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Episode details

World Service,28 Apr 2012,28 mins

France: Are the good times over?

In the Balance

Available for over a year

France is famous for living la vie en rose - living well. It isn't just the country's great cuisine and enviable climate, France also has a very generous welfare state. Justin Rowlatt and his guests, Yannick Naud who is a portfolio manager at the asset manger Glendevon King, Professor Brigitte Granville of the University of London, and Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London, discuss whether this model is sustainable. It's the first round of the French presidential election this weekend and the biggest issue is ... l'economie, stupide.

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