International (1/2)

PETROL PRICES
At last the price of petrol is going up. This will compel our economies to abandon the all-petrol system, so dangerous for the environment, and, in any case, rather pointless given resource depletion in the medium term. That this new awareness, though somewhat late in developing among our decision-makers, should come 30 years before the big shortage, is pure luck. We might even have enough time to bounce back in order to avoid the destabilization and wars accompanying the scarcity of this energy resource!

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS 2009
When will Gordon Brown and the Eurogroup receive the Nobel Prize in economics for having broken the financial crisis cycle with inventive, concrete, and bold measures in the current ideological context? We’re tired of seeing the prize generously awarded to cranky ideologue economists, supported by powerful political trends in dominant states, such as Milton Friedman, Hayek.

THE REORGANIZATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM
It is important to seek and listen to China’s and India’s point of view; together, these countries will account for one third of the world’s GDP by 2030-2050. Indeed, if these countries have been involved in the elaboration of new rules for world capitalism, then, when the next crisis takes place (as it will – crises punctuate the history of capitalism), neither India nor China will regards themselves as big players despoiled by the Big Bad Imperialist Western Wolf. This is important for world stability because these big countries will by then have reached a considerable military potential and one must never forget that, in times of crisis, fascist and other totalitarian ways are fatally attractive to governing elites and exasperated peoples, very easily manipulated at that particular point in history …

ROQUEFORT
Here we are, with another example of U.S. posturing, an intimidation move towards Europeans, a trial of strength with their own allies. What are we told? Roquefort cheese, French ladies and gentlemen, will receive three times the normal import taxes to the United States, with the blessing of the « impartial » WTO, despite a lawsuit.
What can be done? Another lawsuit and, immediately, grant compensation for the U.S.-export turnover loss suffered by the Roquefort producers; this would be financed by the near « voluntary » contribution of bovine meat farmers. The point is that this conflict between Europe and the United States is brought about by the Europeans’ refusal to import hormone-contaminated American bovine meat.
Since this protection benefits European bovine meat farmers, it’s only right that their association should fully compensate the producers of Roquefort cheese, particularly as this production is restricted to a small French village, compared with the huge market of European bovine meat!
Europeans, let’s not be weak! We mustn’t allow American economic interests to dictate our mode of life! When will they consider us as their strategic allies, to be cherished rather than brought to heel?

RUSSIAN GAS
Faced with the efforts towards a stalemate, the European Commission, the member states that are individual victims, the gas industrial suppliers, the other industries suffering losses following shortages, the associations of local communities and the associations of individuals, all these should not wait before launching an avalanche of reparations proceedings under private international law. This is a war of nerves, and time is against the Europeans because reserves are running out. The only goal of each state, Russia and Ukraine, is to force Brussels’ hand into choosing one side against the other, preferably its own. However, it simply is not in our geostrategic interest.

REVITALIZING THE AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY
The American film industry is no longer successful in the international arena. It invariably revolves around extraterrestrial invasions, bloody and violent police investigations, or hackneyed sentimental comedies. It no longer holds the interest of the international community, particularly the French people.
Whereas French films succeed with humor, emotion, historical biographies, stories of loyal friendship (but unpoetic), English films succeed with socially aware films (Ken Loach). Why could not Hollywood renew itself by finding its topics in the social reality, so special in the U.S., of immigration and the melting pot, of successful social mobility? And all this against an immense rural background and an urban landscape that defines the United States?v In fact, it looks as though the current generation of producers and directors who control Hollywood do not see their country’s social reality as it unfolds under their own eyes. They command budgets that are 100 times superior to those of French productions, but these producers cannot push the emotional buttons that make spectators tick throughout the world.

THE GREEKS MUST PAY THEIR DEBT!
In my family, we like to use the saying, “God helps those who help themselves”. What does this mean when applied to the colossal Greek debt crisis?
What are the facts? Collective corruption, the non-payment of taxes, and an easy life on credit have resulted in bankruptcy for the Greek State. Who is responsible? Those who govern and those who elected them – this is a democracy and the country has regularly witnessed alternating political power.

What can be done? Morality dictates (whether religious or democratic secular morality) that those responsible, namely the whole of the Greek people, should now make amends and embark on in-depth behavior change so as to be able to reimburse the cumulated debt down to the last cent.
To go back to my family’s favorite saying, “God” is the Deus ex machina, in the form of human solidarity, since the European states have decided to help Greece regain macroeconomic stability so that the country may achieve the reimbursement over time and less painfully.
Needless to say, altruism has its own, perfectly understandable, limits that stem from the self-respect of those one wishes to help. In other words, if the Greek people give themselves up to strikes and inappropriate demands, that is, immature behavior in this situation of collective bankruptcy – hence affecting each individual – then it would be madness for the European governments to try and fill up the bottomless pit of Greek debt – the bottomless, leaky barrel of the Danaids that can never be filled up. What I’m saying here is accurate, and will be seen again regarding the Irish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Belgian, etc. and French debt too – let’s not delude ourselves …

STATE-CUMULATED DEBT NEEDS TO BE RESCHEDULED, NOT REDUCED
The best assistance European states can bring to the bankrupt ones is to reschedule the debt to be repaid over time (so as not to smother completely the crisis-ridden countries) and to replace market trading by borrowing at reasonable rates to refinance the bankrupt states (thus taking a real risk of default). What is to be avoided is that public, semi-public and private operators should abandon for good all or part of the debt owed to them. In bankrupt democratic states, it is the people who have put pressure on their elected representatives to be overly pampered in an obviously unreasonable fashion. Hence, it is the people who must take responsibility for their own redemption, under the guidance of those leaders who have made amends and rectified their spendthrift behavior. What is at stake is the morality of money, of bankrupt honor, and the example to be provided to the rest of the world, to those whose behavior falls between thoughtless culpability and criminal predation.

THE AMERICAN DEBT: RAISE TAXES!
The American debt is differently analyzed from the European debt. Whereas in Europe, the debt results from the leaders’ weakness, leaders who cannot refuse the “we want more” chanted by the electorate, the American debt results from the fact that the rich, who hold power, have decided among themselves that they would pay as little tax as possible, even though the redistribution levels in the U.S. are way below the European ones.
Thus, in the final analysis, the American authorities are advised to increase urgently the tax rate for those who can take part in the national recovery effort, namely the wealthiest (the upper class and the upper middle class) and the bloated multinationals that have benefited extensively from the current American system.

GREEK BANKRUPTY: PANDORA’S BOX IS OPEN
By accepting default, even partially, from Greece, the Europeans, with Germany at the helm, have just opened Pandora’s Box of European sovereign debt. From this box will escape all the evils that will bring down Euroland, which will lead to the fall of the dollar itself (also subject to a severe debt crisis); China will see its exchange reserves, so patiently and honestly built up, melt away like snow in the sun. Without those reserves, and in the grip of global stagnation, China will not reach the 7% annual growth that is necessary to maintain social cohesion. A nationalist regime, vindictive towards Europe, will then take the power, and we will thus find ourselves on the eve of World War III – dictatorships against democracy! This predictable chain of events should remind historians of the Weimar debt crisis, followed by the rise to power of National Socialism in self-sufficient countries, on the eve of World War II. The Germans, highly implicated in that history, are inexcusably thoughtless in their current conception of the debt crisis resolution in Europe…
Angela Merkel is demonstrating unbelievable amateurishness. Surely, when one does not know, then one at least listens to one’s advisors! Rather unfairly for Sarkozy, he will be blamed in the 2012 elections for not having succeeded in reorienting our German partners. He will be criticized for the collapse of the Euro, and so will all the current European leaders …

EURO-BONDS: THE LESSER EVIL FOR GERMANY
Euro-obligations will be single rate (medium) obligations undertaken by all the member states of the Euro zone. The more economically stable states, such as Germany, will be at a disadvantage, since they will have to pay a surcharge in terms of their own, isolated signature, but this is the way they will prove their solidarity regarding the more economically fragile states, which, in contrast, will benefit from the system.
Germany’s current Economy Minister, from the FDP party, is opposed to this mechanism, which is yet effective and easy to implement; it is, indeed, the only relevant mechanism. He should be reminded of the following two realities of the situation:
- Germany benefits from the Euro for its exports and specialization within the Euro zone, to the detriment of less industrialized countries that are experiencing de-industrialization and job losses. The structural funds for development are simply not sufficient to offset this negative consequence. Hence, to be fair, Germany ought to assist those countries it is placing in a difficult position through the mechanism of the single currency.
- Should the Euro collapse, following the successive debt crises of the member states, the resurrected Mark will strengthen so much in relation to the other global currencies that a major and lethal recession will occur in Germany, which has based its economic model on exports and will then be penalized by an excessively strong currency. Thus, it is surely a lesser evil to pay the penalties linked to the Euro-obligations; it is in its own well-understood business interests that Germany (authorities and the people) should accept the implementation of the Euro-bonds mechanism.

GERMANY PLAYS A DOUBLE GAME REGARDING THE EURO
Implicitly and unconsciously for certain German leaders, but consciously, explicitly and hidden for others, the Germans play a double game regarding the Euro: they pretend to be happy with the Euro while dreaming of returning to a Mark zone. How else could we account for their stubborn rejection of the only two remedies that could help save definitively the common currency, namely the Euro-bonds (=Euro-obligations) and the monetization of the debt through the European Central Bank along the only working model, that of the American Federal Reserve Bank, even if this means producing controlled but non-lethal inflation – whereas the end of the Euro would be lethal for many European countries?

The Germans will always remind us of their old stories concerning the Weimar hyperinflation in the 1930s; but what’s the connection between a 5% or even 10% inflation rate and the inflation at the rate of 1000% a day? There isn’t any – unless one wants to portray the Germans as an illiterate and pre-logical nation – and if this were true, Germany would not be so successful economically… I tend to believe that after absorbing East Germany and gradually recovering from two world wars, Germany is now holding its head up, becoming more self-confident, forgetting the friends who gave support during the Cold War, and it is picking up old stories, indeed, but these now concern their “space of influence” (which used to be called vital space) within Europe; this, today, goes through a hegemonic Mark, solely driven by Germany’s needs.
M. President Sarkozy, it is high time you were firm with Germany and determined whether the country wishes to remain a reliable partner of Europe as it is being slowly built. If not, appropriate action should be taken so as not to lose too much when the Euro collapses.
In concrete terms, how does one negotiate?
1- Ask diplomats, the secret services, German-speaking professors and intellectuals to put together a detailed press pack containing the title or topic of those interventions that have been published in newspapers, the press in general, or books by German opinion leaders (senior politicians, CEOs of significant companies, intellectuals, academics, experts, bankers) who are in favor of a strong Mark, rid of the Euro. Needless to say, the press pack should be connected to a secure Internet site of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
2- Require a summit meeting between France and Germany to discuss openly with Angela Merkel and her staff (fully aware of the ins and outs of that meeting) our condemnation of the hidden return of the Mark.
3- Distribute all attending the press pack containing all the intervention titles mentioned above. Ask them to consult it during the meeting. Take time.
4- In theory, you are administering an electric shock and telling them that either their secret plans have been uncovered or they have made the serious error of not being informed of such an important issue. In my family, this type of clarification process is called “rubbing people’s nose in it”. The knock-out or mental chaos that follows will bring about a cognitive reconfiguration (this is what doctors tell me) such that anyone is then willing to start negotiating immediately, and on top of that, from a low bargaining position … Now, let’s play the game!

