Jaures
https://www.francesoir.fr[...]t-maquille-philippe-murer
"Macron's economic record is made up like a stolen car" 
17/04/2022
What is the economic record of the Macron quinquennium? To talk about it, we received on our set Philippe Murer, an economist who presents himself as a Gaullist and a sovereignist. While Economy Minister Bruno le Maire claimed in December 2021 the success of a management that would have brought France back to the time of the Thirty Glorious, Philippe Murer here denounces a falsification: "Macron's economic record is calamitous, but it is made up like a stolen car."
Philippe Murer begins this "Essential Interview" by dismantling the myth that "the economic management of Emmanuel Macron's government is the return of the Trente Glorieuses": "Factually, Emmanuel Macron has achieved 0.5% growth per year. So it's very, very far from the Trente Glorieuses with a growth of 4 or 5% per year. We have extremely low growth," explains the economist who believes that France is actually heading towards third worldization.
How is it then that Emmanuel Macron's economic record is presented as a success in the press? For Philippe Murer, it's simple: the government... is lying. To support this claim, the Swedish record: "Growth is much lower than in Sweden. Macron has burned 640 billion in debt to have 0% growth." This is proof, according to him, that the argument that the health crisis is responsible for this low growth does not hold. "Sweden has fewer deaths than France, a growth similar to ours and no increase in public debt. It is therefore the management of Covid that has been very bad, not the health crisis itself," asserts the economist.
Philippe Murer also criticizes the assertion that the president-candidate has managed to put an end to the deindustrialization of France. "When we look at the Eurostat figures, we see that France has lost 5% of its industrial production. And to denounce: "Macron falsifies, imagining that there are no serious economists who will go and look for the figures that are just in the public databases of Eurostat."
Recalling that this continued deindustrialization is also reflected in the growing trade deficit, the economist insists that the key to prosperity lies in industry: "The countries that have industry are the richest. That's where there are high wages and high productivity gains. And the wealth created by industry is then spread throughout society. A hairdresser in France is paid less than a hairdresser in Switzerland. It is thanks to Swiss industry that hairdressers in Switzerland are better paid.
Another consequence of this deindustrialization is the uberization of society, which can be seen in the increase in the number of "odd jobs." "A key element of the Macron quinquennium is that we went from 1.1 million self-employed entrepreneurs to 2.2 million. So we doubled the number of self-entrepreneurs. These are people who have really low salaries and who have the disadvantages of a business owner and the disadvantages of an employee. It's the worst of all worlds," laments Murer, who argues that this is "what allowed Macron to make it look like he had created lots of jobs and that unemployment was disappearing." In addition, he reveals some tricks employed by the government to artificially lower the unemployment curve. For example, 400,000 French people would still be on short-time work without being counted as job seekers.
Despite the praise heard for Emmanuel Macron's five-year term, reality eventually catches up with the narrative, as our guest details, "There are still incredible polls: 20% of people skip a meal a day and a third of people give up on healthcare because they no longer have enough money at the end of the month. That's what the Yellow Vests who took to the streets were saying. And [the impoverishment] continues: over 2021, people have had salary increases that are far below inflation."
The opportunity for him to also attack a key measure of the program of the president-candidate: the postponement of the retirement age to 65 years. According to him, "there is absolutely no need to make this pension reform". To demonstrate his point of view, he uses several arguments. First of all, according to an Ifop poll for the JDD, "77% of French people are opposed to it". Then, the deficit of the pension budget very low: 2.5 billion, with 2.5 billion budget surplus in the complementary pension scheme. "So we are globally in balance. And there are 150 billion euros in reserves in the pension reserve fund," he said. In addition, "at 62, half of the French are unemployed. So how can we ask them to go to 65 years?" the economist wonders, before pointing to a contradiction of the executive: "When we spent 650 billion euros of debt for an absurd management of Covid, how can we say that it is absolutely necessary to make a reform of the pension system to save a few billion?"
The sovereignist also warns about the brain drain abroad, the damage of inflation, and the decline in purchasing power that will be accompanied by a recession, since households will not be able to consume, due to lack of money.
