You'll have to forgive the good captain. He's just lashing out every which way. Best to just wait out the storm. As an aside, don't you find it entertaining how guys like Grandluxe refer to "fanatics" while actually looking outside their tent? And then, of course, there is Tsing Tao, who knows everything there is to know about macroeconomics without actually knowing anything about it. I think it's fascinating how you always manage to "lose" every debate with him on the subject matter. Don't you?
Not sure I agree here. France has so many exports. A surprising number of food products in the grocery stores in the UK and USA come from France. They've got a thriving space launch industry that brings in serious foreign money. There is Airbus. Tourism to France is an enormous industry in itself. Its difficult to see how France comes unraveled like Greece, Spain or Italy. Of course if their new President goes completely socialist and actually raises taxes to 75% on the top earners while maintaining high entitlement levels I suppose you could be right about what happens. If France actually became a defaulting debtor I would start worrying about a global economic depression.
I don't remember saying anything about France's exports. All I'm saying is watch what happens to France when the rates the bond market will charge them are greater than they can pay. When no one will lend to them any longer (once debt to GDP is high enough) at the rates they want, they will be forced to cut programs. Given that France is one of the biggest entitlement providers of the world, watch what happens.
You didn't mention exports. I was just noting that France has a much more robust economy than Greece, Spain and Italy though, as you note, they have a huge entitlement burden. It looks like they are about to really increase their tax rates as well. That will probably chase away quite a few French entrepreneurs who create jobs. If they run their debt up much higher than GDP I agree that things will get dicey. It has always amazed me that the French often take the entire month of August off for vacation and they also can retire at a rather young age. Hard to sustain that.