SACRE BLEU! The Collapse of French Pensions.
France is between a rock and a hard place. French public debt is almost 90 percent of GDP, and the French people are unwilling to give up any more, even though France’s average retirement rate is lower than elsewhere in Europe. Sarkozy’s original reforms met with large protests, and any change in the retirement age by Hollande is likely to engender a similar reaction.
As in America, years of disastrous blue policies and overgenerous pension promises are finally catching up with France. Now policymakers are left with with a depressing choice: renege on promises to workers or watch the system go broke. Hollande has made it clear that he doesn’t want to do anything that could be seen as an attack on the workers, but he may have no choice. When the money isn’t there, it isn’t there.
Things that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debt that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be.