Acting out of the health crisis, projecting oneself into the aftermath. Three days after the first round of regional elections to the air of snub for her party, and just before receiving Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who came to announce the green light from Brussels to finance part of the plan of French stimulus, the Head of State was given, Wednesday, June 23, a report on “The great economic challenges” from the country. Written under the supervision of Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Jean Tirole, 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics and professor at the School of Economics of Toulouse, this document of more than 500 pages presents recommendations on three themes: climate change, the reduction of inequalities and adaptation to the aging of the population.
After that of the Arthuis commission on the debt, in mid-March, then that of the Court of Auditors on public finances, on June 15, this report is the last in a series of work by economic experts that Emmanuel Macron wanted take advantage when entering the last year of his five-year term.
“Political procrastination”
Difficult, however, to say what the head of state could keep in concrete terms. Both because the tone of the report remains distinctly academic, and because the Elysée is particularly silent on what will happen to it, contenting itself with welcoming “An important contribution to the public debate”. “This is not at all the Attali report [remis à Nicolas Sarkozy en 2008], that delivered ready-made conclusions. There, we are talking about economic dogma ”, do we justify.
“On our three subjects of study, the effects of political procrastination are delayed over time, which makes it possible to avoid annoying measures, such as for example a sufficient price for carbon, or the increase in age. of retirement “, indicates for his part Mr. Tirole, who specifies the importance of “Reflect on the acceptability of reforms”.
Composed of 26 international economists, the commission brings together both French people such as Jean Pisani-Ferry and Philippe Aghion, who inspired the economic program of En Marche in 2017, or Laurence Boone, chief economist of the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD) and former adviser to François Hollande. But also the American Larry Summers, Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton, or Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize in economics 2008, ranked on the left.
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