French Culture Now

Archives: January 25-29, 2008

Eight years in prison for French kidnappers
BBC. Jan. 29, 2008
A court in France has sentenced six French aid workers to eight years in prison for trying to kidnap 103 children from Chad last year. The six were sent home last year under an accord between the two countries that lets their nationals serve their jail terms at home. France has no power to alter the verdict. They had been sentenced to eight years' hard labour in Chad, but France does not apply hard labour penalties.
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French fraudster: “We all did it”
UKDailyMail. Jan. 29, 2008
The world's worst rogue trader said today many of his colleagues at French bank Societe Generale also acted fraudulently. Jérôme Kerviel, who lost lost $7 billion in unauthorized futures trading, has told investigators the names of other traders who similarly flouted limits on how much of the bank's money they were allowed to gamble. It was also claimed today that SocGen knew as long ago as November about Kerviel's fraud. Some market experts also claim that security checkers, managers and others with whom Kerviel was dealing must have been complicit in the deceit.
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France defends SocGen againts takeover
UKPress. Jan. 9, 2008
The French government will back troubled bank Societe Generale against any attempted takeovers while it remains weakened by the $7 billion rogue trader scandal, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said. "The government will not let Societe Generale become the object of hostile raids from other banks," Mr Fillon said, adding that it was also guarding against any attempt to destabilise France's second-largest bank.
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French consumer confidence hits record low in Jan
UKGuardian. Jan. 29, 2008
French consumer confidence tumbled to a record low in January, official data showed on Tuesday, in a sign that worries about rising food and energy costs and the turmoil in financial markets will hurt future spending. Consumer morale dropped to -34 in January from a downwardly revised -30 in December, national statistics office Insee said. That was the lowest since the series began in January 1987 and far worse than analyst expectations of a reading of -30.
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French work less, retire early
UKTelegraph. Jan. 29, 2008
According to a report by Henderson Global Investors French people work a whopping 250 fewer hours per year than the doughty Brits, but they are likely to retire to a Mediterranean beach a whole lot earlier too. Only 44pc of our French cousins are still at the daily grind after the age of 55, says the report, compared with 58pc this side of the Channel. "In theory, every seventh worker in France would be redundant if French employees would adopt a working culture similar to that in the UK."
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Doubts about Sarkozy’s Mideast policy
NewYorkTimes. Jan. 27, 2008
President Sarkozy’s decision to open a permanent military base in United Arab Emirates will make France the only country other than the United States with a permanent military presence in the Persian Gulf. But to what end? “There is no vision, no strategy here, only a new style based on the president’s personal intervention and charisma,” said Olivier Roy, author of the forthcoming “Politics of Chaos in the Middle East” (Columbia University Press).
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Bank fraud will test Gallic pride
UKGuardian. Jan. 27, 2008
French pride in its major industries as "national champions" took a heavy blow when Société Générale, France's second-largest bank, suffered the biggest fraud in financial history this week. French leaders make a point to protect their bastions of finance and industry, so the SG debacle poses an uncomfortable test for Sarkozy's fire and brimstone nationalism.
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France worries about Sarkozy’s style
SundayHerald. Jan. 27, 2008
The popular belief that the French hold the franchise on emotional intelligence when it comes to love, sex, marriage and fidelity has been publicly tested by President Sarkozy’s affair with Carla Bruni. "There is a sudden sense of irritation with the way the president behaves, with the personal style of the man,” says Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations.
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France hopes to sell arms and reactors to India
AFP. Jan. 27, 2008
France is counting on India's traditional non-alignment to sell India fighter aircraft and nuclear reactors amid stiff competition from Moscow and Washington. The French nuclear energy group Areva estimates that India will need 25 to 30 nuclear reactors in the future.
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French rally behind rogue trader
UKGuardian. Jan. 27, 2008
Jérôme Kerviel is the 31-year-old trader whose fraudulent stock market transactions last week cost his employer, Société Générale, $7 billion. But some French people are lauding Kerviel as a national hero who took on the system. The French Communist party compared Kerviel to scapegoat Alfred Dreyfus, and there is widespread suspicion that he is a scapegoat for his superiors’ incompetence.
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France 'not responsible' for Rwandan genocide
AustraliaNews. Jan. 27, 2008
France had committed a "political fault" in Rwanda but bore no "military responsibility" for the 1994 genocide there, said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Relations between Paris and Kigali that have been stormy since the Rwandan genocide 14 years ago. Kigali has accused Paris of backing Rwanda's majority Hutus blamed for the killings of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus at the time - charges the French Government adamantly denies.
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French Caisse des Depots: a pretectionist tool ?
