An experienced economist takes a sharp look at the state of the French nation today: the rate of unemployment has exceeded nine per cent for the past twenty years, young people are deeply worried about their future, older people are fearful of change and of delocalisation, and the anger and dissatisfaction of welfare recipients and other marginalised members of society has turned to violence.
As a French economist with a long career in the United States, Georges de Ménil is uniquely placed to provide a fresh insight into the challenges facing France today. His diagnosis results from his position as both insider and outsider.
He addresses such issues as employment and work, university education and professional training, immigration and inequality. Throughout, he denounces the short-term defence of acquired privileges, criticises the summoning of miraculous solutions and calls for an end to demagogy.

This is an original “American” look at the deadlock of the French economy, and a candid analysis of the ideological or mental limits that hinder the effective implementation of the best solutions for France’s current difficulties.

Georges de Ménil, a specialist in macroeconomics, is a professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris, and the co-founder of the review Economic Policy. He was educated at MIT and Harvard.