This is just fucking ridiculous


French annual inflation jumps to 17-year high

Quote :

" By AFP France's annual inflation rate jumped to a near-17-year high of 3.2 percent in March, powered by food and energy prices, the statistics institute INSEE reported Tuesday. Compared to February, French consumer prices were up 0.8 percent, their sharpest monthly surge since 1987. The annual figure for March was the highest reading since August 1991 and came after a 2.8 percent rise in February from the same month in 2007. Energy prices were up 2.7 percent in March from February and 12.7 percent compared with March 2007. Food prices gained 0.4 percent from February and 5.3 percent on the year, according to INSEE. Excluding energy French consumer prices rose an annual 2.4 percent in March. Mounting inflationary pressure in the 15-nation eurozone has preoccupied policymakers at the European Central Bank, preventing them from lowering interest rates to spur flagging growth. Eurozone consumer prices rose 3.5 percent in annual terms in March, their highest level since the creation of the euro in 1999 and well beyond the European Central Bank inflation target of just under 2.0 percent. The head of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer, on Monday said prices in the eurozone had risen to "very excessive levels, well beyond our objective for price stability.""

4/15/2008 2:50:05 PM

I don't quite understand the point you're trying to make here.

4/15/2008 2:51:37 PM

Look at frances labor laws, it is RUN by labor unions.

Not being able to be fired is FAR from capitalism.

Look at france, that is where liberals want to take us.

Unemployment in France is at almost 10 percent, and 23 percent of French citizens under 26 are jobless, one of the highest rates in Europe; in some of the major city suburbs, the figure is nearly double that.

4/15/2008 3:35:47 PM

Contracts motherfucker look into them.

4/15/2008 3:36:44 PM

Quote :

"France's annual inflation rate jumped to a near-17-year high of 3.2 percent in March, powered by food and energy prices, the statistics institute INSEE reported Tuesday."

So commodities speculators are causing the inflation, right?

Quote :

"Look at frances labor laws, it is RUN by labor unions. "

Profit is derived from labor. Why shouldn't labor have a say in how the country is run? We here in America life to vilify labor, and uplift management. What is greater for a nations stability, a labor system that favors the common man or the CEO's interests?

Quote :

"Not being able to be fired is FAR from capitalism."

Not being able to be outsourced is democracy

Quote :

"and 23 percent of French citizens under 26 are jobless"

Almost 100% of kids under 16 are jobless... they are under 26, what does that prove?

4/15/2008 3:43:27 PM

Quote :

"Almost 100% of kids under 16 are jobless... they are under 26, what does that prove?"

ftw

4/15/2008 3:49:59 PM

replace labor with machines. problem sovled

4/15/2008 4:33:29 PM

Inflation is, always and everywhere, a monetary phenomenon.

You want the source? Find the central bank.

4/15/2008 4:46:53 PM

Do any of you guys remember the riots bc of the bill that could allow companies to fire a new hire under 2 years?

Can you imagine our govt telling companies that they cant fire someone. And you call this capitalistic?

4/15/2008 5:38:52 PM

Quote :

"We here in America life [sic] to vilify labor, and uplift management."

Ya right. Corporations are much more maligned in mainstream American culture than labor groups are, despite the fact that they have roughly equal clout in politics.

There will always be disputes between labor and management. Both sides are only looking out for their best interests, and both sides are susceptible to corruption. France's pro-labor stance has screwed their economy for decades. The US's laissez-faire approach has benefited everyone, with some notable exceptions.

4/15/2008 6:04:15 PM

I hear lots of people who are fired take their employers to court in France.

If employers face a lawsuit nearly every time they have to terminate someone, don't you think they'd be less likely to hire new employees?

Students rioted in France (2006) for laws that would allow employers to let new employees under the age of 26 be fired without reason or severance pay for a reason I imagine.

4/15/2008 6:11:14 PM

Quote :

"What is greater for a nations stability, a labor system that favors the common man or the CEO's interests?"

Neither. Ideal for national stability is a system that favors consumers. Of course, this means stacking the system against both labor and CEOs, both of which represent concentrated interests and therefore are able to achieve immense political backing in their efforts to build monopolies and rob society at large for their own profit. Closed shop labor unions are rarely any different from cartels.

4/15/2008 6:40:54 PM

Quote :

"Corporations are much more maligned in mainstream American culture than labor groups are, despite the fact that they have roughly equal clout in politics."

I would like to see where they have equal clout...just because two parties are involved, does it mean they have equal say?

4/15/2008 6:46:46 PM

I told you what the ideal was and that was the ideal we Americans wanted to achieve prior to the 20th century. Whether we ever achieved it or not is a separate question. What is not in dispute is that we no longer seek equality; instead, now we all want the Government to grant us a right to the profits of others. Be it labor unions using government to restrict the rights of non-union labor to seek employment or big corporations using government to restrict the rights of competitors to compete, the outcome is the same: higher prices for everyone and higher profits for some.

[Edited on April 15, 2008 at 6:55 PM. Reason : .,.]

4/15/2008 6:54:27 PM

^^and yet i think labor unions still have way too much clout for the actual number of people they represent

but perhaps that's because i've been hanging around democratic politics for way too long

either way, i fail to see how rising inflation in a socialist country has anything to do with capitalism going to far

Quote :

"Not being able to be outsourced is democracy"

yeah - try again. that doesnt even make sense

4/15/2008 7:02:32 PM

Quote :

"Excluding energy French consumer prices rose an annual 2.4 percent in March."

you know why energy didn't??? because they are building nuclear power plants, the cheapest most efficient and environmentally sound power source of our day!

4/15/2008 7:15:42 PM

Quote :

"I would like to see where they have equal clout...just because two parties are involved, does it mean they have equal say?"

I said that corporations and unions had "roughly" equal clout in politics. Here is a list of biggest political contributors in the last 20 years or so.

Quote :

"1 American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $39,165,934 2 AT&T Inc $38,929,795 3 National Assn of Realtors $31,928,656 4 American Assn for Justice $28,539,389 5 Goldman Sachs $28,367,132 6 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $27,580,809 7 National Education Assn $27,355,449 8 Laborers Union $26,269,589 9 Service Employees International Union $25,408,993 10 Carpenters & Joiners Union $25,389,482 11 Communications Workers of America $24,817,879 12 Teamsters Union $24,773,864 13 Citigroup Inc $24,643,677 14 American Medical Assn $24,511,421 15 United Auto Workers $23,720,205 16 American Federation of Teachers $23,214,443 17 Altria Group $23,081,795 18 Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union $22,791,645 19 United Food & Commercial Workers Union $22,082,112 20 United Parcel Service $21,829,443 "

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.asp?order=A

If you notice, there are quite a few labor unions on that list. They have a lot more clout than you give them credit for. NC is not a big union state, but in places like California they basically call the shots in the legislature.

4/15/2008 8:07:47 PM

you people are idiots

4/15/2008 10:25:16 PM