It was a French politician, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who coined the time period “exorbitant privilege” within the Sixties. He was referring to advantages acquired by America as issuer of the world’s reserve forex—particularly, the power to run excessive deficits comfortably. Nowadays France is reminded it has no such privilege. Forward of parliamentary elections on June thirtieth and July seventh, its hefty deficit and rising debt are central to the marketing campaign. On June nineteenth the European Fee mentioned it was making ready to place France into an excessive-deficit process, the eu’s fiscal torture chamber, that means the nation’s politicians should give you a plan to sort things.
