Sarkozy’s dream of taming America is doomed
29 November 2008
The American model of lightly regulated capitalism may be in disrepute, says Irwin Stelzer. But the French President’s ambition is deluded
French presidents/emperors are given to delusion. Napoleon thought he could conquer the Russian winter. Charles de Gaulle thought he heard voices anointing him the leader of the Free French, and later deluded himself into believing that he — not the British and the Americans, not Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt — liberated France from the Nazis, to whom the massive French army had quickly surrendered just a few years earlier.
And now we have Nicolas Sarkozy. Taller than Napoleon, shorter than de Gaulle, but equally susceptible to delusions. And more than one. The first is that he can turn back the tide of globalisation, hold back the tides of capital that wash across national borders. So he has set up one of the 20 largest investment funds in the world, to be managed by state-backed Caisse des Dépôts, its purpose to prevent foreign companies from buying French enterprises. ‘The day we stop building trains, aircraft, cars and ships, what is left of the French economy? I will not turn France into a reserve for tourists,’ he said last week. He might have added that the soul of the nation would wither were foreigners to gain control of Danone, the yogurt-maker, which he has also declared off-limits to foreigners.
Meanwhile EDF, France’s state-owned electricity monopoly, is purchasing British Energy and control of Britain’s nuclear power industry. This transfers to Paris decisions concerning the allocation of investment funds between facilities needed to keep French consumers and industries adequately supplied with affordable electricity, and those needed in Britain. Sarkozy is untroubled by the contradictions inherent in his combination of protecting French companies while acquiring overseas enterprises. Gordon Brown should be. Even Adam Smith never argued that free trade trumps all other societal concerns.
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Infame Cancrelat
November 27th, 2008 11:19am Report this commentGood article but... EDF is no longer a monopoly, even though it remains technically so (the French are notoriously distrutful of the "market" and thus very few choose to cross to private energy suppliers)
LoBro
November 27th, 2008 2:39pm Report this commentIn which countries major banks are funded with taxpayer money and put under State control:
- USA, UK, or France?
Time for a good reality check Mr Seltzer.
Oh and BWT Napoleon was much Taller than Sarközy (who still is a little bit taller than Horatio Nelson was).
British press is sinking to American standards — facts being more and more substituted with stereotypes.
Marek
November 29th, 2008 12:52pm Report this commentDear Irwin, you are a bright chappie but you are also an obvious propagandist.
The USA is experiencing a major breakdown of its much vaunted capitalist system and has not won a war in 60 years, yet you Americans feel entitled to criticise Europeans for their economic system and their lack of military engagement. Not only that but you also feel compelled to interfere in our internal affairs by insisting, for example, that Turkey should be allowed to join the EU and resisting Europe's desire for military strength in the form of a united military.
The USA is a nation where adults loudly proclaim to each other that theirs is the best country in the world. This reveals an immature sense of national identity. Europeans do not bother with this because they find their shared destiny reflected in the values embedded in their economic and social systems. Not for us only the glorification of the individual but also that of society in the form of economic and welfare measures that reflect the common good. This is not communism, it is sophistication.
You do have a brilliant constitution but other important aspects of social cohesion are still at a primitive stage. In other words, you may think that you do, but in fact you do not know it all. Some people might call that arrogance.
John Corfield
November 30th, 2008 8:20am Report this commentI would rather listen (coded word for watch)to his wife Carla than his aggrandised European schemes.
A European Army with the swiftness of the French in retreat, the fear of the dark and anywhere dangerous of the German Army, the union that Dutch troops belong to allowing for just a 40 hour week in any battle,the British Army as in Afghanistan doing any fighting and dying,the field rations and designer battledress of the Italians.
Yes a European Army will ensure the world will tremble at their might and valour.
Walter Ellis
December 1st, 2008 7:30pm Report this commentIrwin Stelzer frequently gets things wrong. He has certainly misread the world economy in recent years. Why, therefore, should we trust him when he says that Sarkozy is wrong, wrong, wrong about America? The truth is, Sarkozy might just be on to something. Has Stelzer been to France recently?
John Bull
December 2nd, 2008 3:40pm Report this commentMost of Irwin's cryptic article has the sound of a basis in facts and not fiction.
The commenters offering support for Sarcozy's crackpot proposals for his own version of a Foreign Legion ( ie comprised of anyone other than Frenchmen and women ) would benefit from some hindsight - of which there is ample !
Sarcozy's Legion would without doubt achieve the EU's prime objective - To decimate all British influence and interests - To draw upon every last penny of British Tax, and last British Soldier alive - in the sole furtherance of the Franco-German Euro Dream !
Well Guys - Dream on ! and whatever it is that you're smoking or drinking - share some with the rest of us !!
Not Even Likely
December 3rd, 2008 5:18pm Report this commentWhen has France ever led the world on anything?
val cardwell
December 3rd, 2008 11:26pm Report this commentFrance has done something that the Brits and Yanks have never done-look after it's own people!Another thing, these Brit/Yank bods are TOTALLY arrogant-and STUPID!
US capitalism is bankrupt
December 5th, 2008 10:00am Report this commentStelzer's US model is sooooooo superior to any other model in the world that it is financially, militarily, politically and morally bankrupt. Stelzer's is very old style rhetoric. He must think that we are still in the early 1990s. The world has changed and has moved away from your free-market dogma which has impoverished the entire planet and is responsible for so many wars across the world.
AGB
January 23rd, 2009 7:40pm Report this commentThough the French banking sector is structurally different to those of the UK and USA (far more retail savings than capital investment based), it's hardly without its own present troubles and troubled history. Credit Lyonnais went bust and was nationalized in 1993 (sold off in '99). Anyone recall - ho, ho - the 5 bn euro fraud loss at Societe Generale early in 2008? The 600 ml fraud loss at Caisse d'Epargne late in 2008? The 6 bn government bail-out of Dexia in the middle of the year?
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