WHERE IS PLAN B FOR LEAVING THE EURO?
Clarification: I do not wish to see the breakup of the Euro, as the precedent articles have demonstrated. The point is, though, that when one goes into politics, particularly in the macroeconomic and management areas, one needs to consider one’s success chances realistically and one needs to be able to adapt to any situation type to survive. In this case, the deck is stacked, we don’t hold all the cards, and Germany is leading the game. Whatever Nicolas Sarkozy boasts to his potential voters, he has not been able to make Angela Merkel’s position change one inch regarding the Eurobonds and the European Central Bank’s role as lender of last resort. The latest institutional construct puts forward a meeting of 6 wealthy countries; this is simply grotesque because it does not address the short-term issues of credibility of banks and weak states through which the whole Eurozone structure will crumble.
This is yet one more avatar of the German obsession to straighten up the countries’ accounts immediately, with no extension. We know full well that a household with a 100% debt on its annual resources will straighten up in 20 or 30 years, namely with a 5% annual savings. How could we possibly imagine that countries with a 100% debt on their GDP would manage differently? As for the Eurobond-type solutions suggested by the European Commission, they are complex, second-rate ones, probably the result of a negotiated compromise with Germany …
Faced with the German-created deadlock (I have watched the various TV-broadcasted German statements), I repeat my question: what is the progress of our Plan B for leaving the Euro at the least cost to our countries, banks, companies, individuals? Is the plan ready? At the current rate of degradation, and faced with the German wall of refusal, the Euro will collapse before the 2012 presidential elections …

THE MARKETS CANNOT WAIT FOR THE UMPTEENTH INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE FOR THE EURO
Germany acts as though there is still time to talk, negotiate, develop, and ratify new and more rigorous institutional structures for the Euro, which could take months, even years. The point, though, is that even if Germany still has the time, other countries do not, facing, as they do, speculation and a crisis of confidence. The timing is simply off. What is needed is that, in return for formal commitments to reduce government deficits in all European countries and bring to zero the cumulated debt over 20 or 30 years, Germany takes a step towards the other countries and accepts concession arrangements in terms of inflation by the central bank, lender of last resort, and debt-pooling through Euro-obligations.
Let’s see this in a war context: it’s as if deployed troops face a huge mine that blocks their progress and their commanding officers, in order to solve the issue, convene an international conference to prohibit mine production and use …. While waiting for the discussions to succeed (and why shouldn’t they?) everybody will be dead on the field. Any response to the current crisis needs to be adapted to the actual issue and, granted, should anticipate a potential repetition.

In the present case, to kill any speculation against the Euro, the European Central Bank has to act like all the central banks in the world that work; in other words, it needs to be a lender of last resort. In return, a bottom-line, constitutional ruling needs to be adopted by the countries that wish to benefit from this ECB guarantee and the Euro-obligations (i.e. the risk-pooling): the objective must be to bring to zero the cumulated debt in the governmental and parastatal accounts, significantly reducing the debt (by at least 1/20° to pay it off in 20 years) in those years of economic growth but allowing a deficit increase in case of recession.
I really do not see myself as Cassandra, but I also believe that Germany’s obstinacy is morbid (in the sense of life-threatening), the result of overconfidence, reckless faith in its analyses, its IQ, its influence, its power over other countries and over markets, a sign of domineering conceit and vengeful pride, as if the Germans are announcing the predicted, yet still resistible catastrophe of the fall of the Euro, to their dear fellow European citizens …

RETRANSFORMING THE EURO INTO COMMON CURRENCY?
I’d like to present the Plan B suggested by Jean Pierre Chevènement, particularly in Sortir la France de l’impasse (Getting France out of the deadlock, pp. 64-66). The idea is to find an intermediate solution between the complete breakup of the Euro and the return to exclusively nation-based monetary strategies on the one hand, and an unmanageable Euro because it does not correspond to a homogeneous economic zone. A former Gaullist minister, M. Chevènement is suggesting the return to a “common” currency of the same type as the one in use at the time of the European currency snake and/or the European Monetary System.
It is good that there is this solution, and that it is viable. But the competition for good ideas and willing actors is still open!

WHAT ARE EUROBONDS = EURO-OBLIGATIONS?
Opinions are divided regarding the limits of European solidarity:
• Should we set up a common debt that all nations in the Euro zone should pay off? Of course not, as the principle of accountability for the debt maker would be denied, the less virtuous countries would rush headlong into more debt, and the prudent (thrifty) peoples would no longer be able to relate to that Europe.
• Euro-obligations should become the sole mechanism used by countries to borrow on financial markets, whereas today France, Germany, Spain, etc. all borrow obligations in Euros at different rates. This mechanism for unifying the instruments to finance the debt of each country would have the merit of averaging the rates of monetary loans: the stronger countries would contribute to monetary solidarity by agreeing to pay extra interest, while the more fragile countries would be supported by paying lower interest rates than the market balance of power would normally allow.
The key is to define carefully the Eurobond=Euro-obligations mechanism and therefore the implied level of solidarity; this is what will make this new financial instrument acceptable by even the most reticent governments.

Banks

ECB RATES INCREASE
What lies behind this absurd interest rates increase of the European Central Bank is the deliberate intention to kill growth in Europe so that petrol demand falls and, consequently, imported inflation is reduced (in short, sheer fanaticism : they shoot the citizens, companies, and states in the foot – precisely those they are supposed to serve!). Our smart economists are playing multimove poker: if European growth drops, Europe will import fewer products, leading to reduced external deficit and reduced imported inflation. In addition, Chinese growth, partly driven by its exports to Europe (but mainly to the US), could also drop.
Then, Chinese demand for petrol will be reduced, which, they hope, will bring about a drop in petrol prices, which would benefit Europeans, particularly through the drop in petrol-imported inflation, because there won’t be any industries left! But what are our ECB eggheads doing with American, Indian, Brazilian and even Chinese economies? Does our neurotic Trichet really believe that he is going to impose a worldwide recession without provoking any reaction from the political, economic, industrial and banking leaders who are legitimately defending their own interests and who simply do not want Dr Strangelove-type solutions?

TRICHET
Dr Strangelove is at it again. J.C. Trichet means to fight inflation through increased interest rates, whereas this inflation is currently imported via increased petrol prices and commodities. How ridiculous! Who does he think he’s kidding? Either he found his economics degree in a Kinder Surprise, or he’s plotting against European growth: in this Pyrrhic victory, there won’t be any inflation if …. the economy goes into recession !

THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK’S MISSION
Part of the ECB’s mission is to ensure price stability. But is the figure of a 2% inflation rate within its statutes? Why not 4%? Isn’t the real dilemma to be in harmony with the other big competitor zones such as those of the dollar, sterling, yen, yuan, etc.?

CREDIT
In the event of a credit crisis, there’s a simple and cheap way of restoring the trust of lending banks, and that is via state-granted surety for realistic and relevant projects from SMEs and VSBs. Projects to be guaranteed should be evaluated by expert and competent officials so as to avoid any budget excesses. Overall, a few noted failures will be overcompensated by fiscal revenue (corporate taxes, income taxes, financing of the social system) and by the savings on unemployment insurance, and all this in a well-supported economy!

LEVERAGE
The state’s guarantee, as opposed to the direct granting of funds, enables a multiplier leverage effect. This can be applied to the guarantee of interbank loans by central banks or the IMF. It’s also applicable to the guarantee of loans to the VSBs/SMEs by the national state, the EBRD, or the national central bank. Indeed, this type of security rebuilds the trust of the banking organizations that are then encouraged to get back to their real job which is to finance the real economy. The risk, borne by the states and hence the taxpayers, is a good deal lower than that caused by a spate of corporate bankruptcies bringing unemployment and the citizens’, not to mention the state’s, poverty.

A NEW INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Within the framework of something similar to Bretton-Woods, it would be worth thinking about holding both regular and special meetings of the main central banks (currently the United States, Europe, Japan, China, India, Russia, Brazil), chaired by the International Monetary Fund (because, ultimately, it is responsible for the refinancing of the central banks), in order to: 1. Develop crisis toolkits from which central banks may choose what appears to suit their influence zone best;
2. Gather information and discuss the key interest rates of their respective currencies and inter-zone exchange rates, so as to learn to cooperate to promote simultaneous and harmonious growth of the various zones; in this domain, cooperation has been shown to be more successful than competition, in the long run.

Similarly, it would be good to bring together for discussions the development aid banks such as the World Bank, the European Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Grameen Bank (microcredit), etc. so as to compare methods and identify the best practices in terms of the intervention zone, the development goals as shared by the moneylenders, the donors, and the beneficiaries.

A PUBLIC CENTER FOR CREDIT INSURANCE
One should consider seriously the constitution of a public center for credit insurance benefiting the consumers and the social welfare-oriented SMEs. With a relatively small fund effectively mobilized in case of failure, we could, via this system, encourage banks to lend to consumers and private investors, which would maximize leverage for the whole economy. This public insurance mechanism was successfully granted to the banks to fend off complete collapse; the citizens will not tolerate for long that they don’t benefit from it as well!

PUBLIC CREDIT INSURANCE
Dear President Obama, I invite you to think about a public credit insurance, such as those built up in Germany and Great-Britain, to face the crisis, especially the lack of bank loans to the small businesses. The money given to this public institution might not be fully spend, since it is spend only if the small business cannot repay the loan. Such credits help the businesses to invest, hence it is a kind of private Keynesian start. Besides, investments are targeted to a better future, nothing to do with consumer spendings that flow to other countries that design your consumer goods.

OUTSTANDING BANK LOANS
Bank loans to companies are showing stable. The problem is that since large companies can no longer finance their operations through the stock exchange, they turn to the banks; it’s those bank loans that are increasing to the detriment of loans to SMEs, even though the total is stable.
Each bank needs to be forced to publish the evolution of loans in absolute and in relative terms, broken down by size (large, medium, small enterprises) and region.

THE EUROPEAN GUARANTEE PLAN
The European plan has the wrong objective: to reassure bankers (and markets) regarding credit worthiness, it’s the repayment capacity that matters, not the capacity to incur additional debt; otherwise, one falls into the revolving credit system with credit institutions like Cofinoga or Cetelem. Sadly, we know what happens to households that sink in this type of operation.
In other words, as long as the markets are not absolutely CERTAIN that governments are capable of getting their people to accept significant financial (read lifestyle) efforts, the kind of efforts necessary to reach the avowed objective of zero accumulated debt, the common currency will be under attack.
Our restored debt capacity will enable us to face the numerous 21st century challenges: possible world war, petrol crisis, ecology crisis, climate crisis, demographic crisis, migratory crisis, food crisis, water crisis, and other crises not yet apparent. All these crises are considerably more serious than the retirement age or the full reimbursement of healthcare issues.
The point is that governments need to be frank about these issues: voters need to modify their mental representations of the present time and of the future!

Corporations (2/3)

Here is the business plan:
- Open for business 24/7. Personnel: rotations of couples.
- Commercial services: grocer’s, baker’s, 1 petrol station (petrol, fuel, diesel), cybercafé (Internet, e-mail, Word, Excel) with Ordissimo laptops (easy to use), etc.
- Administrative services: mail (parcels, letters, registered items, stamps), a few emergency and proximity municipal services, a few administrative services (form-filling), etc.
- High prices because of the quality of the services and the need for a local set-up.
- Cash adjustment from the administrations offering a few basic services.
It is crucial to find a commercial, capitalistic solution to supplement the State’s efforts to prevent rural depopulation (setting up medical centers, administrative centers, etc.)

