15th blog for the economy of France

I came across nytimes.com once again and found an article that actually has to do with France and Germany. France and Germany have always been the part that kind of held up the European Union but lately these two countries have not been getting along due to problems with Greece and its issues with debt. Supposedly because of the Greek Debt crisis, it triggered Germany to become more resistant of the demands Europe has. France and Germany have been bumping heads on the policy concerning Russia, China, and Iran. Because of this, when it comes down to discussing European Foreign Policy, it becomes hard to talk about certain important issues.

France has always been a country that puts alot of effort trying to create unity and pride between the countries of Europe. Therefore, another reason France bumped heads with Germany was because Germany was not putting a large enough effort into helping Greece and the debt crisis.

A root of some of these issues comes from the currency, Euro. The French believe that the Euro is something that would benefit Europe, uniting them and bringing better times; where the Germans disagree. French wants a more European economic government while Germany does not want to give up the control of the economy.

It seems to me that at one time France and Germany once held up the European Union but after these critical problems, clearly these two countries will not be doing that while dealing with such differences.

14th blog for the economy of France

I was trying to find some more information on the economy of France and I tried to find some statistics and numbers to share with the rest of my classmates. I wanted to find a site that talked about the different aspects of France's economy. I came across an informative site from diplomatie.gouv.fr that had alot of different facts!

There are so many factors that make up the economy for France for example telecommunications, food industries,and transport.Of course the tourism and the finer things in life, aka the expensive goods, are also major helpers for the economy. Some of the expensive goods may include fashion items, leather goods, and wines. This article also talks about the agriculture as well. Here are some numbers that describes it! The estimate of people that work for the agriculure is 1,100,000 and some of their main produces are: Cereals, wine, milk, sugarbeet, and oilseeds. Livestock includes cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats.

What also makes up France's economy is the construction and civil engineering which contains 1,597,000 workers. 160,000 work for the fashion industry in some way. France is also the fourth largest exporter of cars. Which leads to transportation which is very important to France. Different types of transportation would include the road network, rail network, aviation, and merchant fleet. Also according to this site, in 2006, there was an estimate of 76 million tourists that had come to visit France, which could make it easy to say that France is the most visited country.

These were just from little facts that all come together to help in the economy of France!

Post #13 for the Economy of France...

Well, here I am to write another blog for the economy of France. Coming across nytimes.com, I found an article that mentioned how France for a little while was for the idea of creating a tax for carbon emissions with trying to help the environment a little more. Even though this was in thought for a while, France finally came to the decision of retiring the idea for now. They came to the conclusion that for now it would leave France with more of a disadavantage compared to the other surrounding countries.

There was meetings where Parliament discussed how France's environment and the policies concerning this needs to be on the same level with all the other countries. According to this article, it sounds like France was all for making these taxes on carbon emissions but that in reality, they just were not as prepared and that there was more time spent not getting anything done rather than accomplishing something. Now although there are several countries that have taken part in creating carbon taxes, there are also countries that just would not approve. Not all of the other members of the European Union would agree to this kind of plan.

This was a plan for France created by the President only to help financially with the benefits in order to better the environment of the country. Since France does have so many factors when it comes to the agriculture for example the farmers, truckers, and fishing fleets, it could have maybe been beneficial. Because of these people, there would have been certain benefits and discounts for these people since alot of these people do get around on vehicles that let out alot of carbon dioxide. I guess for now the government will let this idea slide but will try and bring this up again maybe in July. I suppose one's opinion would result from depending on how much he or she cares about the environment since this really is all for an attempt to better the environment of France.

12th post for the Economy of France

I came across another article from NYtimes.com that discusses how France is trying to raise manufacatoring. There was a meeting in the beginning of March that was held by the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. In this meeting there were discussions on how to prevent France's industry from decreasing. He discussed how he is trying to push companies to invest more in bettering their businesses and to keep more workers. Within the last 10 years, France has lost half a million manufactoring jobs.

The president seemed to be pretty focused on a few things and seemed like he was going to put them straight into action. Some things would be having two representatives in companies with state shares. Bosses are going to have to get together a couple times a year in order to discuss future plans, improvements, and goals.

Another statistic that I learned in this article had to also do with the unemployment of France. France reached its "highest level when its unemployment jumped from 10 percent in the fourth quarter, the highest in 10 years". France has been going through a rough time lately trying to stay competitive. Because of this, France has thought about maybe taking what they make over seas in order to avoid the higher costs and rules back in their country.

