The new free world

The past week has seen some pretty important changes in the political map:

1.  Former Chancellor George Osborne has described Theresa May as a “dead woman walking”, after her humiliating performance against the pathetic Jermey Corbyn, which involved blowing a 20 point lead in just a few weeks, and also losing her majority in Parliament.  (Thank God PCism is less extreme in the UK.  In humorless America that would have been taken as an assassination threat, and Osborne would have been forced to apologize.)

2.  Emmanuel Macron won a massive victory in the first round of the legislative elections, and is set to have a huge majority in the Assembly.  This gives him a powerful mandate for change:

One key plank of Macron’s vision is the controversial labor-market overhaul that he has promised to deliver by mid-September. With the French economy lagging its peers, the president also wants to change tax rates and fix inequalities in the pension system. He’s already started to revamp French intelligence services after terrorists claimed more than 200 lives since the beginning of 2015.

After campaigning on his plan to simplify France’s labor code, the president began a round of initial meetings with union leaders within 10 days of taking office on May 14. Those talks will get under way in earnest after the second-round vote as the government seeks common ground for reworking the country’s byzantine labor rules.

Macron wants individual companies to negotiate wages rather than being bound by industry-wide agreements. He has argued that a more flexible labor market would help boost growth and win the trust of France’s European partners, above all Germany.

Historic Opportunity

For at least two decades, French unions have opposed such efforts, emphasizing job protection instead, but a week from now, Macron may find himself in a stronger position than any French president for a generation. With a majority in parliament and hundreds of lawmakers who are completely new to politics, the president would hold extensive control over the levers of government.

“This victory will no doubt go down as one of the great electoral achievements in our country’s recent history,” said Bruno Cautres, a politics professor at Sciences Po who works with pollster BVA.

It remans to be seen how much he can accomplish—previous governments tended to back off after street protests.

Of course the Trump wing of American conservatism favored LePen, who promised to make France even more socialist. Yes, that’s how much they dislike dark-skinned people.

3.  With Trump kissing up to dictators and insulting our traditional allies, and the UK Conservatives in disarray over Brexit, Merkel and Macron are the new leaders of the free world.  At least until Trump leaves office, and America regains its dominant position.


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14 Responses to “The new free world”

  1. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    12. June 2017 at 09:28

    Some more embarrassing statist Trump-bashing from Sumner. Meanwhile those of us who aren’t in the thrall of #fakenews just learned that Wikileaks has a major new set of documents ready to drop proving that Hillary Clinton does indeed run a pedophile ring (the pizza place was a distraction cooked up by the DNC).

    Stay tuned!

  2. Gravatar of Carl Carl
    12. June 2017 at 11:18

    I read recently that Trump is making the left reconsider the merits of federalism. In other words, Trump may actually end up increasing the level of freedom in the US, albeit inadvertently.

  3. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    12. June 2017 at 12:21

    “Of course the Trump wing of American conservatism favored LePen, who promised to make France even more socialist. Yes, that’s how much they dislike dark-skinned people.”

    LePen did not promise to make France *more* socialist. You’re mistaking her for Macron.

    LePen promised increased border protection, and it has nothing to do with skin color, but with the predominant ideology of people from certain parts of the world. She was against female oppression, including the forced wearing of certain clothes, obeying husbands, etc.

    Sumner you’re just race baiting, another low for this cesspool of a blog.

  4. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    12. June 2017 at 12:25

    “Merkel and Macron are the new leaders of the free world.”

    No, they’re only leaders of Germany and France, respectively. And Trump is only leader of the US.

    The “free world” is not a country or even a location on Earth, it is a silly platitude to make it seem like they are dictators of the world.

    Merkel and Macron are kissing up to dictators alright, don’t kid yourself, from the Islamo-fascist countries of the world. Look at the money flows.

    US Presidents kissing up to dictators has been par for the course since the end of WW2.

    Confirmation bias much?