WATER: A PRIVATE OPERATION CONTROLLED BY A PUBLIC LOCAL AUTHORITY
Clearly, operating a collective drinking and waste water treatment service requires infrastructure investments and technical capacity for monitoring and maintenance. Today, the large private sector water companies are the ones most technically able to design, build, manage, and maintain that infrastructure because they pool their research and development efforts among numerous cities as well as their accumulated expertise levels – their workers’, technicians’, and engineers’.
Having said this, let us not forget that private sector means profits and, often, abuse. Hence, it is necessary to keep within municipal control a few engineers or technicians who can check the infrastructure proposals and the quality of the services rendered. Similarly, one needs to keep a few accountants who work for the municipality so they can check that the initial contracts are all above board and that there’s no shift over time.
Profits should not be forgotten either. One could, for instance, establish a contract baseline at the average cubic meter cost over the last 10 years, and share the operating savings linked to privatization on a 50/50 basis between the private operator and the municipality. The infrastructure would initially be financed by the private operator and repaid through the cost of water by the private consumers, with non-usurious market-based interest rates.
Here is the deal: municipalities are freed from the worry of the day-to-day water management, and they do not need to develop heavy technical skills; the large private companies bring their expertise and are paid for it while accepting a certain financial and technical control from the municipalities to avoid abuses.

ORGANIZING WORKING SCHEDULES
To motivate employees, it is best to offer double pay for working on Sundays and triple pay for working on those public holidays permitted in the Labor law.
A more radical alternative, which I have been advocating for a long time, is to organize the work week into two teams: the one would be Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday (Mo-Th), and the other Friday-Saturday-Sunday (FSS). Contract-based working hours and schedules and salaries would be negotiated with the two teams. For instance, if the FSS team is financially worthwhile, it will attract young people who do not have to face the issue of child care over the weekends, students who have to attend classes over Mo-Th, or elderly people who ignore religious rituals (we live in a secular State). This reorganization of the economy would bring greater regularity; the FSS workers would attend to the needs of the Mo-Th, and vice versa. And all of this would greatly benefit the GDP, company profits, taxes, and help reduce unemployment!

KEY WORDS FOR A FLOURISHING EUROPEAN INDUSTY
- Innovation (to go a step further than the competition)
- Design (the fashion world, architecture, arts & crafts, coupled with industrial objects: aesthetic qualities provide added value which sets one apart from one’s competitors)
- Simplicity (to operate, repair, and maintain, to use on a day-to-day basis, to be compatible with other electronic devices, to change to another product further down the line, to recycle and control pollution)
- Ecology (energy saving, recycling, preserving non-renewable resources, not polluting)
- Robustness, rusticity (There are far too many products on the market that do not function properly under normal conditions of use or worsened conditions such as climatic stress)
- Top-of-the-range (we’ve already lost the production costs war against the emerging countries; what’s needed is to focus on products one generation ahead, the way good chess players plan their moves in advance, anticipating better than their adversaries)
- Training the labor force (both initial and in-service training constitute a good investment that motivates employees, empowers them, expands their area of expertise, and broadens their minds, which will then facilitate taking initiatives and identifying business opportunities)
- Dual remuneration system with a fixed part enabling a comfortable lifestyle in the host country and a variable part that is based on the benefits accrued and proportional to the number of employees (of the entity or the global company) rather than the basic salary. This means employees are more involved in their job, and the company can absorb the bottom-of-the-cycle shocks by limiting the fixed salary expenses at that time.

LAKSHMI MITTAL
This steel industry leader’s blackmail is based on the threat that if the Florange blast furnaces are nationalized, he will abandon all operations in Dunkerque and Fos-sur-Mer … In other words, the fallacy is that no other investor would be prepared to buy those plants (20,000 jobs) if Lakshmi Mittal sells them for a song – what a joke! In a capitalist society, nothing is rejected forever and low-cost sales will necessarily attract someone else …
What I think should be done is to brand this unworthy leader by using the tool of nationalization as a sanction in Florange, as was done after WWII, to punish the non-respect of commitments made to the French government. Doubtless, this sanction will give wings to the governments of those other countries where Mr Mittal is also holding employees hostage and, in the end, his murky business will turn bankrupt.

Corporations (1/3)

INVESTING
Instead of discrediting the French workers, who are well trained and efficient, one should rather look toward the other end of the chain: the chief executives. Instead of investing in new capacities, new products, new technologies—in short, doing capitalism—these gentlemen produce virtual market value, take over competitors so as to strengthen their situations toward their clients and providers, give themselves overgenerous salaries in keeping with their capacities ... which, in fact, they themselves have rated (the shareholders’ power is grossly overestimated), and show that they possess the biggest … car or yacht in the harbor at Saint-Tropez. Hence my question: when are those economic elites going to be worthy of the citizens’ respect and equal to the responsibilities that, most of the time, they have received as their birthright through daddy’s network?

STRESS AT WORK
Employees will be a good deal less stressed when the management fad has shifted, that is, when Human Resources managers and CEOs have understood that relationships of trust need to be created between employers and employees, so as to release the employees’ potential for creativity, autonomy, self-assessment, and the crucial feedback needed regarding work progress, the market situation, the quality of providers, clients’ preferences, etc. The executive’s respect for the employees brings about a job well done and the employee’s satisfaction. It’s high time we abandoned the work relations inherited from the 19th century. If we don’t, executives harvest strike actions, absenteeism, faults hidden from the foreman, production delays revealed at the last minute, interpersonal tensions in the company, etc. So, let’s select the right way of making money, and everybody wins: shareholders, managers, employees, the tax authorities, the country.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The President of the Republic is quite right when he wants to rehabilitate and promote the spirit of entrepreneurship.
One of the ways to do so would be to set up a personal bankruptcy system copied on the one that exists in the United States. This involves limiting the entrepreneurs’ losses to their assets at the time of the bankruptcy and giving them a certain amount of cash to start again. In France, liabilities are for life: the bankrupt entrepreneurs who start earning again have to settle past debts. The system whereby debts are assets-limited in LLCs/PLCs is often mere delusion as banks are quick to require personal security from the shareholders or even the salaried executives.
Another way to renew the entrepreneurship dynamics is to introduce more teaching about companies in general, technological, and technical high schools. Indeed, in the economic and social sciences curriculum, the mechanisms of the state economy are overemphasized at the expense of the mechanisms of the economy of companies. Surely, schools are not intended to train ENA graduates only … and even those technocrats need to know the mechanisms of a company!

SERGE TCHURUK / ALCATEL’S CEO
On the occasion of Serge Tchuruk’s departure, I do hope that the media will put together an informed assessment (evolution of world market capitalization, the earnings of leaders/managers/employees, the job situation, innovations’ tally in relation to competitors of similar size, final competitive position, future in the industry) of this individual’s 13 years of absolute reign over what used to be a jewel of the French industry. Employees and small shareholders have the right to know. But who was entitled to remove this Attila? Where were the majority shareholders and administrators? Who ended up the real victims of the French back-scratching capitalist game?

REDISTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS TO THE EMPLOYEES
Mr. Hamon, one needs to distinguish, on the one hand, increasing the Smic [guaranteed minimum wage], and on the other hand, increasing salaries by means of the redistribution of up to 33% of the benefits. The issue is to find a means to increase the purchasing power, but obviously in those corporations that can make it, that are not going to go bankrupt or to relocate because of overheads that are too high. The benefits-based redistribution should be considered by the manager as a variable cost that disappears in the event of difficulties. Moreover, to link in equal parts the interest of shareholders (33%), managers (33% of reinvestment into self-financing to develop the company), and employees (33% if they have succeeded collectively) means that one can legally ensure the motivation and cohesiveness of all these groups which theoretically each possess their own divergent logic, and all this in their own, well understood, interest!
Another winner is the State: 1° maintenance of social cohesion, 2° growth of corporate assets, favorable for the future, 3° maintenance of the job market, hence fewer social security payments to be redistributed, 4° benefit-based taxation levels maintained through a healthy private sector.

BACK-SCRATCHING CAPITALISM
One knows and one can see that, in France, the control of CEOs of large corporations is not, in reality, carried out by the boards of directors. This is what is known as back-scratching capitalism, i.e. the directors are CEOs who choose each other from among their own ranks, hence help each other out. Consequently, since the rules regarding private sector management have been well and truly circumvented and invalidated, the State needs to step in, as usual.
I propose that the services of the Department of Economy and Finance should keep a close eye on at least the CAC_40 corporations, and check each year the health parameters of their respective industries against the previous year’s and their (often foreign) competitors’. Should excesses be noted over a couple of consecutive years, detailed and intelligible reports should then be transmitted to political leaders, the media (radio, newspapers and magazines, TV), the major shareholders and the unions (employees are the first ones concerned). This way, at least, should the position of the unsuitable CEO be confirmed, it will be done transparently, and the employees made redundant and the cheated small shareholders will not be able to turn against the State!

CONDITIONALITY OF PUBLIC AID TO COMPANIES
We should urgently find a way of redistributing some purchasing power to employees. One way could be to place conditions on public aid to companies at the start of wage negotiations; companies could be given a 3-month maximum deadline for the conclusion of the negotiations. Should the unions and/or the majority of employees still be dissatisfied, the State would redistribute the unpaid aid into social measures in favour of the less privileged.

HEULIEZ
So now, we’ve clearly understood: the government is imposing unattainable conditions on its temporary aid to Heuliez in order to make … Ségolène Royal lose all credibility!

FRANCE TELECOM
May I suggest that a parliamentary commission be appointed to investigate the management methods within companies that are losing market shares and killing their employees (France Télécom, Alcatel) and those that are innovating and winning (Apple, Google). In particular, the members of parliament would check the following hypothesis: nowadays, winning management methods are those that insist upon cooperation within teams, while losing methods are those that exacerbate competition according to the claims of a neo-Darwinian social philosophy (which historians and philosophers know to have contributed to the early stages of Nazism in Europe).
A logical follow-up to the investigation would be to wonder why there are so many would-be fascists among middle managers and executives in France: these elite groups are selected from among the prépas [special classes preparing students for the Grandes Écoles entrance exams], which represent a system based on frustrations and bullying which puts youngsters who enjoy cooperating off and exacerbates sadistic tendencies in those who are responsive. This is what is called having a competitive spirit – and it’s not invented. At the end of the investigation, our representatives will be in a position to demand the abolition of the prépas and the merging of the human and financial resources of both the prépas and universities, under the authority of universities.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP vs TAXES
During today’s 13.00 p.m. news bulletin, you interviewed economist Bernard Maris, whom I regard highly and respect. I have read his anti-textbook of economics, volume 1.
At one point, you asked him whether the tax system was well utilized in France. He answered that it should be more redistributive. Why not – but this is largely insufficient to ensure the prosperity of the population. It is necessary to grow the “pie” so that each redistributed slice is bigger (and more equitable too, fair enough); otherwise, we are all equitably sharing … poverty!
What is needed is to develop private entrepreneurship: classes at school and university levels, promoting training courses / work study programs, the one-stop-shop for new business creation, centralized service counselling for all routine management activities (Ursaf, unedic, pensions, cpam, and various taxes). Then, there should be banking services for SMEs and VSEs like OSEO [French small and medium enterprises support public agency] to which one should add an insurance-credit-investment public organization similar to OSEO ; in other words, there should be a public BANK for SMEs + an INSURANCE function and e-administration, and a personal bankruptcy program for entrepreneurs, similar to the one found in the United States: Once the bankrupt entrepreneur’s personal assets have been seized, s/he can start again with a small cash sum and no longer has to reimburse non-expunged debts from future earnings; all this, of course, provided that the entrepreneur has been honest and sincere, otherwise the next stop is the courts!
I would argue that it is not the enterprises that should go towards the public administration, but rather the administration that should strive to make life easier for entrepreneurs who cannot be expected to be specialists in a technical field, sometimes after studying for a long time, and, in addition, experts in the numerous French administrative systems! On a day-to-day basis, this is extremely hard … In return for the intelligibility efforts on the part of the State, one evidently finds the payment of the corporation tax and others.

