Reflections on Economics

European Straits #122

Dear all,

This should have been a week dominated by discussions with French officials in Paris 🇫🇷. Unfortunately, as happens often with that crowd, most of them cancelled at the last minute. Of course, there’s the runup to the European elections next Sunday. And then there’s the agitation following the Gilets jaunes crisis, with a radical reshuffling at every level of En Marche, France’s ruling party. A new agenda means new opportunities and everyone’s running around to try and seize them.

I’m sure some of you remember that episode of The West Wing in which Leo, who’s just stepped down as chief of staff and is now senior counselor to the president, tries to conduct a strategy session to no avail: everyone comes in late, they all look at their devices, they’re called away by various emergencies. It takes the irritation and authority of Jed Bartlett himself for everyone to finally settle down, put away their phones, and start discussing the big picture of what they’re trying to achieve …