Ça va!

Even socialists can learn from persistent unemployment for five years (~10%);

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls outlined a series of tax and budget cuts during a speech before parliament on Tuesday, his first since taking office last week. ....

In late March, voters shifted support away from Hollande's Socialist Party, resulting in historic gains for center-right opposition party the Union for Popular Movement (UMP), the party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy. The far-right National Front (FN) also enjoyed success in the municipal polls.

Included in the new premier's proposals on Tuesday were measures that would see payroll tax cuts for companies worth roughly 30 billion euros ($41 billion) by 2016. By the same year, some corporations would begin seeing their tax rates drop from 33 percent to 28 percent. All remaining companies would benefit from that tax cut by 2020 at the latest.

....In a move to rejuvenate employment, the new government planned to implement 50 billion euros in budget cuts by 2017, beginning with reductions of 19 billion euros to state spending, 10 billion to health insurance and an additional 10 billion to local governments, Valls said.

Paul Krugman could not be reach for comment by HSIB. Presumably he's horrified.