EDF
Historically, as soon as they were strong enough, French companies have given in to the American pipe dream; they wanted to play in the Big League, that is, the United States: Renault, Peugeot, Vivendi, Alcatel, etc. What happened?
Total collapse! It would seem that Americans are more chauvinistic than they’re prepared to admit and that invisible barriers are working: the legal system, public financing (in big structures, e.g. Boeing vs. EADS), networks, etc.
Beware the awakening of those employees tantamount to civil servants of the French State!

EDF [main electricity generation and distribution company in France]
On the whole, we enjoy relatively few power cuts: 10 hours … per year on average, except for the black spot in Lozère (35 hours/year), where more work is needed.
It would be unwise to resize the maintenance program in EDF so as to target zero faults, as this would disproportionately increase maintenance costs, which would evidently affect the end users’ bills …

POSTAGE STAMPS
One could lessen the employees’ stress levels and reduce the mail delivery costs by offering 3 decreasing rates of charge corresponding to 3 guaranteed delivery times: one 24 h delivery expensive stamp, one 48 h delivery normal stamp, one 72 h delivery cheap stamp.

CANAL+ [French premium pay television channel]
Hello Mr Canal+
I’d love to find the following theme channels included in your TV bouquet:
- A DIY/ professional construction/ interior and exterior design channel
- A gardening / plants / pharmacopoeia / medicine channel
- A fashion / make-up / perfume / watches / bags / jewellery / hairstyling / shoes / tableware / shopping / painting / photos / antique dealers / arts / craft industry channel
- A music (classical / world / rock / pop / jazz / etc.) + dancing (classical / modern / « disco » / « retro » / world / etc.) channel
If these channels do not exist, why not create them?

ELECTRONIC DEVICE INSTRUCTION BOOKLET
I have just purchased a digital camera IXUS 120 IS. It was several days before I decided to use it because I could anticipate a rather laborious start-up process, as with all consumer electronics available these days.
Indeed, it took me over 2 hours to get to use the zoom feature on this compact. I need to specify that I am an electronics engineer + IT + telecoms, and that I spend 3 hours a day surfing the Internet.
What happened? I opened the instructions booklet, all in French, and through active reading, searched for the word ZOOM, surely an essential function on any camera! First, I scanned the 34 pages of the booklet. No word ZOOM to be spotted anywhere … Then I looked for the table of contents, which I eventually found on page 7 (!), following a flood of near useless warnings with modern technology, as if you did not know that 99.9% of consumers will never go through a costly court case against you, unlike, perhaps, the US spirit that no one wishes to see carried into the legal domain ☺. The difficulties are not over: there is no word ZOOM in the table of contents. Reading through once more leads one to understand that one should search for « Taking pictures » on page 18. Once on page 18, still no word ZOOM; one needs extra searching to find the word hidden in the body of the text, in small letters … and in the 3rd paragraph at the bottom of the page, under “Compose the picture”. You must admit that, in terms of ergonomics, you would really have to try to do worse … or else never test your ergonomics with a representative panel of the target population rather than the graduates of your own company! Now, once found in the booklet, the explanation is crystal clear.
On a positive note, here are my own suggestions:
1) Luxury booklets, A4 size, with photos, well classified information, a quick start section followed by comprehensive explanations
2) A DVD video showing the use of each button and the realization of each function.
3) Both, it should not be too expensive and could be highly profitable through facilitating purchase repetition ☺

JEAN-MARIE MESSIER
Behind bars, all rogue chief executives!
He should be made an example of, to bring morality into business.
His type of rogue behavior wrecks the social contract upon which our market society is built!
The same applies to Bernard Tapie, who, even worse, corrupts politics …

ESTABLISHING MULTI-SERVICE CENTRES IN SMALL MUNICIPALITIES
I cannot understand why a major retailer/distribution franchise does not set up an outlet in small rural and mountain municipalities.

Legal Matters (2/3)

CHANGING ILLICIT ACTIVITIES INTO REGULATED, LEGAL ACTIVITIES
I’m aware that I’m lifting a taboo that is barely within my area of expertise.
The Mafia thrives on drug trafficking, sex trafficking, arms trafficking.
In France, unlike the situation in the United States, the handgun issue has been solved through regulations: weapon licenses, gun stores, and registration. Why not branch out from such a successful set of regulations to asphyxiate the other two trafficking scourges?
Sex trafficking used to be regulated through brothels and still is in Germany through the Eros Centers. The system prevents the spread of AIDS and provides prostitutes with better living and working conditions.
In the Netherlands, coffee shops and shoot rooms give the reality of drug use a human dimension. In France, coffee shops with psychologists (we train lots of them, who end up unemployed), psychiatric nurses, and psychiatrists would help solve some of the underlying problems of drug use while drying out the underground economy.
The alternative method of clamping down with law and order has already failed and will continue to fail again and again. We need to innovate and start from the bottom line, that is, the greed of criminals, easy money, the exponential price increases of drugs: the higher the drug prices, the more profitable the trafficking, the more criminals will be attracted to the market! The risk sends their adrenaline levels sky high, and they believe that prison sentences hit other people only, the incompetent, the unlucky. Then, we need to convince the political elites, who turn their positions regarding security into mantras … As for the voters, should they be consulted through polls, they will gradually agree with my position.

PERVERSION OF THE COLLECTIVE ORGANISATION OF TEACHERS
When talking to teachers, it is striking to note that, individually, they are intelligent and educated, whereas collectively, they behave appallingly: complete lack of obedience to their minister’s instructions, unhealthy predilection for strikes in response to their Union’s instructions. Business schools usually teach that the art of successful management is to achieve 1+1=3, namely drawing more from cooperation among people than simply adding up their efforts would bring. In short, our national education system is suffering from its own management – how else could we explain that 1+1=1 in that system! Only the isolated human being, the teacher facing his/her pupils alone, is valued in that ministry. Respecting hierarchical orders has gone, in contradiction to any kind of human organization …
Teachers are so arrogantly self-confident, secure in what they believe they are worth, which is measured through their level in their own discipline as established through the competitive recruitment system. Well, yes, but what have our teachers done with issues such as motivation, hard work (the quality of class preparation, real working time, presence at the workplace), ongoing training (pedagogy, how to handle a class, pupil psychology, adolescent psychology, discipline issues), a collective spirit (mindset) and effort, and many others that are well known of Human Resource directors in companies, organizations, administrations? Are they so special a species that they deserve this type of preferential treatment – which, in any case, turns against them (declining public support, class management incompetence, lack of discipline, lack of collective responsibility, a ministry in a constant state of crisis)?
I don’t want to enter the battlefield of the definition of the ideal school at primary and secondary levels. For this, an extensive research literature is available; it reveals findings that are consensual, unlike those in more controversial disciplines such as economics and foreign policy. The time has come for choices to be made rather than research efforts. The most difficult will be to ensure that those political choices are implemented and to monitor them over time – this is why I am so concerned by the lack of obedience shown by teachers.

PROMOTING POLICY MEDIATION
Our society is afflicted by increasing reliance on the judicial system for numerous everyday issues: relationships between neighbors, customers and retailers, tenants and landlords, residents and town council, pupils and teachers, etc. We are drifting towards the excesses of the Anglo-Saxon (U.S.) society and attendant strains (depersonalized relationships, legal costs, lengthy proceedings / backlogs of court cases).
We are not making enough use of the abilities of our “gendarmes”, police staff at municipal and national level, and elected representatives for genuine conflict management, i.e. the first level of mediation. The inhabitants confer prestige on all these authority figures, and the latter have often met those friction-based issues, know the psychology of the locals, and sometimes know them personally or by reputation. Hence, it would be a pity not to institute a law enforcement-based mediation programme before reaching the filing-charges stage. If 50% of all small offenses or transgressions could end up with an amicable settlement between the conflicting parties under the authority of law enforcement, a huge improvement in our everyday quality of life would ensue in our country.

THE EVALUATION OF ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE
I possess an engineering background, and the math teaching that has been the most useful to me is the ability to use mental math skills to check calculations in terms of orders of magnitude (power of 10 or fraction of 1/10) received from a pocket calculator or the computer for such matters as engineering design, shop prices, large balance sheet items, estimate checks, checking the tax figures touted by politicians, etc.
Those order of magnitude techniques enable one to assess quickly a possible mistake made by mindlessly entering in the calculator figures of unknown origin or accuracy.
For instance, if a politician talks of a tax income of 10 million Euros, one should wonder whether it should not be 10 billion Euros, knowing that the French GDP is about 1,500 billion Euros; the tax revenue is about 50% of the GDP, hence 750 billion Euros; VAT is the highest tax, amounting to about 150 billion Euros, followed by corporation tax (25 billion) and income tax (25 billion). It is thus highly likely that governments create a tax to collect a few billion rather than million Euros; this rings alarm bells and prompts checking the figure given by the politician…
Another example: I work out, or the nurse works out that I need to administer an injection of 10ml of pure drug. As I know a little medicine and biology, I know that current meds are active from a dose of 0.1ml (for instance). So, I won’t kill the patient through mindless acceptance of calculations I have not made.
And another one: prices are indicated as 29.95 Euros or 29.99 Euros. I know immediately that I will pay in the region of 30 Euros – certainly not 20 Euros!
Then, I’m given a quote for 90 Euros with a 33% discount and 10% rebate. I immediately work out 90*0.66=60 Euros, 60 Euros – 60*10% = 60 – 60*0.1= 60 – 6 = 54 Euros. If the cashier asks for another amount, I then produce my calculator, check it all out and call the sales assistant …
Finally, if I’m not at home, or if I’m sitting in front of the TV, and I have to work out 390*42, I round off to 400*40, so 16000 mentally, and I get my order of magnitude, even if the figure itself is inaccurate. The same rounding off procedure enables me to check that I have not made a mistake by inputting 39*42 in the calculator – that would give 1638, which is distinctly not the order of magnitude of 16000 …

AUTHORITY WITHIN THE SCHOOL
I have just watched the “Further Investigation” programme on TV regarding the status of authority within the school.
Knowledge and authority should not be placed in opposition to one another, and one should not be favored over the other: authority is an essential prerequisite to enabling the transfer of knowledge in good conditions for listening, concentration, and efficacy.
Knowledge transfer is one of the goals of schooling; another is education in such areas as civic and republican values, respecting others and hierarchical relationships, and learning obedience and negotiation skills; yet another is to instill the desire to learn throughout one’s long life …
What can generate authority? Very many things, which include (in no particular order) the following: not allowing exceptions; monitoring the carrying out of one’s orders right to the end; respond to the smallest abuses, all of them, thus deterring the bigger ones; showing humanity in extreme cases; giving all instructions and rules in simple, straightforward language that can’t be (mis)interpreted, using basic vocabulary and short sentences (as found in advertising slogans). Combat sports (judo, karate, French boxing, etc.) bring awareness of one’s ability to take blows and assess the strength of the blows given, which in turn brings awareness of violent physical relations and physical control – all of this, in turn, is reflected in one’s attitude, which becomes dissuasive. Team sports bring the ability to manage a team, attitudes and words conveying empathy and authority. One’s voice should be able to go from soft to very loud, in an accelerated rhythm, then go back to soft, without trembling; it must reassure, if necessary. If one is physically afraid, they will sense it; it’s an intuitive, basic body language. One has to be ready to fight, any time …
Today’s teachers are selected through discipline-based competitive exams and they are in no ways prepared for the job. At the Licence level (3-year degree), those exams are more than enough to teach in the primary and secondary levels – even right up to the lycée (high school). However, it is essential to add some B.A. in Education subjects and an evaluation of the would-be teachers’ class management ability through real-life situations (in which experienced teachers would play the role of pupils). Finally, a motivation evaluation interview is necessary, and so many elements must be tested, in one way or another: willingness for ongoing training throughout one’s life, psychological knowledge regarding children/ adolescents and experience of working with them (bafa, nanny, etc.), willingness and ability to work in a team of teachers, and ability to accept and submit to the decisions of one’s hierarchy (principals, inspectors, education directors, minister).