  5. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    12. June 2017 at 12:38

    Carl, All clouds have a silver lining.

  6. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    12. June 2017 at 13:17

    Whistleblower says CIA spied on Supreme Court justices, Trump, and 20 million other Americans using FBI computers

    http://archive.is/Xiv8U

  7. Gravatar of Cooper Cooper
    12. June 2017 at 13:52

    Major.Freedom seems to be unfamiliar with the political positions of the National Front.

    “Under her leadership, Marine Le Pen has been more clear in her support for protectionism, while she has criticised globalism and capitalism for certain industries. She has been characterised as a proponent of letting the government take care of health, education, transportation, banking and energy.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Front_(France)#Economy

  8. Gravatar of jb jb
    13. June 2017 at 02:24

    The English speaking world is confused and doesn’t know what it wants. Or at least the US and the UK are. Australia has been confused about what it wants for ten years, but now seems to be holding on by the tips of its fingers.

  9. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    13. June 2017 at 07:08

    Cooper, I am well aware that any opinion about anything can be found on the Internet.

    Anyone of political popularity has been “characterized” in one way or another by someone.

    You need to up your research game.

  10. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    13. June 2017 at 07:10

    Interestingly nothing in that quote is any different from Macron’s policies. Governments controlling roads, healthcare, banking, etc has been par for the course in France for many decades.

  11. Gravatar of Chuck Chuck
    13. June 2017 at 08:50

    “(Thank God PCism is less extreme in the UK. In humorless America that would have been taken as an assassination threat, and Osborne would have been forced to apologize.)”

    Hmmmm…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/09/nazi-pug-man-arrested-after-teaching-girlfriends-dog-to-perform/

  12. Gravatar of Willy2 Willy2
    15. June 2017 at 08:58

    – Le Pen making France “more socialist” ??? Who dreamt up this kind of nonsense ?

    -Off topic: The real estate bubble in Australia is about to pop or already deflating:

    http://www.couriermail.com.au/realestate/this-is-where-rents-have-fallen-the-most-across-greater-brisbane/news-story/926dd3e10f6e312bbdadd571948bb61e

    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/04/abc-wa-economicproperty-bust

    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/06/brisbane-apartment-sales-collapse

  13. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    16. June 2017 at 05:02

    Willy2, Obviously you’ve never read her platform. It’s non stop expansion of government in one area after another, including huge increases in public spending and opposition to free trade.

    As for Australia, what happened to your earlier claims—years ago—that the bubble was already bursting? Don’t you owe me an apology? I’ll give you this, however, if you predict a decline in Australian house prices from now until the end of time, then eventually you will be right. That’s because markets go up and down. That’s how they work.

  14. Gravatar of Willy2 Willy2
    17. June 2017 at 10:56

    – No, LePen is NOT a socialist by ANY stretch of the imagination, but the ultra right and the ultra left have – at least – one thing in common. They all want more (state) control over the economy.

    – Agree, I was way too early when I predicted a “downturn” in the Australian housing was coming.
    – Apologize ? If I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that because it’s not coming any time soon.

    But the TRULY excellent australian website MACROBUSINESS predicts that the australian housing market and with it the australian economy is going to experience a downturn/to tank in about 6 months time. And a crash.

    – I can STRONGLY recommend to visit the australian website MACROBUSINESS every now and then.
    Weblink:
    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/

    – If you want to know why Japan went through an economic boom and a bust in the 1980s then read Harry S. Dent’s work on the relationship between demographics and the economy.
    That same demographic scenario is now playing out – with a delay of some 20 years – here in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. Dent is quite adament: Markets (including the australian housing market) are going to crash.

    Harry Dent’s work shows that your assertion that markets “go and down” is completely nonsense. THere’s a pattern and Dent can explain that. Perhaps yo can invite Dent to come and speak in your neighbourhood (in Bentley, Boston, Mass. ?) Or GOOGLE it !!!! I’m sure there a number of good YOUTUBE videos in which Dent explains his views.

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