Hundreds of thousands march in France

Hundreds of thousands marched in cities across France on Saturday to protest against school underfunding, insufficient teacher numbers and dilapidated infrastructure mingled with broader cost-of-living discontent.

Energy costs driving French discontent

Fuel prices are up thirty-six percent this year in France, three times the increase in Australia. The US-Israel war on Iran has sent European gas prices soaring as winter approaches.

France's welfare state strains finances

France's high public debt, stagnant economy and universal social security benefits have created a binary situation where citizens' demands for better services clash with increasingly dire fiscal position.

France's debt reaches unsustainable levels

France has not balanced its budget since nineteen seventy-four. Total public debt as a share of the economy has swelled to nearly one hundred twenty percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Australia's debt trajectory mirrors France

Australia's total government debt is fifty-three percent of GDP.A decade ago it was forty percent, and a decade before that just under ten percent.

“If you think about trajectories, they give us an idea of where we could potentially be if we continue down this path. It's a warning signal.”

Government spending gap widens everywhere

French public spending now accounts for fifty-eight percent of the economy. Australia's total public spending is forty percent of national output, the highest outside the pandemic since nineteen ninety, at similar levels to the United…

France has exhausted its borrowing capacity

Bob Breunig, director of the ANU's Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, said France's debt was reaching levels that are unmanageable.

“All these protesters are asking the government to help them out, but the government has maxxed out the credit card.”

Bond markets signal alarm over France

France typically pays higher interest rates on ten-year debt than Germany. The gap between the two rates is now at its widest since the European debt crisis in two thousand eleven, reflecting financial markets' alarm…

Australia must have honest budget conversation

Breunig said Australia needs honest public conversation about what government can be expected to do and what it cannot, then discussion about how much that would cost and whether citizens are willing to pay for…

“We need an honest public conversation about what the government can be expected to do and what it can't, and then a conversation about how much that would cost and whether we are willing to pay for that.”