TEACHERS RECRUITED BY THE SCHOOL PRINCIPALS
I believe that the management team should be responsible for the recruitment of the teaching team.
Concerning transfers, the selection should be made through a study of the candidate’s records and an interview.v Concerning the initial recruiting, one should be able to design some type of “educational qualification” mechanism to evaluate people’s education abilities through both written and oral competitive exams in terms of subject and pedagogy; then, starting from this pool, a mechanism for aptitude-based (in particular, the aptitude to exert one’s authority on a class) and motivation-based (for a particular place and working atmosphere) selection that should be exacting in terms of both authority and disciplinary competence. The educational qualification would be valid for a couple of years, then would fall away if no recruitment has taken place. This system is based on the regional administration competitive exams.

THE MULTIPLYING AGGREGATION OF THE POLICE STATISTIC RESULTS
Roughly, there are three ways to aggregate numbers: adding them (to derive the arithmetic mean), multiplying them (to derive the geometric mean), and adding each squared number (to derive the root mean square).
When adding numbers (arithmetic mean), poor figures/results in one area may be (over)compensated by good figures in another. When multiplying numbers (geometric mean), really poor figures (usually 0) will sink the final results, regardless of figures elsewhere. The best aggregated scores will result from homogeneous figures (only 3 out of 10, only 5 out of 10, only 8 out of 10). Should this aggregating method be chosen for police figures, it is nevertheless necessary to ensure that each statistical indicator/figure used in the multiplying represents a handled crime; otherwise, there will be a few figures near 0 that will bring towards 0 all the other indicators. Such an aggregated indicator, tested in previous years and monitored over time, could be used as point of reference for evaluating police performance. Simulations are possible to identify future improvements (improving the lowest figures – which, how, which means should be allocated to whom, in which geographical area, which populations).
Simple example I with the numbers 3, 5, 7:
Arithmetic mean (3+5+7)/3=5
Geometric mean (3*5*7) raised to the 1/3rd power = 4.7
Simple example II with the numbers 1, 5, 9:
Arithmetic mean (1+5+9)/3=5
Geometric mean (1*5*9) raised to the 1/3rd power = 3.5
Conclusion: with the same arithmetic mean (=5), Situation II, less balanced than Situation I obtains a lower geometric mean (=3.5 instead of 4.7).
To be noted: The balanced situation with figures of 5, 5, 5 would have received the maximum score as far as geometric mean is concerned (=5) for an arithmetic mean =5. In other words, the optimum of the geometric mean, for an arithmetic mean =X is such that all averaged figures are equal to X. Under these conditions (optimum), geometric mean = arithmetic mean = X.v
COMBATING TAX EVASION
Tax evasion is a non-lethal crime, which is why it is widely ignored by public opinion. It is nevertheless extremely costly: roughly 10 billion Euros per year, or the equivalent of the deficit of the Social Security system. Hence, investing in human and technological means of combating white collar crime is both justified and cost-effective. It should be on the priority list.
NB. In the excellent story broadcasted by “Envoyé spécial” (Special correspondent) on 13 October 2011, we learn that the Belgian administration has put together a very effective structure combining customs officers, tax specialists, and police officers. We must imitate them! Moreover, this structure uses transaction analysis software that considerably simplifies the job by sorting out potentially fraudulent transactions by relevance: amount, degree of ambiguity, danger level. In this case, if we want to do anything, the solution is simple: either we design similar software in France, or we buy it from the companies that designed it or from the Belgian customs.

HOW TO CONTROL LEGAL IMMIGRATION
There are two types of immigration: 1) illegal immigration, which needs to be reduced to the absolute minimum – otherwise, what is the use of having laws to control the second type, and 2) legal immigration, which is accepted by the host country.
Legal immigration should be a process both accepted and desired, especially in the current context of economic stagnation that sees increasing competition for financial resources (State allocations, public services, jobs) among those residing on our territory. Hence, the immigration control criteria need to be defined.
Hence, our goal should be to match employment opportunities with the skills possessed by the selected immigrants. In those sectors with a structural deficit in job applicants, identified by employers’ unions/associations such as MEDEF, CGPME, and others and confirmed by Pôle Emploi (the public institution responsible for employment), the annual entry quota will be proportional to the annual number of unfilled vacancies (100%, 50%, or any other proportion to be negotiated with employees’ unions). For the jobs French citizens can fill, only immigrants who need protection for humanitarian reasons will be accepted. In practice, priority will be given to immigrants who have already received a job offer via the Pôle Emploi-operated Internet server that brings together all job openings available to immigrant candidates, as defined above.
Incidentally, the Extreme Left wing cannot possibly criticize this control method for plundering the Third World, namely its expensively trained brainpower. In the current situation of job openings, there will be doctors and nurses (as long as the medical schools numerus clausus remains too restrictive), but mostly construction workers with little or no training. Consequently, there is no organized, deliberate, and exclusive programme for plundering the Third World brainpower!

THE “ECHEVINAGE” COURT SYSTEM
Among the numerous books I have read concerning the reform of the French judicial system, a miracle cure is often mentioned, namely the system of échevinage of judges. The term refers to mixing in a court of law professional judges (law specialists) and ordinary citizens (sometimes elected and receiving a small measure of training).
The advantage of this system is that it fills the gap between learned law, represented by the professional judges, and the intuitive sensitivity of non specialist citizens who are closer to ordinary public opinion, while ensuring that the judgment handed down by the court will comply with the law, thanks to the professional judges’ competence. In addition, given the professional judges’ training and career choices, one could assume greater resistance on their part to corruption than on that of consular judges in the current set-up of commercial courts (see Antoine Gaudino’s Mafia of the commercial courts).
I would thus strongly encourage the government to embark on an analysis of the advantages/disadvantages of introducing échevinage at various levels of the courts of justice, and then to act according to the study findings.

ONE OF THE KEYS TO ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE: MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION
It is not enough for the CEO or company director, in collaboration with his/her assistants, to decide which strategic policy will be executed and how to implement it; implementation and development stages need to be fully and regularly monitored. Similarly, it is not enough for the legislators or the government to work out and vote the most relevant economic measures, then translate those into law and regulations; it is also necessary to monitor how companies and the population at large respect those binding measures. It would also be naïve and ridiculous to believe in people’s sense of duty as citizens; as a matter of fact, a national sport involves bypassing the meaning of laws and getting out of their constraints, particularly as regards one’s bank balance.
This is why it is essential to appoint and/or maintain a reasonable number of inspectors (of finance, the Social Security system, etc.). In terms of justifying these jobs, one should start from the principle that if, on average, an inspector brings into the public budget more than his/her gross salary (e.g. from 1 to 10 minimum), the post of public servant auditor is fully justified. If, for a particular type of auditing, the average amount of the collected fines and/or avoided fraud losses is inferior to the annual average salary of these inspectors, that will be the sign that nitpicking is taking place = obsession with detail, which is unhealthy for the administration and its employees. The solution will then be to reduce the administrative pressure by reducing the number of inspectors. To add a practical detail, the average benefit per type of inspector can be either measured, or statistically estimated by the INSEE, or obtained through a comparison of the accounting measure and the statistical estimate.

Legal matters (1/3)

WEAPONS BLUNDER IN CARCASSONNE
In this type of case, it is more interesting and equitable to try and find who made a mistake in the chain of command rather than to sack a rifleman who is neither responsible (even indirectly) nor guilty. This prevents personnel disorganization and loss of motivation. Surely, we’re not about to terminate the Chief of the armed forces, the President of the Republic, each time a blunder’s been made at levels so far off that he can only be totally unaware of them …

PRISON OVERCROWDING
France has been condemned by the European Court of Justice because of its chronic prison overcrowding. A just and equitable step for the prisoners would be to reduce the ends of sentences served proportionately to prison overcrowding so as to quickly adjust the number of available places to the number of prisoners. In concrete terms, a prisoner who has served 8 years out of 10 would be free if there’s a 20% shortfall of (decent) prison places. Alternatively, s/he could finish his/her sentence under judicial supervision or wear an electronic bracelet at home. This kind of adjustment could take place twice a year, at Christmas/New Year (symbol of renewal) and on Bastille Day (symbol of justice owed by the State to all citizens). This measure would not exclude investing in the building of new prisons following European standards.

IMMIGRATION / INTEGRATION
At the risk of being called old-fashioned, I wish to point out that there are two prerequisites for two groups of human beings, locals and immigrants, to intermingle:
1. They should speak at least one common language so that they can communicate, hence understand each other and negotiate.
2. They should agree on a number of common values (Republican secularity here, managerial capitalism there, religion somewhere else). We also note that, historically, it is when jobs are plentiful that immigrants are welcomed.
We can always kid ourselves with the do-gooder approach. Reality is different.
Note. I am married to a foreigner. I taught her my tongue and helped her acculturation to my country’s values. She studied successfully and found a job. This, however, presupposed that she had a strong desire to integrate and share in the national collective movement. Not to worry, she enriched, rather than lost, her personality! Indeed, it’s all pretty straightforward …

CLANDESTINE IMMIGRATION
I wonder what all those Africans who endure all manner of hardships and who stake their lives to get to Europe think they will find there. Don’t they know that, if they survive, either they will be detained in camps before being sent back home, or they will live in fear and clandestine misery? Are they informed through publicity films and news reports in their country of origin? Or else, are they victims of the European equivalent of the Hollywood syndrome whereby immigrants to the United States expect an easy life in California (big car, swimming pool, love, good job) true to the image portrayed by the American TV series? In short, is the image that Europe is projecting that of an inaccessible mirage for Africans?

