dagblog - Comments for "France's "Bernie" surges w 5 days left"

Putin/Putain - let's call the

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 23 Apr 2017 07:32:00 +0000

In reply to France's "Bernie" surges w 5 days left

Putin/Putain - let's call the whole thing off...

You can read his resume and

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 12:52:51 +0000

In reply to Could a Leftist Bring Growth

You can read his resume and pretty well write the article (I looked at some other recent articles to confirm). I'm getting more and more cynical with all this.

Could a Leftist Bring Growth

artappraiser — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 12:03:18 +0000

In reply to France's "Bernie" surges w 5 days left

Could a Leftist Bring Growth Back to France?

Op-Ed by Mark Weisbrot @ NYTimes.com, April 20

Some dismiss Jean-Luc Mélenchon as a far-left populist. That’s a mistake.

About Weisbrot from Wikipedia:

Mark Weisbrot is an American economist, columnist and co-director, with Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. His writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo. He is a regular columnist at The Hill (newspaper) and with Tribune Content Agency.[1] Weisbrot is also president of Just Foreign Policy, a non-governmental organization dedicated to reforming United States foreign policy.[2]

As an economist, Weisbrot has opposed privatization of the United States Social Security system and has been critical of neoliberal globalization and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He has supported efforts by South American governments to create a Bank of the South, in order to make them more independent of the IMF. Weisbrot's work on Latin American countries (including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela) has attracted national and international attention, and in 2008 was cited by Brazilian Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim.[3] His work on Greece’s ongoing debt crisis has influenced the debate[4] over what measures the Greek government should take in negotiating a solution with the European Central Bank, European Commission, and the IMF, including with Greece’s former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis[5] and current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.[6]

Yeah, originally from CNN,

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 12:34:37 +0000

In reply to Ah - found the 400'000 Euro

Yeah, originally from CNN, but they blew the conversion (I'd thought it was simply 30K euros/month, though from the online calculator, it looks like after 360K it's 93% on overage - maybe a small bit of grace, or another 7% tax I'm not seeing.

Ah - found the 400'000 Euro

Obey — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 11:51:51 +0000

In reply to Got any links for the bullet

Ah - found the 400'000 Euro income cap policy. Unlike the 4 day work week, here it is pretty much black and white in the text. yikes.

https://laec.fr/section/36/faire-la-revolution-fiscale

Got any links for the bullet

Obey — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 11:42:28 +0000

In reply to He seems to be gunning for

Got any links for the bullet points?

I don't see cutting the work week in his programme. Only an extension of annual vacation days from 25 to 30

https://laec.fr/section/28/reduire-le-temps-de-travail-travailler-moins-pour-travailler-tous

And I don't see a cap on salaries, only a limitation to 1-20 ratio between lowest and highest salaries in a given company.

https://laec.fr/section/29/instaurer-un-salaire-maximum-autorise-pour-les-dirigeants-d-entreprise

Don't want to waste your time, but if you have a good reliable recap of his economic programme, do pass it on.

100% tax on income over 360K€

artappraiser — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 11:40:05 +0000

In reply to He seems to be gunning for

100% tax on income over 360K€

Wow, I thought this can't be real, and I looked it up and it is! (Except CNN says €400,000) Might as well be campaigning on "off with their heads!" So those responsible for this surge in popularity are all looking for a workers' paradise?

impressed with your grasp of

artappraiser — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 10:55:16 +0000

In reply to A bit too simplistic. Macron

impressed with your grasp of the situation, thanks for spending time putting together all the links.

He seems to be gunning for

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 09:54:02 +0000

In reply to I'd take this perspective on

He seems to be gunning for the "extreme" title:

100% tax on income over 360K€

Cut France's working week to four days
More vacation days for workers
Raise minimum wage by 16%
Increase the tax on inherited wealth
Abandon nuclear power; 100% renewable energy by 2050
No new free trade agreements
Leave NATO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization
Nationalize French energy company EDF and gas provider Eng

Probably exit from the Euro since his devaluation & other demands not likely to happen.

His admiration for Chavez, Mao & other populist hardline heroes of the left is disconcerting (I actually liked Chavez, but we can see his corrupt, incompetent successor as the problem with the benign flamboyant king approach). He's also rather dismissive of the religious connection to various recent French atrocities, which may make him attractive to Muslims, but at the expense of treating the crisis seriously.

I'd take this perspective on

Obey — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 07:16:07 +0000

In reply to France's "Bernie" surges w 5 days left

I'd take this perspective on Melenchon with a grain of salt.

It is written by a Macron backer, the former Le Monde editor. Melenchon has been around for decades, and it is a bit surprising to see him break through so suddenly and so late in his career. But he is riding the wave of Corbyn-Sanders socialist chic that the kids are lapping up these days. Nougayrède warps a bit Melenchon's actual platform and his words in this piece, imho. His anti-german rhetoric is a pretty standard and correct critique of ECB monetary policy, effectively run by the Bundesbank, that favors the German economy over that of France and southern Europe. His economic policies look like a package of mainstream Piketty-endorsed initiatives and reforms. The comments about 'annexation' of East Germany have more to do with the East Germans discontent with the destruction of their social safety net aftet 1990 than dark intimations of a new Nazi revival. Sure, he doesn't see globalisation with the doe-eyed affection that Macron does, but it does not make him an Ersatz Le Pen. Feels like a smear piece to me.