Daily update
Daily update
- The lower house of the French national assembly rejected the latest revenue parts of the French budget. An unaltered budget proposal now goes to the Senate. Anyone who pays attention to French fiscal matters will not be surprised—the constitution of the current (fifth) Republic, and the lack of a government majority allows for quite a lot of complex procedure before something is agreed. Something like a French government shutdown is inconceivable.
- The weekend’s G20 summit will have added to France’s budget deficit—expensive flights and accommodation for officials and politicians enjoying a weekend minibreak. The summit outcomes (worthy statements on multilateralism, etc.) could have been accomplished with a Zoom call and judicious use of Photoshop. The rise of economic nationalism, and (more broadly) prejudice politics is very unlikely to be halted by the G20.
- The German ifo business sentiment poll is due. It would be nice to be able to believe sentiment surveys were useful. ECB President Lagarde speaks at an artificial intelligence conference—European companies seem less eager to use AI as a convenient excuse for past CEO errors.
- The Dallas Fed manufacturing sentiment poll offers its always-entertaining comments section—a demonstration of the hallucinogenic qualities of watching too much partisan cable news content.