ONE-STOP-SHOPS / LEGAL SIMPLIFICATIONS
If the State wishes to avoid being perceived as needlessly heavy, or even tyrannical, ways must be found to lighten the pressure placed by the myriad administrations onto the citizens and corporations, 95% of whom are, on the whole, honest. In any case, fraudulent individuals and corporations will always find the loopholes, whether in content or form, of the most specific and best formulated set of laws and regulations. Overpolicing is totally unnecessary! Hence, it is time honest people’s energies were liberated. Here are several proposals:
1. Set up one-stop-shops, e.g. taxes + Ursaff + Anpe + CPAM + etc. for corporations: entrepreneurs should not have to learn the various administrations’ trade as prerequisite to exercising an occupation. It is administrations, that are expected to understand each other (otherwise, how can one ask SMEs, VSEs, and “auto-entrepreneurs” to do so!), that ought to go towards corporations and manage their various contributions, while justifying them!
2. Simplify the legal codes and regulations. I propose that one should set up and regularly update a Book of a hundred pages or so (but no more) which would bring together all that an adult citizen is expected to know about the law (whereas today, s/he is penalized for not knowing the mass of codes which judges themselves do not master! …). Should there be any offense, if the alleged wrongdoer has complied with the Book of laws in content and form, s/he is presumed to have acted in good faith, which means one can alleviate the penalties, sanctions, and procedures!
This Book would be taught to high school pupils at the end of their school career.
Note: I wish to point out that the Hebraic, multicentury-old civilization is essentially based on Moses’ Ten Commandments – talk about success! As for the Christian civilization, 2000 years old and currently involving 2 billion individuals, it is based on 4 rather short Gospels which overlap considerably… There’s a long list of civilization-founding texts. How could we boast of our mere 200-years old Republic? Will it still exist in 400 years’ time, despite all our legal codes adding up to several thousand pages? We should rather think about the philosophy behind the concept of Republican rights and how to transmit it, instead of causing the proliferation of legal texts that constitute a rather indigestible and disparate set.
3. Effect a complete, regular clean-up of the legal codes (certain laws are outdated) in order to make accessible, if not the whole, then at least the essentials of our laws and regulations to healthy and normal minds.

SIMPLIFYING THE LAWS
One could imagine a hierarchy-based, interlocking system of the set of behaviors and laws that an individual is expected to adhere to throughout his/her social life; compliance to content and form would be enough to establish good faith, hence bring about leniency on the part of judges, the lessening of potential penalties, the rapidity of procedures, a lightened load for the courts, the increase of citizens’ and corporations’ freedom and autonomy in a maze of laws and regulations. Here are a few examples:
Children: behavior at school, child-child and child-adult relationships
Adolescents: in addition, behavior relating to drugs, tobacco, lawful sexual relationships, law enforcement
Ordinary, adult citizen: voting behavior, Book of French laws (see previous item), Book of European laws
Corporations: the entrepreneur’s Book, Book of taxes
Lawyer: detailed legal codes
Note. Books would be guides that summarize within a hundred-odd pages the essentials of the laws that a council of eminent jurists, tasked with drawing up each Book, would want to see adhered to in content and form.
These experts would be responsible for the relevance of the Books which would be widely distributed in bookshops, on the Internet, in public places, and which would be taught.

SIMPLIFYING THE LEGAL CODES
In the world of computer science, we know that the simplest programs are those with the fewest bugs (design issues bring about execution errors). In the art of rhetoric, there are only 2 or 3 main parts to a synthesis. In the same way, in the Tax Code, one central idea is damaged by numerous exceptions, and a multitude of loopholes are provided to dishonest individuals and corporations. A well-balanced corpus, acceptable to all, will arise only out of a simplicity-based rewriting effort rather than management by exception.

THE COLONNA CASE
High-ranking judges who deny the obvious, that their inquiry is incomplete, that they are incorrect, biased … It’s a complete DISGRACE for the Republic! A collapsing world, yet another mental universe to be reconstructed …

THE LEVIATHAN STATE
Republicans live convinced that the State is governed by reason. Except that excesses lie in wait – they’re already in place. For instance, this week, Yvan Colonna has been sentenced to 22 years in jail without any evidence and despite numerous testimonies clearing him. Some are saying that this was to safeguard the reputation of the police and of anti-terrorist justice, and of their leader, the Home Secretary who became President of the Republic; this hypothesis will remain without proof.
What is going to happen when all our movements are electronically put on file and centralized, should an unscrupulous government come to power? The winning triptych for democracy remains a Parliament-controlled government, independent and determined press media, and trained and informed citizens.

THE VIGUIER CASE
It’s rather odd that the lead of murder by the lover, linked to the resentment caused by the woman’s refusal to leave her husband and her children for good, should not have been followed more closely. The police preferred to hound the ideal culprit, i.e. the husband having problems with his wife!
In fact, are we not here witnessing, through no scheduling coordination whatsoever, the third serious miscarriage of justice in France within 2 months, after the Colonna case and the clearing of Judge Burgeaud in the Outreau case? Intellectual leaders of this State, please answer this question: who, which ordinary citizen, is now going to feel secure in this country, given such (in)justice?

DNA TESTING
Fraudulent cases of family grouping probably concern only a hundred or so children a year. Why should it thus be necessary to mobilize Parliament and the political debate for several months for this rather marginal phenomenon, with responses on the borderline of ethics? Surely there are more important and topical issues (e.g. economic, industrial, and environmental).

CURFEW
People’s education also forms part of the mission of our National Police, even if, obviously, one should be flexible in application. Surely, it is not outrageous to ask young potential predelinquents to adhere to formative discipline!

PLANT SIT-INS + THREATS OF DESTRUCTION
1. I fully understand the distress of employees who have lost their job and who, in the current structural and economic context of the labor market, will not find another anytime soon.
2. However, do the staff who threaten to blow up their plant, and even to pollute streams, have any idea of the legal consequences that will befall them (damage repayment, possible jail sentences)?
3. In order to protect them against themselves (as in the case of maniacs), and to protect property and people, it is best to use strength to intervene in this type of case.

GAY MARRIAGES
The reasons that lead to the choice of a partner are so many and so irrelevant to morality: education, culture, encounters, personal history, genetic prediposition, historical context, etc.
Since the dawn of humanity, poets have celebrated the beauty of love without ever managing to exhaust all explanations. So let’s be modest. In the name of complexity, and of a certain beauty linked to complexity, I believe in the free choice of partners and, in particular, in gay marriages.

ABORTIONS
I firmly believe that anonymous births followed by possibly registered adoptions ought to be legally pursued and encouraged by social services and families, as in the United States (see the movie JUNO) ->law “JUNO”. This would provide a meaningful alternative to most abortions.

FACEBOOK GIANT-SIZE APERITIFS
Let the young people have their say! The risks are really rather limited …
Stop a sad world governed by and for fearful old people!

FEAR SOCIETY
We regularly hear on TV that adolescents rape one another, that priests are pedophiles, that the suburbs are violent, that burglaries are frequent, that teachers have no authority, that the young get drunk, that there is no employment, etc. The net outcome is that people are afraid, suspect one another, and that polls turn out extreme results. As far as you yourself are concerned, have you experienced any one of these misfortunes in the last 10 years?
Television is a fantastic soundbox which, if poorly conceived, brings considerable bias into our vision of the world. Let us rather think about what we wish to transmit our children: distrust or enthusiasm when faced with a new world carried by information technologies, ecology, new forms of energy, biomedicine? Trust in others and the future, or neurotic dread? I worry that many young minds have been distorted by our fear society. Our country will have to face the consequences in the current climate of global competition …

TEACHER TRAINING IN PRIMARY/SECONDARY EDUCATION
Contrary to what the teachers who are specialists in a discipline claim, a bachelors’ degree (i.e., a “licence” or 3-year degree) in that discipline is more than enough. On the other hand, teachers these days are recruited with i) utter ignorance of the realities of the classroom, and ii) obvious gaps in psychology and pedagogy. Hence, I would strongly suggest that one should establish a master’s cycle between the third and fifth year of study, devoted to alternation training: class observation, practicum for lessons + pedagogy and psychology theory classes. The competitive exam for entry into the teaching profession would be based equally on those subjects of the bachelor’s special field and psycho/pedagogy at the end of the psycho/pedagogy master’s.

MANIPULATIONS
In French politics, the search for truth and the best possible policy in absolute terms has been replaced by the manipulative and counter-manipulative presentation of political options supported by different constituencies of opinion. The point is that when everything is equivalent to everything else, nothing is worth anything! The world of lawyers represents the end of democracy, a kind of its own degeneration …

THE AUTHORITY NECESSARY IN THE EDUCATION WORLD
We need to get back to basics in our schools and community living. Even if the castrating or divinely ordained type of authority is no longer relevant in 21st century France, even if it is essential to explain, to support, and to help bright and independent people grow, the point is still that there must exist some kind of minimal authority, of the flexible, guiding type that helps protect us from our worst excesses and take responsibility for our choices.
Anarchic freedom is but the tyranny of all!

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
In France, the Unions are currently spinning workers’ brains. The latter are now well aware of their rights but should not forget their obligations.

THE ISSUE OF THE ROMA PEOPLE
These are people who refuse a sedentary lifestyle and live on nobody really knows what (benefits, small jobs, trafficking, thieving). It’s the obsolete nomadic economic model that is criticized by the sedentary rather than some kind of racism towards foreigners.
In the Pope’s ideal world, where it’s all sweetness and light, and in which we would all love to live, it’s rather awkward to stigmatize a portion of the population. In the real world, however, everybody is not everybody’s equal, and some are more deserving than others. It is the duty of the Church to provide the long-term utopian goal. The government’s job is to set the tone, to provide concrete goals, and to map out the course to reach them.

BREAKING THE TABOO SURROUNDING STREAMING IN JUNIOR AND SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
The main problem of many secondary school pupils is that they can’t keep up with a curriculum that’s too hard and uninteresting for them because they can’t see its practical applications in their current or future everyday life. Hence all the frustration and violence we witness.
Moreover, people are not equal, whether in terms of genetics, culture, or social class. To think in egalitarian terms might be generous and ambitious, but it’s also utopian. Quite simply, it just does not work! Teachers at the chalk face know this well.
Thus, why could we not imitate other countries (e.g. England) and institute streaming in our schools? Pupils would be placed in streamed classes per semester by the class council according to their results. In those classes, the curriculum would be more or less broad, more or less detailed, but always designed in such a way that pupils could link successively semesters of different levels. The idea would thus be to design successive courses that build on the elements of knowledge and understanding acquired in the lower classes; the knowledge acquired in the higher classes would become “optional” developments that are not essential.
For instance, the history curriculum in Year 7 (the first year of junior secondary school in the UK) would have two levels: at the lower level, only the Egyptians and Hebrews would be dealt with, and at the higher level, the Greeks and Romans would be added. The lower level maths curriculum would not deal with rational numbers but with decimal and real numbers only; a lower level biology curriculum would deal with human biology rather than geology or zoology; a lower level French curriculum would not deal with foreign or medieval literature, etc.
Another possibility would be to adjust staff involvement (to bring about savings): in the higher level classes, there would be greater discipline owing to a more positive attitude toward the school institution and greater facility to understand the new knowledge, hence a lesser need for authority-wielding and teaching members of staff.

COMMUNITY-BASED POLICING
The British Bobbies are highly successful, a real institution; they constitute the key to fighting against the uncivil behavior and petty crime that make life hell in the sensitive suburbs.
The Bobbies do not carry arms and let it be known; they are identified by their high, rounded hat which is equivalent in France to a uniform in a different color. This way, there’s little chance of their being attacked with firearms; if the risk exists, special armed forces will intervene. However, they had better be athletic and in good physical condition: long- and short-distance racing, kicks-and-punches fighting – this will prove useful in case of aggressiveness and helps them earn respect.
In their patrols, the Bobbies are engaged in a show of deterrent presence, intelligence, first-level mediation, conflict resolution, and fight against minor offences.
We need to remember that it is the combination of numerous and constant antisocial behaviors with a slow legal system, costing a good deal of money (paying lawyers) and time, which darkens our fellow citizens’ life.

