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The Economist’s editorial opinion on the second round of the French election is a bit unsubtle. The title “The rather dangerous Monsieur Hollande” and sub-head “The Socialist who is likely to be the next French president would be bad for his country and Europe” tell you all you might need to know about how the editors of this dull magazine really feel about the prospect of a left-of-center government in France.
To scare the readers, the editorial notes of this dangerous man that “By his own calculations, his proposals would splurge an extra €20 billion over five years. The state would grow even bigger.”
I asked our friend, Mr. Arithmetic, what he thought about this “splurge”. His answer was that “€20 billion is between one tenth and two tenths of one percent of France’s GDP over the next five years, according to the latest IMF projections.”
Mr. Arithmetic says that this isn’t much of a “splurge,” and that it will be hard for anyone to notice that the state is “even bigger.”
(Thanks to Anita Kirpalani for flagging the editorial).