For the Consolidation of French Public Debt by Reducing Public Spending[Pour une politique d’assainissement de la dette publique par la baisse de la dépense publique]

This article applies the results of the new political economy to contemporary debates on public debt. It argues that France should favor an expansive austerity policy, i.e. to generate budget surpluses through lower public spending. The existence of a BARS curve for France, probably at the level of a 30% ratio of public expenditure to GDP, and the relative failure of international climate conferences, lead to support an anti-Keynesian policy, on the one hand, to support economic growth and true prices, and on the other hand, on energy and the land market, in order to manage a complex problem, the climate, through a complex system, the price. Not to reduce the public debt would be, for these reasons, to reduce the resilience of the French economy to future shocks (climatic, demographic, sanitary and/or military). Privatizing public enterprises and certain public services and lowering the production costs of public services would, on the contrary, be a way of increasing it and preserving the interests of future generations.