Is it the hour of reckoning for France?

When the U.S. and British banking systems faced meltdown almost exactly three years ago, our neighbours in France indulged in a spate of schadenfreude.

While catastrophe stalked Wall Street and Threadneedle Street, the French patronisingly attributed the chaos to the ‘Anglo-Saxon model’ — a reference to this country’s and America’s belief in free markets as opposed to the stateist economics so beloved by the French.

Yesterday, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, downgraded the creditworthiness of two French banks — Societe Generale and Credit Agricole — and told a third, BNP Paribas, that it is being kept under review.

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The problem is the French don’t like paying taxes and have a historic predilection for going to the barricades when any of their ministers try to impose cuts.

For a French government which is already seriously overdrawn, la vie en rose is starting to look decidedly noire.

But then France has long had a political culture rooted in the avoidance of reality. Full story...

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