Opinion of Emmanuel Macron

[parochial boy]

Neutral, my natural inclination to dislike him is somewhat countered by the fact that he might just prevent Fillon or Le Pen winning, which seemed far too much to hope for just a month ago.

[parochial boy]

Examples of his horrendous policies?

He is, strictly speaking, a centrist. "Moderate hero" is a term used to delegitimize and derogate centrism as an ideology in general. The left and the right have both commonly feared centrism because of its widespread appeal and the fact that it works. Macron supports repeal of actual red tape, and Democrats fear that. Democrats love regulation because it helps their big business donors, while hurting small business. This propaganda has been spread by the left wing talking heads. The left and right also fear centrism because they don't understand the ability to get both sides of an issue. You've heard the expression "Economics is not a zero sum game." This applies to economic theory - in theory, both left wing and right wing economics could work given enough time and intelligent administration of it. The idea of centrism is combining a reduction of regulations with Keynesian economics, staunch support for balanced budgets, and general issue-by-issue dissection. This is too complicated for a lot of people, so it gets called neoliberalism, corporatism, and a variety of other names.

I think it is pretty impressive that in 2016, after decades of the low tax-austerity-low regulation economic policies, that you can say that with a straight face.

The reason that regulations exist is because the free market has time and time again proved that is is not capable of regulating itself. Consumers don't have perfect knowledge, not all parties to a contract are equal, businesses act in their own short terms interests.

In the same way, the reason we have high government spending is because the free market is not able to allocate resources effectively in a huge number of ways. It tends to excessive inequality, and is a terrible way to run natural monopolies.

A balanced budget is neither necessary, nor is it even good economics in most cases (certainly not in the case of a stagnant economy like France).

Macron is peddling snake oil when he tells the French that deregulation, tax cuts and "liberalisation" is the magic solution to all of their economic woes.

[parochial boy]

Examples of his horrendous policies?

He is, strictly speaking, a centrist. "Moderate hero" is a term used to delegitimize and derogate centrism as an ideology in general. The left and the right have both commonly feared centrism because of its widespread appeal and the fact that it works. Macron supports repeal of actual red tape, and Democrats fear that. Democrats love regulation because it helps their big business donors, while hurting small business. This propaganda has been spread by the left wing talking heads. The left and right also fear centrism because they don't understand the ability to get both sides of an issue. You've heard the expression "Economics is not a zero sum game." This applies to economic theory - in theory, both left wing and right wing economics could work given enough time and intelligent administration of it. The idea of centrism is combining a reduction of regulations with Keynesian economics, staunch support for balanced budgets, and general issue-by-issue dissection. This is too complicated for a lot of people, so it gets called neoliberalism, corporatism, and a variety of other names.

I think it is pretty impressive that in 2016, after decades of the low tax-austerity-low regulation economic policies, that you can say that with a straight face.

The reason that regulations exist is because the free market has time and time again proved that is is not capable of regulating itself. Consumers don't have perfect knowledge, not all parties to a contract are equal, businesses act in their own short terms interests.

In the same way, the reason we have high government spending is because the free market is not able to allocate resources effectively in a huge number of ways. It tends to excessive inequality, and is a terrible way to run natural monopolies.

A balanced budget is neither necessary, nor is it even good economics in most cases (certainly not in the case of a stagnant economy like France).

Macron is peddling snake oil when he tells the French that deregulation, tax cuts and "liberalisation" is the magic solution to all of their economic woes.

Austerity, the lowering of spending and increasing of taxes, works during good economic times. That is basic Keynesianism. Constant austerity obviously doesn't work, which is why your rebuttal misses the entire thrust of my post. It's like you read every other word in my post and then tried to decide it.

I was largely responding to the point about "cutting red tape" as if it is some miracle cure. We have had decades of self professed Centrist politicias arguing that the best way to have growth was to deregulate and increase the role of the private sector in the economy, and despite what it led to, it is still touted as the only for of good economic management.

Ok yes, your post does say that both right and left wing economics can work, but the policies Macron seems to be suggesting are very much right wing in nature. Likewise, the implication of your post was very much that a balances budget should be an objective of economic policy, rather than a tool to use in certain economic conditions.

France is also not currently experiencing good economic times, something that spending cuts have exacerbated

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Well that's me owned, better get back on duolingo then.