Nicolas Sarkozy wraps up this meeting though by saying that everything that the industry produces should be raised by 25% between now and 2015 in order to help with their GDP.

11th post for the economy of France

For my tenth post on my blog, I was looking around for something to write about and found a site that pretty much gives an up-to-date status on the economy of France from the past couple years. The article is from www.theodora.com.

In this article, it discusses about how with the new year already here, France is trying to make the economy more reliable on market mechanisms. This article also included a few facts and statistics. It mentions how there are 75 million foreign tourists that come by to visit this country. Because of all its tourism, the income France receives makes it the third highest country in the world. France has also been able to recover from the global economic issues quicker than the other parts of the European Union. They were able to stay strong in their government and consumer spending. But in 2009, France's GDP decreased by 2.1%. In 2008, the unemployment rate was at 7.4% and increased to almost 10%.

In 2009, France wanted to help with the economic issues they were facing and to help, they passed a $35 billion stimulus plan. This money would help with the base foundation of the economy and special tax benefits for smaller businesses. The president of France also offered a $52 billion plan to help with science and technology.

10th post for the economy of france..

I was looking for another article to talk about France and came across another from nytimes.com. This one is about how the European Commission is trying to become more efficient with their energy by trying to utilize their nuclear power plants and to create safety standards. Also a plan of the European Commission is to eventually take these safety standards and share them with the rest of the world.

This article states that because of all this work it could be a good thing for France since they always try to sell technology more on the expensive side while other countries are trying to do the same but with cheaper alternatives. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an organization that strives to bring all countries and their governments together economically and help growth in trade world wide along with many other goals. Jose Manuel Barroso, who is part of the OECD, said that the European Union really is the first to make the initiation to bring the world together for nuclear security.

In April, if all goes smoothly, Barack Obama will conduct a meeting where all world leaders will discuss the plans for nuclear security. Now this could also be a good thing for France because according the article France is the second largest producer of nuclear energy, after the United States. The French state is in control of a nuclear contractor called Areva which sells plants and such equipments to different countries across seas. Unfortunately though, it has not done too well in the past few months.

Just a picture of the European Union logo I thought I'd post!

9th for the Economy of France...

I was searching around for some more information on France's economy and came across the New York Times online, nytimes.com. Here, I found a site that talked about a company that has been around since 1690 and how France's government was able to keep this business around. They were also able to save 54 jobs that came with this company.

This company is called HB-Henriot in Quimper, France and they paint glazed earthenware by hand. It is one of the oldest companies of France but they were about lose their business when France's government came to the rescue. France held off the tax payments and gave money that would cover up to a month worth of salary for each worker. This was labor costs could be lowered and inventory without losing any employees.

They say that France has remained a strong economy compared to other countries, like Germany. Germany is very competitive, focusing alot on their exports. Which isnt the best way to be because when consumption decreased all over the world, Germany suffered.

This article claims that because of this situation with HB-Henriot, it shows that France can overcome economical issues and remain as one of the most stable economies in Europe. Another example of this would be in 2009 when France brought itself out of recession. France has always been a country that tries to save its companies. But no country is perfect and there is always room for some improvement which France is working on doing. The article mentions that now France's government to decrease growth in public spending to less than 1 percent a year from 2011.

A picture of the pottery this company creates!

8th blog on the Economy of France

I was trying to think of what I was going to write for my seventh post and I figured I would write about the Banque de France.

I looked it up and came across the actual site, banque-france.fr and looked for history about the Banque de France. According to this website, it was created on January 18th 1800 by Napoleon Bonaparte. Back at this time in the Revolutionary period, France's economy had taken a turn for the worse and was in a recession, therefore this was created in order to help restore the economy. Back then, France had paper money called Assignats that was used in the French Revolution. The Revolutionary Government's assignas had a downfall and the only way they believed the people's trust could be rebuilt with their money was if the Banque de France was ran separately from the government. By February 20th of 1880, the bank was officially opened. On April 14th of 1803, The Banque de France was allowed to give out paper money to all of Paris.

The Banque de France had several difficulties but fastforwarding too many years later, 1993. In 1993, there was a big event that took place that would be very important for The Banque de France. The Act of 4 August 1993 helped The Banque de France did have it credibility to be an independent Bank. Indepence for the Bank would mean that it would be a good way to help for when the European Monetary Union came into play. When the European Monetary Union formed around that time was when the Euro came ino existence, trying to bring together a common currency.

7th blog on France's economy..

I've been looking around on the internet for some information on the economy of France. I came across this site, nickelinstitute.org, that caught my attention and I thought it would be interesting to write about it for this week's blog. I looked back on my notes and remembered learning about multiplier effect. I decided to research multiplier effects in France and came across this piece of information.

