Kudlow has France right; Krugman got it wrong

At NRO Larry Kudlow writes:

Indeed, at the heart of the French problem is a statist-run socialist economy that is massively overtaxed and overregulated.

France’s public government sector, for instance, accounts for more than 50 percent of GDP. In other words, private business in France is in the minority.

Added to this, France’s top personal tax rate is 48 percent, with a VAT tax of nearly 20 percent. So that means French laborers face a combined 68 percent tax rate on consumption and investment.

No wonder France has created less than 3 million jobs over the past twenty years, compared to 31 million in the United States. Economic growth in “cowboy capitalist” America has exceeded that of France’s worker paradise by nearly 50 percent.

Well how about that.

And to think that just last August New York Times columnist and Princeton University Professor Paul Krugman devoted a whole column to the virtues France and its economy.(paid subscription required)

Donald Luskin, who heads the Krugman Truth Squad, has a superb refutation of Krugman's column here. Luskin's worth a look not only because he demonstrates how deliberately wrong Krugman can be, but also because he provides a lot of information about how France got herself into so much economic and social trouble.

Neither Kudlow now Luskin gloat over France and her troubles. Instead, they frequently remind Americas to be careful lest we slide down the same slope France did.