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French press review 15 March 2012

The costing of François Hollande's election programme, stories from the fatal bus crash in Switzerland and the Chinese currency all feature in today's French newspapers.

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If we are to believe the right-wing daily, Le Figaro, the Socialist presidential contender, François Hollande, is no mathematician.

Figaro's main headline reads "Hollande comes up with more promises, but no money".

The right-wing paper says Hollande's latest propositions, which include building more housing for university students, increasing the minimum wage and improving public services for families with very young children, could cost the state anything between 3.8 and 6.5 billion euros every year for the next five years.

That's on top of the 20 billion euros already promised by the Socialist candidate, the whole massive package to be financed, says Le Figaro, by increased taxation.

Other front page stories look at Wednesday morning's tragic Swiss bus crash, the causes of which remain mysterious.

Aujourd'hui en France says preliminary investigations have shown that the bus was not exceeding the 100 kilometres per hour speed limit at the time of the accident, nor were there any technical irregularities in the tunnel where the crash occured. The enquiry continues.

Business daily Les Echos looks at a promise by half a dozen French bosses to boost domestic production. The lads say France can catch up with the European average only if traditionally weak links with the companies supplying the bits that make nominally French cars and aircraft are strengthened.

There has to be more investment in research and training. And there has to be more real dialogue between the bosses and the workers. In other words, fewer strikes.

The big bosses don't have too much to worry about. Yesterday, according to Les Echos, combined shares in the top 40 companies on the Paris stock exchange cruised past the 3,500-point mark to record their highest valuation ever.

Le Figaro's editorial is headlined "Chinese lesson". It looks at Beijing's reactions to recent commercial difficulties. When Europe proposed a pollution tax on aircraft, the Chinese simply froze their order for gazillions of euros worth of Airbus polluters.

Then the global high-tech monsters started whinging about the increasing rarity of rare-earth metals, vital in the manufacture of portable phones and computers. The Chinese, who own virtually all the rare-earth on earth, imposed export quotas to protect the native high-tech sector.

And then there's the notoriously undervalued Chinese currency, the yuan, which adds to the saleability of Beijing's exports. The rest of the world has huffed and puffed about that for years, but the yuan stays undervalued. Sod you is the diplomatic phrase most used by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Says Le Figaro, the United States have their own ways of dealing with variations in the value of the dollar on world markets, using the vast resources of the Federal Reserve, basically the state bank, to flatten out any bumps. And the US is also good at protecting home-based industry.

Why then, wonders Le Figaro, is Europe the only global economic power without the means to defend itself against the heavyweights? What is the purpose of the European Central Bank, if not to protect the community's external interests. Good question.

Finally, and once again from Le Figaro, news that an entire American town is up for sale by auction. Buford, Wyoming, with a petrol station, a shop, a former school now turned into office space, and a chalet with three bedrooms, will be auctioned on 5 April next, with opening bids expected to be of the order of 76,000 euros.

Buford used to have 2,000 residents. The last one left recently. The view over the Rocky Mountains is said to be stunning, but getting there is not easy. The railway line no longer functions. And at 2,400 metres above sea level, Buford gets very cold.

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