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Is the crisis in Catalonia due to over-centralization and the intransigeance of the authorities in Madrid? Or is it instead due to generalized competition between regions and countries rivalling with each other, each pursuing their own interests, a process which has already gone much too far both in Spain and in Europe? Let’s take a step backwards. To explain the tougher pro-independence stand, reference is often made to the decision by the Spanish constitutional tribunal in 2010 to...

To date the debate on the 2018 budget in France has concentrated on the question of tax gifts to the most wealthy. De facto, the abolition of the wealth tax and the measures in favour of top dividends and interests will cost the State budget over 5 billion euros. But it is also important to insist on the other side of the coin, in other words the losers in the 2018 budget and, in particular, on the young people sacrificed as a consequence of the fall in student expenditure per capita...

Let it be said at once: the suppression of the wealth tax (Impôt sur la Fortune or ISF) constitutes a serious moral, economic and historical mistake. This decision reveals a profound misunderstanding of the challenges to inequality posed by globalisation. Let’s go back for a moment. During the first globalisation period between 1870 and 1914, a strong international movement gradually took shape which sought to promote a new type of redistribution and taxation. Based on a progressive...

Partager cet article What should we think of the reform of the Labour Code defended by the government? The key measure, and also the one which is most highly criticized, consists in capping the compensation payments for unfair dismissal at one month’s salary per annum per year of seniority (and half a month for each year worked beyond 10 years). In other words, an employer can freely dismiss an employee who has spent over 10 years in the firm, without having to establish the...

Yet another deferral! The government of Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe had already announced the postponement of the deduction of income tax at source till 2019 for totally opportunist reasons. The risk is that this elementary reform in tax modernisation, awaited in France for decades, may finally never see the light of day, even though the scheme was all ready to come into operation in January 2018. The government has now announced the postponement until 2019 of the replacement...

Partager cet article With over 350 seats, the MPs elected on the « La république en marche » (LREM) ticket will have an overwhelming majority in the Assemblée Nationale (Parliament). Will they use it to be in the forefront of reform and renewal of French politics? Or will they simply play a passive role, rubber stamping and obediently voting the texts that the government sends them? It happens that they will shortly be faced with their first real-life test with the question of...

Partager cet article Is Trump a UFO in American history or can he be seen as the continuation of long-term trends? While we have no desire to deny “Donald’s” obvious specificities, including his inimitable art of the tweet, we do have to admit that elements of continuity prevail. The tax agenda which he has just tabled in Congress is eloquent. It can be summed up in two central measures: reduction of federal income tax on corporate profits from 35% to 15% (a rate which Trump...

Partager cet article Will the election of Emmanuel Macron enable France to relaunch itself and revive Europe? We would like to think so but this is not guaranteed. The new president does have some good insights but the overall impression is of a programme in draft version and somewhat opportunist. The most promising project is the modernisation and unification of our social protection. In France more than elsewhere, our social system has been constructed in stages with layers of...

Partager cet article A long-standing legend has it that France is a profoundly egalitarian country which has miraculously escaped the sharp rise in inequality observed elsewhere. If so, how can we explain the anxiety provoked by globalisation and by Europe which is expressed so forcefully in this presidential campaign? In the first instance by recognising that  this great national myth of France as egalitarian and an exception to the rule is grossly exaggerated and, secondly,...

Partager cet article This blog post was first published by Stephanie Hennette, Thomas Piketty, Guillaume Sacriste and Antoine Vauchez on the Verfassungsblog (an international forum on constitutional and legal issues) on March 26 2017. We are really grateful that the Verfassungsblog has been one of the very first forums engaging the discussion on the Treaty on the democratization of the governance of the euro area (T-Dem). While the proposal has emerged in the framework of the...