Bloomberg. Jan. 27, 2008
With assets of $599.2 billion, the Caisse des Depots (CDC) is France's largest institutional investor, “a bizarre but typically French monster that mixes public and private sector activities.” President Sarkozy plans to use CDC to help protect French enterprises from speculative investors and foreign sovereign funds. “The Caisse des Depots is an instrument of this policy of defending and promoting the nation's primordial economic interests,'' Sarkozy said.
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Finance system "out of its mind" - Sarkozy
Reuters. Jan 27, 2007
French President Sarkozy demanded changes to the running of international financial markets on Saturday in the wake of the fraud scandal at Societe Generale, which cost the French bank some $7 billion. "We have to put a stop to this financial system which is out of its mind and which has lost sight of its purpose. The point of a financial system is to lend money for economic activities, which, in turn, generate profits," Sarkozy told a gathering of French nationals at the French embassy.
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French billionaire joins charge on car batteries
Reuters. Jan. 27, 2008
Billionaire corporate raider turned ecology activist Vincent Bollore on Thursday opened a factory to produce supercapacitators that can be used for electric cars. The 36 million euro ($52.8 million) factory will produce 100,000 supercapacitators -- electric energy storage elements -- per year.
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Sarkozy’s popularity drops again
Angus Reid Global Monitor. Jan. 27, 2008
French President Sarkozy has lost public support this month, according to a poll by Ifop published in Le Journal du Dimanche. 47 per cent of respondents are satisfied with Sarkozy’s performance, down five points since December.
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Attali report underwhelming
FrenchPoliticsblog. Jan. 27, 2008
FrenchJournal blogger Professor A. Goldhammer is not impressed with the Attali report entitled “300 Decisions for Changing France.” The language creates a false impression of specificity by recourse to arbitrary numerical quotas and technical jargon. “This is not the level at which such a commission should be operating … It may enable Jacques Attali to pose as an expert on everything, but in reality he is just an expert poseur.”
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Muted reception for the Attali report
Economist. Jan. 27, 2008
The proposals in the Attali report, entitled “300 Decisions for Changing France”, include the deregulation of “restricted professions”, such as pharmacists and taxi drivers, and the abolition of a law banning hypermarkets from selling at below cost. But despite Sarkozy's campaign talk of a rupture with the past, his reforms in office have turned out to be half-hearted. One of the problems is the multiplication of commissions, committees and reviews and their conclusions that are not acted upon.
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French bankers defend defrauded SG boss
UKTimes. Jan. 25, 2008
You could hear the closing of ranks across the Paris establishment this morning as the enarques -- old boys from ENA, the high civil service school -- reassured France that everything is just fine in the French banking world. They are rallying around Daniel Bouton, the former ENA civil servant who still heads Société Générale a day after announcing that Jérôme Kerviel one of his junior employees had fiddled away five billion (7.2 billion dollars) euros without anyone noticing. Everyone is passing the buck: “responsable mais pas coupable” (“responsible but not guilty”).
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Quebec hides declining French use
GlobeandMail. Jan. 27, 2008
The Quebec government has been accused of concealing a 2006 demographic study showing a sharp decline of French-speaking residents in Montreal. The study, conducted by University of Montreal professor and demographic expert Marc Termote, showed that less than 54 per cent of residents on the Island of Montreal speak French at home. The number of Montrealers who say they use French at home has steadily declined and is expected drop below 50 per cent over the next decade.
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America Needs French-style nuke power
NewYorkTimes. Jan. 25, 2008
Times columnist Roger Cohen recommends a French-style nuclear energy program as the answer to major U.S. energy problems. French nuclear energy company Areva provides about 80 percent of the country's electricity from 58 nuclear power plants. “The French have their heads in the right place, with nuclear power enjoying a 70 percent approval rating … Vive les Nukes.”
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World record French fraudster loses $7 billion
Yahoonews. Jan. 25, 2008
In the largest futures frauds in history, 31-year old Jerome Kerviel, a trader at France’s second-largest bank Societe Generale (SG), gambled up to 60 billion euros in unapproved trading. As markets plunged this week, his losing positions were discovered and liquidated, resulting in a $7.14 billion loss. The bank’s stock plunged and the CEO issued an apology. Kerviel, described as a “computer genius,” was allegedly motivated by a desire to impress his bosses and get promoted. As of Friday he was unrepentant, alleging that his system could have earned huge profits. The disaster reflected badly on President Sarkozy’s policy of free-wheeling capitalism and deregulation.
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POLITICS AND SOCIETY NEWS AND EVENTS ARCHIVE JANUARY 2008-5