"This is not a permanent situation".
Philippe Murer
"Macron's economic record is made up like a stolen car" 17/04/2022
What is the economic record of the Macron quinquennium? To talk about it, we received on our set Philippe Murer, an economist who presents himself as a Gaullist and a sovereignist. While Economy Minister Bruno le Maire claimed in December 2021 the success of a management that would have brought France back to the time of the Thirty Glorious, Philippe Murer here denounces a falsification: "Macron's economic record is calamitous, but it is made up like a stolen car."
Philippe Murer begins this "Essential Interview" by dismantling the myth that "the economic management of Emmanuel Macron's government is the return of the Trente Glorieuses": "Factually, Emmanuel Macron has achieved 0.5% growth per year. So it's very, very far from the Trente Glorieuses with a growth of 4 or 5% per year. We have extremely low growth," explains the economist who believes that France is actually heading towards third worldization.
How is it then that Emmanuel Macron's economic record is presented as a success in the press? For Philippe Murer, it's simple: the government... is lying. To support this claim, the Swedish record: "Growth is much lower than in Sweden. Macron has burned 640 billion in debt to have 0% growth." This is proof, according to him, that the argument that the health crisis is responsible for this low growth does not hold. "Sweden has fewer deaths than France, a growth similar to ours and no increase in public debt. It is therefore the management of Covid that has been very bad, not the health crisis itself," asserts the economist.
Philippe Murer also criticizes the assertion that the president-candidate has managed to put an end to the deindustrialization of France. "When we look at the Eurostat figures, we see that France has lost 5% of its industrial production. And to denounce: "Macron falsifies, imagining that there are no serious economists who will go and look for the figures that are just in the public databases of Eurostat."
Recalling that this continued deindustrialization is also reflected in the growing trade deficit, the economist insists that the key to prosperity lies in industry: "The countries that have industry are the richest. That's where there are high wages and high productivity gains. And the wealth created by industry is then spread throughout society. A hairdresser in France is paid less than a hairdresser in Switzerland. It is thanks to Swiss industry that hairdressers in Switzerland are better paid.
Another consequence of this deindustrialization is the uberization of society, which can be seen in the increase in the number of "odd jobs." "A key element of the Macron quinquennium is that we went from 1.1 million self-employed entrepreneurs to 2.2 million. So we doubled the number of self-entrepreneurs. These are people who have really low salaries and who have the disadvantages of a business owner and the disadvantages of an employee. It's the worst of all worlds," laments Murer, who argues that this is "what allowed Macron to make it look like he had created lots of jobs and that unemployment was disappearing." In addition, he reveals some tricks employed by the government to artificially lower the unemployment curve. For example, 400,000 French people would still be on short-time work without being counted as job seekers.
Despite the praise heard for Emmanuel Macron's five-year term, reality eventually catches up with the narrative, as our guest details, "There are still incredible polls: 20% of people skip a meal a day and a third of people give up on healthcare because they no longer have enough money at the end of the month. That's what the Yellow Vests who took to the streets were saying. And [the impoverishment] continues: over 2021, people have had salary increases that are far below inflation."
The opportunity for him to also attack a key measure of the program of the president-candidate: the postponement of the retirement age to 65 years. According to him, "there is absolutely no need to make this pension reform". To demonstrate his point of view, he uses several arguments. First of all, according to an Ifop poll for the JDD, "77% of French people are opposed to it". Then, the deficit of the pension budget very low: 2.5 billion, with 2.5 billion budget surplus in the complementary pension scheme. "So we are globally in balance. And there are 150 billion euros in reserves in the pension reserve fund," he said. In addition, "at 62, half of the French are unemployed. So how can we ask them to go to 65 years?" the economist wonders, before pointing to a contradiction of the executive: "When we spent 650 billion euros of debt for an absurd management of Covid, how can we say that it is absolutely necessary to make a reform of the pension system to save a few billion?"
The sovereignist also warns about the brain drain abroad, the damage of inflation, and the decline in purchasing power that will be accompanied by a recession, since households will not be able to consume, due to lack of money.
"This is not a permanent situation".
Philippe Murer
