“America is six months behind; it has wasted a lot of time,” said Patrick Devedjian, the minister in charge of the French relance, or stimulus. By the time Washington gets around to doling out most of its money, Mr. Devedjian sniffed, “the crisis could be over.”
Gallic pride aside, Mr. Devedjian has a point. While he plans to spend 75 percent of France’s stimulus money this year, the White House is giving itself until fall 2010 to lay out that big a share of the American expenditure. And many experts predict that Washington will fall short of that goal.
As it turns out, France’s more centralized, state-directed economy ”” so often criticized in good times for smothering entrepreneurship and holding back growth ”” is proving remarkably effective at deploying funds quickly and efficiently in bad times.
I just love the French. They are always the funniest thing in geopolitics.