French President Dissolves Government

French president Francois Hollande dissolved the French government on Monday. This isn't as promising as it sounds.

It is just a reshuffling of his cabinet and is the second reshuffle in six months of Hollande's beleaguered Socialist government.

Not surprisingly the French economy is stagnant given the draconian and oppressive restrictions that Hollande has placed on laissez faire.

The move comes after the resignation of Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who accused the outspoken economy minister, Arnaud Montebourg, of crossing a line with his blunt criticism of the government's policies.

Montebourg was forced to quit the cabinet on Monday, delivering a blistering attack on what he called “absurd” austerity policies,supported by Hollande,which had brought about “the most destructive crisis in Europe since 1929."

Valls is to announce a new cabinet on Tuesday, the second government revamp since the end of March.

 Valls has pledged to stick to a course in which deficits would be cut while the tax burden on businesses would be eased, bringing him into conflict with the left wing of the party represented by Montebourg.

I am all for tax cuts, but the debts incurred by previous French governments should be thrown on the fires of Ghenna, where they belong. Instead of being a burden on the French people, in addition to the burdens of an extremely regulated laissez faire.

Instead of reading from the playbook of Krugman, and other establishment cronies,  Hollande should be reading from the playbooks of Jean Baptiste Say and  Frédéric Bastiat.

-RW