Lemoine explains why he doesn't expect a Greek-style crisis to force reform in France. Its current account is roughly balanced, so retirees end up financing the state's deficit through life insurance and treasury bonds. He expects inflation and financial repression rather than austerity.
…of like high schools that are burning, including brand new high schools, which makes the claims that this is about having their elite equipment kind of ridiculous, but whatever. And this will enrage a lot of voters. And this will be good for the natural rally. So, you know, the idea that this
…the pensioners to a great extent. I don't think any of your political parties have a big reform program. My understanding is Le Pen's party is not. That radical when it comes to economics. What is the path forward? Is there a path forward? Will Europe just slowly decay and desiccate? I don't know.
…to this. Like you can have inflate, you know, this still requires like a lot of political courage. And also we're not Greece. You know, the reason why Greece had no choice is because Greece was massively dependent on the external world in a way France isn't. Like, you know, our current account is about balance in France. We don't depend on the other world. What's happening is that we don't, France doesn't live above its means. The French government lives above it. That's a different thing. Essentially, what we're doing is that we're running massive public deficits largely to give benefits to old people. And then those old people actually save a lot of money, which is paradoxical. They have, at this point, a higher saving rates than people in the workforce. And so those old people to their life insurance and that kind of stuff, they finance the state deficit that was created to provide them benefits by buying those financial products that ultimately are based on treasury bonds and stuff like that. So we're kind of like in this absurd situation. But this means I think…
value, the nominal value.
So inflation, financial repression also sounds like harmless. Basically, what you do is that you can force banks and other financial institutions to buy your bonds, your treasury bonds at low interest rates. And it's very easy to be demagogic about this. You can tell people, look, it's only the…
I will say France's economic problems that you're talking about, not just limited to France, this boomer problem, the gerontocracy. I did a podcast about this. You know, might not be as extreme as in France here in the United States, but we've got some issues, some of the same problems and same…