Yesterday, we cited Germany’s epic financial woes, and now France is on the brink. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou faces a vote of no confidence in Parliament on September 8. If his government falls, as seems likely, his Finance Minister Eric Lombard says the nation’s public debt crisis may force it to seek a humiliating bailout from the International Monetary Fund. This is like the financial equivalent of being put on a respirator during Covid.

Bayrou has just promised tax hikes on the rich. “Tax breaks that mainly benefit the wealthiest families and big groups will be abolished whenever they are considered unjust or useless.”

The last thing France needs now is a tax increase. The wealthy in France are endlessly finding ways to deprive the state of the revenue it hopes to get from higher taxes. Often that’s by leaving Paris behind.  Meanwhile, a tax hike would only exacerbate the nation’s high 7.8% unemployment rate – which is almost double the U.S. rate of 4.2%.