Bonjour, Londres
Nicholas Sarkozy, the compact little bundle of French presidential energy, was defeated today. His successor is Francois Hollande, a Socialist. The great thing about France is, if you believe in socialism you call yourself a Socialist and other people are allowed to call you Socialist.
Sarkozy was probably doomed, anyway. He was chipping away at the French welfare state -- well, it's probably more accurate to say he was chipping away at chipping away at the French welfare state -- and that's never popular. (And before we shake our heads ruefully at those crazy French we'd better ask ourselves: what happens when we start chipping away at chipping away at ours?)
Meanwhile, though, something new may be happening to the beleaguered French entrepreneurial and investor class. From today's Financial Times:
Wealthy French people are looking to London as a refuge from fresh taxes on high earners pledged by candidates in the country’s presidential elections.
The “soak the rich” rhetoric that has punctuated the presidential campaign has prompted a sharp rise in the numbers weighing a move across the Channel, according to London-based wealth managers, lawyers and property agents specialising in French clients.
And if you switch some of the countries around, is this a preview of coming attractions for American high-earners?
The departure of France’s business people, entrepreneurs and the young for opportunities overseas is not a new phenomenon. When Nicolas Sarkozy visited London in 2007 he called for its French residents to return to a reformed France under his presidency. But the trend has been accelerated by the growing possibility of a Socialist victory in Sunday’s decisive second round of the presidential election.
Mr Blanc says some French clients were even contemplating acquiring British or other nationality in order to safeguard assets from fears that France could move to collect more tax from citizens overseas. “A lot of people are extremely worried,” he said.
Alexandre Terrasse, a partner in corporate and property law at Jeffrey Green Russell, says he had seen a 25 per cent rise in activity from French clients over the past six months, “The 75 per cent tax is clearly a sign that the politicians will hit the wealthy and they don’t want to have to deal with that.”
What happens in a global marketplace when people vote with their feet?
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May '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Leave it to a French Socialist to make the UK top rate of 50% + VAT + a million other taxes and costs look competitive. Chapeau Mr. Hollande.
When the UK passed it's tax abomination, hedge funds and other financial houses headed to Switzerland and the Channel Islands & tax revenues decreased. Curious that the French are heading to London.
Mar '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Mr. Long you allow yourself to be distracted by the hor d'oeuvres such as to miss the main course:
Monday should be interesting indeed in Europe.
Mar '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Without a moment's reflection, at which I feel no shame, this is the most brilliant line you have penned yet Mr. Long.
Dec '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
It's not going to go well for Hollande immediately. The EU has really brought down borders and it's quite easy to move -- both physically and financially -- from one country to the other.
May '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
I'm confused, are the Greeks opposed to bailouts and austerity?
Without the former, don't you get the latter?
Oct '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
And how will Obama speak to this result ? Should prove interesting.
Dec '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
So my mom's best friends were emigres from Hungary to the US just prior to the outbreak of WWII. They had been well-off in Hungary -- he a doctor, and she from a family of means. I was always impressed with her story of sewing diamonds and jewels into the hem of her skirt before crossing the border.
"What happens in a global marketplace when people vote with their feet?"
If they're smart, the rich will start sewing, because the socialists manning the borders have plans to fleece them on the way out. Vive la France!
Apr '12
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Wonder how long Sarkozy's wife will stick around.
Jan '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
This is the reason the big countries started bringing down the hammer on the tax-havens. If every country is forced to keep taxes high in order not to be frozen out of world trade and the world economy, then there is nowhere for the rich to go.
Jun '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Roberto
Without a moment's reflection, at which I feel no shame, this is the most brilliant line you have penned yet Mr. Long. · 40 minutes ago
One of the little chips that Sarcozy extracted from the welfare state was to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62. Hollande has vowed to reverse that decision. This will return France to its unsustainable past, but will accelerate the day of reckoning. As a committed Francophobe (my Dad lost a good part of one arm helping free the ungrateful dopes), I can only hope the France becomes the new Greece sooner rather than later.
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 12:32amMay '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Our tax system is so enormous and complex that even renouncing citizenship does not allow you to avoid being soaked. The US has an Expatriation Tax that (1) automatically assumes any expatriate is leaving for the purpose of tax avoidance and (2) taxes the expatriate as if she never left the country (it trues-up lifetime earnings).
Dec '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Substitue France with California, Illinois, or the northeast, then substitute London with the sane states, and you have something that there is still time to do something about. There will come a time when those of us from the sane states will be "required" to bail out California and we will refuse. Venice will no longer be a haven.
Jun '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
I listened to an interview of Dan Heninger (WSJ) a couple of days ago. If I heard him right, he said that 300,000 Spanish college graduates have left Spain since the financial crisis. Spain has a population of 46 million, so that would be the equivalent of nearly two million American college grads leaving America. How do you ever recover from something like that?
Mar '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Ningrim: I'm confused, are the Greeks opposed to bailouts and austerity?
Without the former, don't you get the latter? · 25 minutes ago
It is no mystery. Those who have an ear spin a web of noise but it is terribly simple, imagine yourself with a credit card. You live on this credit for thirty years, just as an example what the United States has been doing, but suddenly those who have been funding your party begin to worry. They demand measures to insure they are paid.
You have two choices: Tighten your belt so you can pass enough money onto your creditors they believe you are serious; Tighten your belt even more by defaulting and stop spending far more than you can support.
Despite all the babble you might hear it is truly that simple Ningrim. "Austerity" as it is so absurdly called is inevitable, the only decision is do we face it now or later. Later is far worse, but who wishes to stop spending in the now? As true for the United States of America as it is for Greece.
Something everyone would do well to remember no matter if they vote for Obama or Romney.
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 12:41amRe: Bonjour, Londres
Rob, if I remember correctly, Adam Smith treats the question you pose in The Wealth of Nations (if only in passing). The short answer is that people of talent vote with their feet. That is what the Eastern Germans were doing before J. William Fulbright invited Khrushchev to put up the wall (and the Kennedy administration signaled that they saw this as a good thing). Something like 100,00a a month were crossing over to the West. If Hollande keeps his promises, there will be a real brain drain from France.
Jul '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Is it time for Jonah to dust off his "cheese-eating surrender* monkeys" phrase?
*[to the Socialists]
Maybe with the British recognizing the decline in tax revenues, many wealthy French see a glimmer of hope. Or perhaps Quebec may be a destination point for some. (It would be interesting, tho, to see if the two French-speaking groups will be able to understand each other...)
How many of you opened Rob's first link, "Ahem" and then continued to the site?? And how much did you contribute?
Mar '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Last one to Texas is a rotten plutocrat!
Mar '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Percival
Last one to Texas is a rotten plutocrat! · 1 minute ago
Dusting off my walking shoes even as we speak.
May '11
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Maybe we should give Newt's lunar colony another think.
May '10
Re: Bonjour, Londres
Hoping for a complete cratering of France. Nothing else will do the trick,