COMMUNITY-BASED POLICING
The British Bobbies are highly successful, a real institution; they constitute the key to fighting against the uncivil behavior and petty crime that make life hell in the sensitive suburbs.
The Bobbies do not carry arms and let it be known; they are identified by their high, rounded hat which is equivalent in France to a uniform in a different color. This way, there’s little chance of their being attacked with firearms; if the risk exists, special armed forces will intervene. However, they had better be athletic and in good physical condition: long- and short-distance racing, kicks-and-punches fighting – this will prove useful in case of aggressiveness and helps them earn respect.
In their patrols, the Bobbies are engaged in a show of deterrent presence, intelligence, first-level mediation, conflict resolution, and fight against minor offences.
We need to remember that it is the combination of numerous and constant antisocial behaviors with a slow legal system, costing a good deal of money (paying lawyers) and time, which darkens our fellow citizens’ life.

WHERE IS FRANCOIS-MARIE BANIER’ BILLION EUROS?
François-Marie Banier sucked 1 000 000 000 Euros from Mme Bettencourt senior. The threat of a lawsuit has corresponded to coordinated media frenzy against first, Minister Eric Woerth, and then, President Nicolas Sarkozy, regarding the Roma case.
So, here’s my hypothesis (obviously to be verified…): with all that money, François-Marie Banier bought respectability certificates from his freemasons friends, who in turn activated the media connected to their coterie in order to carry out a coordinated smear campaign against certain government members non affiliated to the free mason sect.
The method involves attacking sick animals (suffering in the polls!), like a pack of scavenging hyenas; it is similar to the social Darwinism doctrine (neo-fascist) that the free mason sect is interested in and has taken over.

ABSOLUTE POVERTY
If one measures poverty according to a relative baseline of revenue compared to the rest of the population, one ends up with the following absurdity: a couple with two children who have less than 2,000 Euros/month is under the poverty line. Our grand-parents would laugh bitterly, and so would citizens in developing countries.
It would be much better to publish statistics relating to absolute poverty (measured according to a basket of essential goods), which would enable governments to concentrate on the at-risk population. Otherwise, the minute the majority of people thrive, the relative poverty figures increase automatically.
This would explain the absurd figure of 13% (1/8) of the French population under the poverty line (relative poverty, that is) as currently defined.

DOUBLE CULTURE
No, immigrants will not feel comfortable in France if they know nothing of a minimum of key features of French culture (democracy, secularity, Human Rights – of both men and women! – spoken language).
I advocate the notion of double culture: knowing one’s origins + one’s country of residence. I’m not talking about straightforward assimilation involving forgetting one’s origins because that would result in totally destabilized immigrants – individuals and groups.

GENIUS OR HARD WORK?
There exists in France a widespread myth, prevalent among both students and teachers, according to which we need a number of geniuses who stand out from the anonymous crowd, if possible without working – the whole idea of innate abilities. In contrast, the Germans thrive on the collective hard work of most individuals. If one considers the outcome of the 3 Franco-German wars of 1870-71, 1914-18, 1939-45 (if France had not enjoyed the support of powerful allies), the German method appears to be superior to the French one.
Hence, I conclude that 1) to organize society, it is better to have a hard-working community rather than a few lay-about, work-shy geniuses, and 2) as with culture, genius is something that needs to be maintained, developed, cultivated through very hard work!

NETWORK OF COLLECTIVE STRUCTURES FOR THE ROMA
We’ve tried giving the Roma individual earnings in cash or in kind to enable them to start a new, settled lifestyle in Romania. The attempt has failed as a result of the lack of economic culture and of settlement practice.
We could try collective farmers’ structures (such as phalansteries, kolkhozy, sovkhozy, kibbutzim) that would help them get organized and send their children to school. Should the Roma wish to continue travelling, they could migrate from kibbutz to kibbutz within Romania, or even abroad. The Roma kibbutzim network would be financed by the European Community and jointly coordinated by the European Community and Romania.

Economic proposals (1/6)

THE 35-HOUR WORKWEEK
In order to reach agreement with the employees, the new law must guarantee that all hours worked beyond the legal number of 35 hours will be remunerated at the current favorable rate, or else that the extra 5 hours (from 35 to 40 hours/week) are paid with a 25% bonus, since the current overtime rate starts beyond that (+25% then +50%)

TAX INCREASE
Reducing the lifestyle of the state is known to be necessary. But why is there no talk of increasing revenue through VAT and income tax? Balladur-type disinformation spreads as self-evident that “the French don’t want to pay taxes any longer”, that “too much tax kills taxation”, etc. Income tax is proportional to earnings, which means that if I pay 50% in my high tax bracket, there’s 50% left in my pocket. So, it’s rather more comfortable to keep 50% of a lot than to pay 0% of nothing, as the RMI beneficiaries [RMI= a form of social welfare] do. Beside, do you really believe that I will stop working once I have reached a certain income and refuse extra earnings simply so that I do not pay the state taxes? What a ludicrous argument! Doubly so since I, too, benefit from public services: school, university, roads, health services, etc. And then, I would refuse to help people who are struggling? Rather perverse, don’t you think? My conclusion: in addition to improving the management of the state, we need to increase taxation and legally compel the allocation of the surplus to reducing the national debt. Our children will thank us for it …

URBAN TOLLS
To abandon giving mayors the choice to establish an urban toll is yet another example of the government’s backing-down in the fight against wastage of rare resources.

HOUSING
On the one hand, the French often need a little push to think of buying their own home confidently. On the other hand, banks are somewhat cautious, more or less justifiably. Consequently, why not extend the state’s guarantee to real estate investment, or even rentals? It would be good for the construction industry, morally equitable for the French (in relation to the small-time speculators and bankers), and, in the end, politically astute.

RECESSION
This confirms it: INSEE [the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies] is at the beck and call of those in power. These Gyro Gearloose types in the field of statistical economics must have postponed some cost allocation or reduced some estimate, etc.; this is what is called creative statistics. For instance, two INSEE researchers’ estimate of the impact of the 35-hour workweek on the job market and the economy, published one week before the Chirac vs Jospin presidential election, for those who have long memories … And today, we see our Prime Minister explaining during the evening news that his policies are bearing fruit and that reality is in accordance with his predictions: technically speaking, there is no recession in 2008 …. Sleep tight, good citizens, the state machinery watches over your destiny impartially!

THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR
If public monies are to be used to support the automotive sector, these should be focused on policies for the future, which are mainly environmental in the transport industry: cash-for-clunkers schemes for polluting vehicles (against the purchase of less polluting ones …), support for research and development programs for lighter cars and cleaner engines (fewer carbon dioxide and other toxic gases emissions, reduced consumption of non renewable fossil energy), etc.

READINGS IN ECONOMICS
In order to update rapidly your economics knowledge, I strongly recommend the following publications (in French):
Les Vraies Lois de l’Economie, I and II, by Jacques Généreux, professor at SciencesPo, Paris
Le grand bond en arrière, by Serge Halimi
Vers un monde sans pauvreté, by Muhammad Yunus, Peace Nobel Prize for 2006
On future trends in China:
Que pense la Chine ? by Mark Leonard, British academic.

THE PHILOSOPHY WHICH UNDERLIES THE ECONOMY
We need to abandon the concepts of profitability, of work (The French word “travail” is derived from the Latin “trepallium” which is a torture instrument) – duty – difficulties – divine punishment - guilt, to embrace those of pleasure, liberty and corresponding accountability, solidarity, mutual respect, and Life.

T2A or activity-based financing in hospitals
Activity-based financing should not be used as a budget corset but rather as an indicator of activity levels.
Let us assume that one act costs, on average and in a particular region, 100 euros, a minimum of 60 euros, a maximum of 170 euros, and in the third quartile 120 euros (three quarters of this act cost less than 120 euros).
We do understand that to fix the repayment level at 120 euros, rather than 100 euros, involves a different message, hence a different behavior on the actors’ part:
- at 120 euros, only those hospitals structurally overspending on this act are penalized, whereas the other hospitals save money on their good cost management, which then enables them to finance loss-making, unprofitable acts;
- at 100 euros, almost everyone is stressed out, the atmosphere between the administrative and medical staff deteriorates, patients receive poor care for common acts, and there’s no leeway left for unprofitable acts.
Note: to fix the repayment of acts at the third quartile does not necessarily lead to an automatic general increase of each hospital’s allocation, if that cost (120 euros) involves only costs ascribable to the act rather than costs taking into account the superstructure! Ask a controller for an explanation of the various management costs: total costs, variable costs, direct costs, indirect costs, etc.

UNIVERSITY ENTRY TICKETS
It is not unreasonable that students should pay “reasonable” amounts in order to finance their education, given that this investment will bring in dividends within 6 months of paid employment once students have received their degree. In contrast, not only does workers’ and employees’ training cost nothing to the State, but they lose financially in their professional career. Considering the state of public finances, it is high time each socioprofessional category stood up and be counted and produced an equitable effort, adapted to its capacities.

HOUSING POLICY
15 euros a day will enable you to own your home … you must be joking! This is not even the cost of one family meal … The government is muddling up people’s sense of reference and redefining the hierarchy of expenses. What are they hiding? Mr Sarkozy is far from converting to communism, so which political message is being delivered? How does he propose to finance the measure; in other words, given the current budget restrictions, which other social investment is going to be affected?

TAX ON POLLUTING CARS
260 euros, such is the price for one or two tankfulls for those machines, 15 days on the road. Or 1/100th of the purchase price. Or the yearly insurance certificate… Don’t overstep the mark, the poor dears can’t pay to contribute to the depollution of the air I breathe and which they are killing off! Boo to regulated climate! Hurrah for the 4x4s that never run on potholed roads ... I want a big one, too (prosthesis).

STOCK OPTIONS
What’s going to happen in the concrete application of the law to companies? Those lowest on the hierarchy ladder will be generously granted one stock option while the senior executives will “deserve” to get 1000! What would be a reallly redistributive and motivating measure for all employees, hence something good for entrepreneurs (despite themselves!) is generalised participation in all companies. It would be something that does not affect fixed charges and, instead, is applied only in case of benefits which are at least partly due to the employees’ hard work! Stock options should be forbidden; they despoil the bottom line employees, are demotivating, and ultimately work to the financial advantage of only the most influential ones, who do not really need them...

SOCIAL SECURITY
Is the social security institution also suffering from the Munchhaüsen by proxy syndrome, that is, is it suffocating its members while pretending to nurse them? One can wonder, when one considers the dismayed looks on the faces of patients queuing up in corridors because of demands unmet for outlandish reasons which, in fact, seem to stem from the overheated, sustained imagination that continuously invents new forms, new procedures, a myriad of different computer programs supposedly non-interconnectable, all kinds of good reasons why the rights of social security members cannot be honoured directly and quickly. The employees follow orders; they have been trained to lose certain files for months. What’s the point for the senior officials? 1) The argument presented to the employees is the following: necessary savings are effected. 2) In truth, the point is to prepare for privatizing the repayment system, under pressure from public opinion itself, given the poor service being rendered. Clever (devilish), isn’t it? You still don’t believe me? Then send across France a few hidden or “candid camera” clients trained in psychology and sociology and informed of the game the health insurance funds are playing. Scoops, for sure!
TAX HAVENS
We are faced with an obvious asymmetrical information-sharing setup. So, why not do the following: threaten to freeze certain kinds of cooperation activities requiring information of a financial, commercial, economic, diplomatic, military, or political nature, in order to put pressure on tax havens to restore tax-related information parity.

