Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

"All these 'automatic stabilisers', argues Ms Lagarde, help to support demand and should be counted as part of the fiscal stimulus package. Indeed, the finance ministry has received many recent visits from other governments’ officials interested in the French system. 'The difference is that the French model provides shock absorbers that were already in place,' she comments. 'We haven’t had to reinvent our unemployment, health or welfare systems.'"

The Economist investigates how France is weathering the global recession.