France: Debt and Disorder

Writing about the growing market jitters over the state of France’s finances in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, Stacy Meichtry and Chelsey Dulaney pointed to, among other factors, “concerns that France has become so ungovernable that its political system can no longer take corrective action.”

News of the disorder in Paris and other French cities, let alone the images of the destruction of the town hall in Limoges, over 200 miles southwest of the French capital, will not ease those concerns. The trouble may have begun with protests over school conditions, but the scale of the disturbances that have ensued are, to say the least, evidence of profound dysfunction and are hardly likely to encourage the current French government to cut back on spending.

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Andrew Stuttaford

Andrew Stuttaford is the editor of National Review's Capital Matters.

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Writing about the growing market jitters over the state of France’s finances in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, Stacy Meichtry and Chelsey Dulaney pointed to, among other factors, “concerns that France has become so ungovernable that its political system can no longer take corrective action.”

News of the disorder in Paris and other French cities, let alone the images of the destruction of the town hall in Limoges, over 200 miles southwest of the French capital, will not ease those concerns. The trouble may have begun with protests over school conditions, but the scale of the disturbances that have ensued are, to say the least, evidence of profound dysfunction and are hardly likely to encourage the current French government to cut back on spending.