Moody’s must have it in for France. Sure, its economy is moribund. Sure, its trade unions are among the most intransigent in the world. But surely the socialist government deserves some credit for one of the most significant reforms in 200 years.
Until this summer, the government controlled when bakers of France’s beloved baguettes – crusty on the outside, like the French themselves, softer on the inside, unlike the French themselves – might close shop and head off on vacation, the goal being to make certain that no more than half of these bakeries close at the same time. That regulation was put into effect in 1790, one year after a spike in bread prices was one of the principal causes of the French Revolution. And until 1986 the price of bread was fixed by the government.
Now the socialist government had decreed that bakers can decide when to shut down, despite objections from many Frenchmen and women who say they were forced to rely on, ugh, sliced bread from, ugh, a supermarket. But these résistants are a fading breed: Sales of cellophane-wrapped, sliced bread without crusts, marketed under the brand name “Harry’s” and promoted as “American sandwich” of “American inspiration” to reflect “modernity and liberty”, are booming, according to The Economist. It seems this bread keeps better than the traditional baguette.
Despite the courageous deregulation of the bread market, and the unimpeded growth of new entrants and new forms of the staff of life, Moody’s refuses to give France’s socialist government credit for this major structural reform of its economy – partial repeal of an ancient regulation: Bakers still are told which weekday they can take off, and, reports the Financial Times, to be declared a boulangerie the dough must be kneaded, shaped and baked on the premises.
That might be because the ratings agency noticed that the government’s infatuation with deregulation is not even skin deep. French regulators are trying to put Uber out of business lest taxi drivers again tie up Paris traffic by burning tires to protest the company’s attempt to make life easier for Parisians, who have until now been forced to rely on cab drivers not famous for their welcoming manner. Uber offered to drop one of its two services – the one that uses non-professional drivers – but was told by Interior Minister Bernard Casaneuve, “You have made a mockery of the French Republic. There can be no conditions whatever. There is simply the law to respect. Period.” It is not known whether monsieur le ministre has an official car available to him. This official resistance to change, which included police detention and questioning of two Uber executives, comes despite a glowing report on Uber service by the FT's Simon Kuper, “Online ratings are helping to bring about change. When you take an uber taxi here [in Paris], you have the otherworldly experience of the smiling driver getting out to great you, and handing your children sweets, whereas Parisian taxi drivers traditionally go purple with apoplexy at the sight of kids.” Of course, Parisian rudeness was anyhow in decline. A survey earlier this year found that the portion of travelers witnessing “incivility”, which a year ago stood at 97% has plunged to 95%.
France seems to be shedding its historic baguette baggage more easily than Germany is shedding its historic attitudes towards those of its neighbors who don’t appreciate the importance of not upsetting it. In a major retreat from its EU-nations-without-borders position, Germany realized that it had to do something to stem the tide of refugees it had invited by promising a warm welcome – housing, jobs and other benefits. But chancellor Angela Merkel, probably the most powerful European politician with the possible exception of the more thrusting Vladimir Putin, was not happy with Germany’s neighbors, who did not see the advantage to their countries of welcoming tens of thousands of Muslims, not a group that experience suggests is easily assimilable -- or without a disproportionate share of terrorists, actual and wanabee. So Germany inviting millions of Syrians to partake of the joys of European life, but overwhelmed by the response, Germany closed its borders, without notifying its neighbors, and refused to return their calls when they realized what had happened. “It is punishment by non-communication,” a Czech official told the FT. Mild compared to long-ago displays of displeasure by another powerful German chancellor with what was then Czechoslovakia.
While Europe dithers in the face of a refugee crisis, Barack Obama, shedding his usual Hamlet-like response to crises, promptly leaped unto the breach with a pledge to admit perhaps 100,000 Muslim refugees. John Kerry rushed to assure us that the vetting process will keep out terrorists, who are in any event unlikely to settle in the neighborhoods of his homes in Georgetown; Ketchum, Idaho; Nantucket; or Beacon Hill, Boston. Vetting of refugees, many of whom have destroyed their passports or have no papers due to losses at home, will probably be conducted by Homeland Security, which failed 67 of 70 attempts to detect explosive and weapons carried onto airplanes by inspectors.