The darker more dangerous it is despair

Unions call for protest Thursday and social tension begins to locally. How you analyze the evolution of the situation

Behind each plant closure, every bankruptcy, there is suffering, upset lives. The darker, more dangerous, it is despair. He is first to be combat. No one should feel abandoned. It is the greatest challenge that we have today.

Nevertheless, there are a number of claims on the table...

Major events aggregate a multitude of different claims that express a profound anguish. But an employee of Continental, Sony or automotive subcontracting is not in the same situation as that of the public sector. It is first of it must be addressed. Must be found which is most efficient to save jobs and relieve those who suffer.

Will there be a new social Summit in the Elysee Palace at the end of this engagement, with the key measures

It is the evolution of the economic situation which dictates the policy of the Government, not the calendar of events. The Government has not increased compensation for partial unemployment or created a premium for young people who are not entitled to unemployment benefits because he had the world in the street, but because it was necessary. When an industrial sector as the car is at risk, a pool of employment in difficulty, a threatened social category, should intervene and the Government do so whenever necessary. But we must keep a cool head, avoid the flight forward, incessant cap changes that would add to the crisis.

Should one day make a recovery by the consumer

No one knows what the crisis will require us to do. But, for the moment, France consumption is good and plan stimulus begins to sentence to be implemented. The countries which have chosen so far for recovery by the consumer are not better and by borrowing to consume, they have reduced their margin of manoeuvre for the future.

Should the decline of the VAT in the restaurant intervene now or in 2010 Is the rate of 5.5

Lower the VAT in the restaurant, it is a question of credibility of political speech. In the current situation, confidence in the floor of the State, it is essential. And the recession, better is worth spending sooner than later. It is the philosophy of the stimulus package. With regard to the rate, it is not logical it 5.5 for the rapid and higher restoration for the traditional restoration. This will be 5.5 provided that the profession strong commitments on prices and on employment.

A debate is day, including on the right, on the need to contribute more affluent households to the effort during the crisis. Should tax shield be redesigned

There a lot of demagoguery in the debate on the tax shield. Do not take more than half of the income of a household is a choice of society that the Germans were enshrined in their Constitution. Behind, there is the question of whether, or not, we want to keep our entrepreneurs. If the tax shield works well and those who have gone back, top that it cost. In 2008, it resulted in a tax expenditure less than EUR 500 million. Trying to believe that with the Tepa law was 15 billion euros of gifts to the rich and that the money could finance a recovery by the consumer plan is a lie.

How narrow the deficit Rigour is will - not essential

Stirring the spectrum of rigour, it takes the risk to encourage households to consume even less and thus exacerbate the crisis. On the merits, this debate is dangerous and it is absurd. It would be disastrous to massively raise taxes during the crisis. To increase the output of the crisis could break the recovery and then how to impose new sacrifices to households which have both suffered This is the debate of 1944-1945 between those who wanted the rigour and those who supported that after four years of deprivation it was impossible. De Gaulle chose the second option and behind there were thirty Glorieuses. What would it happened if it had chosen after the war for austerity

But how will it solve the issue of debt, which will soon approach 80 of the GDP

The problem, first is the bankruptcy of the financial system that is no longer able to provide only financial intermediation in the global economy. The budgets of States take over. They have no choice. It is often said that the France has less margin of manoeuvre because the State was already in debt before the crisis. But the net foreign debt of the France is almost zero and French households save much. This mattress savings actually gives us leeway macroeconomic much greater than that available in countries whose households are over-indebted as the United Kingdom, the Spain.

Which does not mean that he should not worry about the problem of the creditworthiness of the State by focusing on expenditure. If it borrows to finance waste or to consume, at the end there's debts without anything in return and is bound to solicit the taxpayer. If it borrows to finance investments, at the end opposite the debts it has assets, infrastructure, factories and be reimbursed with the fruits of growth. It is the reason for which must be as far as possible priority investment in stimulus policies. I go even further. The crisis is an historic opportunity to catch up with delays in investment. Not to take this opportunity to increase our growth potential by investing massively in green growth, in Grand Paris, in innovation, reform would be a historic challenge.

Would it be appropriate to launch a large public debt to the French

Why not This is not news but, in this crisis, should not exclude a priori. All options should be studied.

Medium term, the United States may focus on inflation to limit the burden of their debt...

Historically, after the deflations, the debt-crisis rebounded almost always in inflation. The central banks, notably in the United States, monetize already public debt and the business. The disappearance of the Chinese surplus can only accelerate this monetary creation that, one day or another, will cause inflation and the fall of the dollar. It is a classic way to not pay all its debts. If this happens, Europe will have to decide to what extent it will accept to enter this new inflationary cycle. Deflation or devaluation, it is, historically, always the choice which are found, one day or another, face the central banks in this type of crisis where monetary policy mistakes can be heavy consequences, because if deflation is destructive, hyperinflation is equally.