It took a while but after years of socialistic economic policies, many political and business leaders in France are having a change of heart based on this NPR report:

“ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: The major players of the French economy gathered this week outside Paris for the annual meeting of the country’s principal business lobby – the MEDEF. From corporate CEOs to entrepreneurs, this crowd thinks it knows what’s ailing the French economy – too many regulations and taxes. But the main barrier to job creation, they say, is the rigid French labor code. Sixty-five-year-old Armand Carlier is the CEO of an aeronautical equipment maker.”

“ARMAND CARLIER: You just can’t get rid of anybody in the company nowadays without being sued in court and paying lots of indemnities. So you are very reluctant to contract and to hire new guys, which is totally absurd, you know.”

And French President Francois Holland is making changes in his cabinet too:

“BEARDSLEY: Hollande confirmed his tact to the right this week when he fired his left-leaning economy minister, Arnaud Montebourg, for criticizing the government’s economic policies. Hollande replaced him with Emmanuel Macron, a young former investment banker and confirmed free-market capitalist.”

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls appears to resonate with this tact to the Right.

“BEARDSLEY: Speaking at the business forum, Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France has to break with old attitudes that are killing the country’s competitiveness and sapping its moral.”

“VALLS: (Through translator) Who says the left has to be against the corporate world? No, the employer does not have to be against the worker, and unions and bosses don’t have to be systematically opposed to each other.”

“BEARDSLEY: Valls called on France to support its businesses and make the economy stronger for everyone. He got a standing ovation. Jacque Chanut is head of the French Builders Association.”

“JACQUE CHANUT: (Through translator) To hear a Socialist leader to make such a pro-business speech is incredible. I think mentalities are finally changing. At last, there’s the possibility of real reform.”

Wow! I’m excited to hear a Western government making a shift to Free Market economic policies and I hope this rubs off on other Western countries like the United States.

It’s sad to say but I think the leaders of France are more pro business than the leaders of the US.

Before Obama took office, nobody, including me, would’ve ever said this. But the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate for the next decade shows what 5-1/2 years of Team Obama has brought on the US. From the Wall-Street Journal:

“The CBO revised downward its economic growth projections for 2014 to 1.5% from 3.1%, which was hardly a bombshell given that real gross domestic product has increased by only 1.05% so far this year.”

The US economy has typically rebounded in magnitudes equivalent to the previous recession (large recessions are followed by big recoveries) but that has not happened yet.

We’re still waiting for this and meanwhile taxes are being raised on the job creators.

Here’s the reason corporations are shipping jobs overseas.

“Tax receipts will rise smartly this year, climbing 8% over 2013 to $3.01 trillion, led by a 15% increase in corporate income tax revenue and 6% among individuals.”

Entitlement spending is going through the roof.

“The major budget driver now is Medicaid, which will surge by 15% on ObamaCare’s expansion of that program. The figure would be still higher had not 23 states opted out to protect the integrity of their own budgets.”

“Some 85 cents of every increased dollar of spending over the next 10 years will flow to entitlements, mainly health care. Medicare, Medicaid and ObamaCare will rise to 5.9% of GDP from 4.9% today. All other spending except for these programs, Social Security and interest on the debt will grow by 20% but fall to the lowest share of GDP since 1940. So everything else the government is supposed to do—defend the country, fund basic research, build roads and bridges, and even the basic social safety net like unemployment insurance—is being crowded out by these income transfers.”

Our national debt is growing at a faster pace.

“…the debt problem hasn’t gone away. The Obama spending binge and slow growth have brought debt held by the public to 74.4% of the economy this year, up from 72% last year and 35% as recently as 2007. The debt-to-GDP ratio will rise to 77.2% a decade out”

Pitiful GDP growth, higher taxes, rising entitlement spending and ballooning debts – These are the results of 5-1/2 years of Obama.

God help us because we have 2-1/2 more years of this.

If only our leaders were as economically intelligent as the French.

Man, I can’t believe I just typed that.