Why Europe Does Not Grow
(8/30/2005)
In France they call it “Economic Patrioism.”
In case anybody is wondering how France is faring on the global competition for capital to feed growth, here’s an example from today’s Daily Deal:
The French government, in a new policy that has already drawn fire from European Union regulators, plans to create a list of companies to be protected from foreign takeover and permit targeted French companies to adopt anti-takeover defenses allowed in the bidder’s own country. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in fact, coined the term “economic patriotism” to describe the government’s hostile response to rumors in July that U.S. rival PepsiCo Inc. would acquire French food giant Danone SA.
The French government then trumped themselves in the stupid policy department by requesting that pension funds, banks, and insurers direct their investments toward his list of “strategic” industries.
Sure wouldn’t want all that yoghurt to fall into the wrong hands.
Thereby, they have cleverly insured that French workers will have neither a job nor a pension account to live on.
Sacre bleu!