CONTINENTAL (Tire maker Continental closed down its Clairoix plant)
The Continental agreement relating to the “suppression of the legal 35-hour workweek, replaced by a 40-hour workweek, in exchange for the extension of the plant life until 2012”, surely, must have been ratified by a contract signed by both parties? So, this is the situation: HRD tells me that it’s legal, the executive tells me that it’s legal, and I, the employees’ union, I cannot afford a competent, independent laywer to check what the executive says? Is this how it works in France? Somewhat odd …

BAR TALK
In order to limit the consumption of alcohol in cafés, create companies and recruit barflies …

GUADELOUPE
Have you heard the Guadeloupian employers’ leader’s words? This is a collection of clichés and threats to justify a balance of power largely in favour of the (white) employers. Now, do we want France to stay in the West Indies or would we rather see a separatist revolution take place? If we want to stay, then the local employers need to be forced to salary redistribution.
Method No 1: voting for the distribution of benefits as proposed by the President of the Republic: 1/3 to the employees, 1/3 to investment opportunities, 1/3 to shareholders. These new charges would be variable rather than fixed and would not weigh upon employment!
Method No 2: starting salary negotiations between employers and employees, with a public mediator.
Method No 3: if unsuccessful, levying a permanent tax on overseas companies and redistibuting it entirely to the low salaries and in the form of family and social benefits.

GUADELOUPE / MARTINIQUE
It clearly appears today that Elie Domota is being dishonest: he is concealing separatist demands behind impossible demands that he is forcing the French State to meet lest it should show its own inability or bias. At a push, should his 143 demands be on the point of being met, he will wreck the negotiations, or even make new demands before the negotiated compromise has been implemented!
The question is: 1) Does the Guadeloupian/Martinican people want independence? The answer is: no. 2) Does the French State want to part with its DOM-TOM [French overseas departments and territories]? The answer is: no. A new strategy thus must be found, one which puts in check the separatist demands while granting the justified economic demands.
1. Make the Békés [a Creole term to describe descendants of the early French settlers in the French Antilles who, while in the minority, control much of the local economy] understand that their head is on the block, so that they start actively negotiating and do not think that they are safe from the impunity the State is proposing via the bragging of Michelle Alliot-Marie’s; France is surely not going to risk a security blood bath in the DOM-TOM!
2. The Guadeloupian and Martinican elected representatives should publicly denounce the duplicity of Elie Domota’s strategy. The people do not espouse separatist views!
3. The State should immediately introduce the themes of post-colonial development into the negotiations. We seek the emancipation of African states, so let’s show a model of it in our DOM-TOM, for a start!
The list of what could also be done includes, but is not limited to, the following: offering microcredit via a French bank, promoting the new “auto-entrepreneur” (self-entrepreneur) system for small businesses, lightening the tax burden for SMEs, introducing affirmative action into the recruitment process in territorial and state communities (DOM-TOM + mother country), reorganizing the distribution and import/export networks, developing semi-self-sufficient rural settlements (food-producing agriculture, handicrafts), raising the double issue of land ownership and its agricultural purpose, promoting integration and development field experiences, raising the issue of alternative work organization (such as cooperative associations, mutual associations).
4. Speed up the start of the discussion Forum (but not its conclusion: the issues require much debating time!). The island’s diverse groups (Békés, Creole bourgeoisie, elected representatives, union members, the population) need to express their opinions and find points of agreement they can show the mother country, or else ask for Parliament’s and the government’s arbitration on the points of disagreement. It’s too easy to say that Paris organizes everything all the time for the DOM-TOMs if the populations cannot reach consensus in order to play a role in determining their own destiny!

HOSPITAL LAW
As in all organizations, one should strengthen the top-down and bottom-up information/reciprocal influence flows, through both strict chains of command and direct channels:
1. Advertize it
2. Realize it
3. Wait and see its effects …

THE CARBON TAX
When it’s a matter of words, everybody agrees, but when it’s a matter of paying up, nobody does … What an appalling notion of the sharing spirit necessary to any society and present in all religions! The good Earth which feeds us is dying through our collective fault. France and Europe should set a good environmental example, all the more so as we are rich (in per capita GDP terms) and consequently we can afford it. Additionally, ecological undertakings will spawn a new economy and consequently job creation.

H1N1 FLU VIRUS
Ask the epidemiologists and you will be able to put the seriousness of the situation into perspective: from memory, the “ordinary” flu virus causes about 3000 deaths each winter in France, in contrast to the 2000 deaths worldwide caused by the H1N1 flu virus. One should also consider the expenditure to fight malaria (3 million deaths each year worldwide, including a large proportion of children).
I am not the only one to know these figures, so I wonder about the dual, matched media and political outburst. Isn’t it time we trusted the statistician epidemiologists for such health-related events?

THE TRUCK DRIVERS’ STRIKE
The SMIC [guaranteed minimum wage] is law, hence concerns everyone, provided that companies are not at risk following the European dumping. In such a case, one should be imaginative and respectful of companies, entrepreneurs and employees.

LOMBARD FRANCE TELECOM
Why hasn’t Lombard been ousted yet? Who is the majority shareholder or with veto rights? This is intolerable!

STORM IN THE CHARENTES
1. There’s such a thing as dykes, and they work beautifully in the Netherlands.
2. If the decision is to vacate the disaster areas, then the compensation offered should not despoil the inhabitants.

INCREASING THE CONSULTING FEES OF GPs
GPs ought to take the responsibility of asking their patients to pay 1 extra euro which neither the Social Security system nor the “mutuelles” [supplementary health insurance schemes] will reimburse. This would test the maturity of the health insurance beneficiaries along the arduous road towards spending accountability!

QUESTIONS TO SARKOZY
1) What’s happened to the project concerning the equitable distribution of benefits among the employees (1/3), the company (reinvesting 1/3) and the shareholders (1/3)? Laurence Parisot has mentioned that a company could wish to reinvest 1/3 of the benefits, in which case the shareholders would give up their 1/3, so that the total reinvestment would be 2/3, which would be enough.
2) What do you think of adjusting corporate taxes according to corporations’ behavior – reinvestment of a portion of the benefits, opening negotiations to the unions’ satisfaction?
3) The legal codes (civil, taxation, company codes, etc.) have become so entangled that they are readily accessible only to competent professionals, which is contrary to the principle of the Republic according to which ignorance of the law is no excuse. What do you think of the idea of providing a law book of a hundred pages or so, taught in schools and available in bookshops? Following its prescriptions would be enough to establish the presumption of good faith. It would thus be a type of filter, before one sinks into the long, expensive, stressful legal hassles.

TAX SHARING
I have been observing politics for 15 years, and keep hearing the same old tune concerning taxes. On the right, the well-off and super rich classes no longer want to pay; in the centre, the middle classes consider that they are paying for everyone else; on the left, the working classes maintain that they cannot pay anything. The outcome is that nobody pays anything and the deficit automatically worsens.
Taxpayers’ mental perceptions are noxious; they lead to a dead-end: agreeing simply to say that “others must pay” simply does not work!
I believe that all population categories need to make an extra effort, except those households whose income is less than the SMIC+10% [minimum guaranteed interprofessional wages]. The purpose of this exception is first to protect this population segment and second to avoid the usual miserabilist moans when there is talk of increasing taxes … In practice, if some general tax is increased (VAT, CSG, CRDS, TIPP, etc.), the previously mentioned poorest population segment could receive a monthly compensatory allowance calculated by INSEE [the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies] and index-linked to income (salary + allowances) and the geographical area (Paris region, very large conurbations).

TAX SHIELD: WITCHCRAFT TRIALS
Whether a tax shield is necessary or not has mobilized the left wing for 2 years and the right wing for 1 month, and if my intuition is correct, the squabble has only just started.
The point is that the amounts involved are insignificant: 700 millions euros, compared to the 700 billions of our public budget, that is, 1/1000. Additionally, we still do not have any reliable analysis of the expatriations made by some wealthy tax payers, whereas this problem has been around for more than 10 years! We should perhaps interview those people who have made this choice …. In the end, Parliament is paralyzed by this issue which cannot be resolved given the current state of affairs; voters are taken hostage by this media hold-up, to the detriment of many other issues that ought to move forward. This constitutes the perfect example of what one should not do when one truly wishes one’s country to go forward …
Post Scriptum: If the left wing cannot offer anything else other than this stirred-up issue, after 10 years in opposition, without working on a concrete program to offer the electorate, we should return our membership cards!

TAXES
To avoid the lack of accountability linked to the fragmentation of each tax being collected by several different centers (State, region, “département”, municipality), I would like to receive, at the end of the fiscal year, a summary of the sums of money each collecting center has received from me, whereas I currently receive only sheets for each individual tax. This makes it much more difficult for me to recalculate what I have contributed to each collecting center, whereas the Finance Department computers could do this very easily for me. I believe that it is essential that each tax payer should know as precisely as possible what his/her money is used for. Democracy demands it. It’s also the only way to satisfy tax payers, whereas the current system makes everybody unhappy!

TAXES AND SERVICES
In a service-based society, both individuals and companies would accept more easily a high tax level if the tax administration could provide a general, turnkey package of numerous value-added services. For example, as far as information finding is concerned, the administration ought to go to the companies rather than the other way round!
Let’s compare this to car sales: I don’t really need to know much about the inside workings of a car to buy one and drive it; the purchase cost is rather high for the average household, but if I am happy with it, if what I was promised at the time of purchase proves to correspond to what I was expecting, then I will return to the same dealer a few years later, and even go upscale!
Another way of putting this is that the tax level does not necessarily have to be reduced or criticized if tax payers accept its validity (redistribution, services provided to the community by the State, simplicity and even-handedness of the tax collection).

PENSIONS
The only valid goal of the pension reform is to target the balance of the general system of pensions and to settle the debt that has accumulated for years.
Since the serious efforts required of employees (i.e. the legal pensionable age shifted to 63, 44 years of contributions for full pension) lead to only a 50% deficit reduction, other resources need to be found from capital (extra tax on capital gains from shares, on stock options, a French-type Tobin tax on short-term, risk-bearing capital movements, etc.).
Shared effort between employees and capitalists is the only way that unions will accept the efforts required of employees!

FUNDED PENSION SCHEMES
To introduce capitalization into the individual preparation of pensions would enable those used to a comfortable lifestyle to avoid an unacceptable drop in said lifestyle in the likely case that contributory pension schemes collapse and be reduced to a minimum old-age pension equal for all.
But on condition that the collected savings be secured and reinvested into industry and services, for instance the capitalization of SMEs, VSEs, start-ups.

NATIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
The future lies with the revitalization of medium-sized cities (prefectures, sub-prefectures) star-connected to their regional metropolis (Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Lille, Nantes, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nice, and Strasbourg; any others?).
The point is that, on the one hand, trafic is congested in the regional metropolises and, on the other hand, there is quality human and material infrastructure in the prefectures and sub-prefectures. One should plan for plant relocations and rail and national road star networks.

THE CULT OF PERFORMANCE
We are all collectively suffering from the cult of performance: in sport (football…), in our job, in the economy (GDP), in technology, even in our sexual life.
It is high time we took interest in topics and people that have not attracted much media attention up till now. It is desirable that we should find delight in the little events, the small things that make up life, so that we can lessen the pathological stress levels, so as to live better and happier.
If we live happy, we will exceed our unavowed goals.