Unlike in the U.S., candidates in France’s election have actually focused on how to tackle the national debt, as a new president is due to take charge of the eurozone’s second largest economy next year.
Last month, a French presidential debate was dominated by the country’s rising public debt. By contrast, midterm election races in the U.S. are about data centers, higher gas prices, and the Iran war, even as America’s own mountain of debt hits $40 trillion.
While U.S. lawmakers are largely ignoring the issue, financial markets aren’t. Treasury yields have jumped in recent weeks, along with those of other heavily indebted countries like France.
In fact, France’s public debt now tops 116% of GDP, which is worse than the U.S. ratio of roughly 100% when measured by publicly held debt. Meanwhile, France’s economy has been mired in low economic growth in recent years, while the AI boom is turbocharging America’s GDP.
But far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is campaigning on a plan to have the central bank simply cancel its holdings of French debt.
