to increase competition in the retail sector, since small shop owners are core supporters, and French law gives them what amounts to regulatory veto power over new businesses in their neighborhood.

All these problems would be easier to resolve if there were expectations of strong economic growth over the next year. But there aren't. So every day is a show in which Sarkozy tries to create a spectacle of progress.

We do not envy Sarko. He is expected to reform, when what he needs to do --and Pave senses Sarko knows this -- is trash. However his mandate (53.06% of a record turnout, 83.97%) does not extend that far. The French voted for enough reform to straiten their neighbor but not enough to upset their own amenities. This reduces wholesale reform to reform around the edges. [Pause.] The neighbors' edges, merci.

But timid reform, reform around the edges, accomplishes little and pleases no one.

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* Although there are those who manage esurience as a modest percentage of an enormous public budget.

PFFT (What is this?): Real reform ½ | Rayonnement français ⅛