I did not know this but on January 1st, 2004 there was a nonprofit organization created called Nickel Institute which includes 24 companies that make up 90% of the world's annual nickel output. This organization stands for recycling and reusing of nickel in the most environmentally best way. A few ways this is done is by creating partnerships, promoting the production, and earning trust of the stakeholders. Members of this organization include 24 of the world producers of nickel.

What makes nickel so important? Nickel is very important to parts of Europe. 85% of this nickel goes into other mixes of metal that in the end creates metal that endures all types of temperatures, has strength, and corrosion resistance which creates stainless steel. The reusing of nickel makes this stainless steel which is extremely helpful in many environments such as, homes, medical fields, and where food is processed.

Now, how does nickel play a role on France? Between the place where the raw nickel is imported, the place where nickel is formed into stainless steel,and all other industries having to do with nickel has created a total added-value of 6 billion Euro per year. Because of nickel imports and other uses of nickel, there are 105,000 French workers that rely on nickel and these industries for employment.

Some statistics about nickel and France: In 2002, France used 90,000 tons of nickel, representing 13% of all of Europe's nickel use. Due to improvements over the 20 years, France has had many new uses for nickel and at a growing percent of 3% a year for the demand of this metal. There are markets in France that rely on this nickel which provides a job to about 50,000 people and 27,500 jobs for this country's economy. Because of the importance of this metal it has caused an effect allowing people of France to have jobs and the need of workers have increased, as well.
Hope this little bit of information was informative!

6th post for the economy of France

Moving right along to my fifth blog on the economy of France. Since this week we discussed different things about money, I think it would be interesting to discuss the currency in France.

At one time France's currency was once called Franc but in 1999 they changed it to the more commonly known Euro. Along with a few other countries they did this to have a more common and well-known currency throughout Europe. In the beginning the value of the Euro was a little higher than the US dollar but after a couple years, in 2001, the Euro just was not as valuable, so it lowered. The lower the value of the Euro is, the more inexpensive products are in those areas. To keep this going, The European Central Bank, the United States Federal Reserve, and the Bank of Japan worked on lowering the value of the Euro as much as possible.

Although Great Britain did not give into changing their currency to the common Euro, twelve countries did. These countries include Germany, Spain, Finland, Luxembourg, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Greece, Portugal and of course, France. Back when the Euro was launched, the transformation has left the country going through floating exchange rates where basically the rates are always fluctuating and were not always fixed. In 2001 though, they went to make Euro the official currency which will make the flow of everything work alot more smoothly.

I got this information from nationsencyclopedia.com and I came across a chart from forecasts.org that shows the US dollar to Euro Currency exchange rate! Sorry the chart is a little cut off. I didn't know how to make it all show !

5th post on the Economy of France

I think for this next blog I'll write about the what makes up the trade in France and some facts that I've found throughout the internet.

As big as France's economy is, I think that their trades help them grow to that point. According to economywatch.com, France's economy plays such an important role world wide and because of its products and exports the whole world benefits from them. Needless to say, I guess it makes sense that France is the third largest trader in the European Union. When people think of France they may think of the luxurious life, high end fashion, the country of love, maybe. But I know for sure, I would have never imagined that France was incredibly abundant in their farm crops. This country has a large amount of wheat, wine, and cheese which makes it the second largest exporter in the whole world. Perhaps, this is why it seems French wine is such a must to have when one visits this country! Out of what makes up the whole European Union, France makes up 25% of the total agriculture products and includes 2.5% of the GDP under the agriculture sector. In order to continue growth the government will provide a certain amount of money in order to assist with France's GDP and later assist with trading.

France has partners in trading which consist of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Andwhen it comes to commodities they trade many items for example aircraft, transportation equipment, steel, iron, and many more.

Some statistics from the website mentioned above show some percentages on imports from different countries. It is not up to date but atleast it gives an idea of how things are over there.

In 2005, the main country that was used to export goods would have been Germany (14.7%) and for imports of 2005 would have been Germany (18.9%) also followed by Belgium (10.7%). Also some numbers I found from this website for 2005 would be the worth of the goods that were exported and imported. Imported goods were worth up to $471.36 billion with $439.22 billion for exported goods. I hope this was informative and you all were able to grab a thing or two out of it!

Oh, I searched Google images and came across this little graph. Although it represents Germany, if you look you can see how one of its closest partners is France! Sorry it was a little cut out, but atleast you can get an idea!

Third post for the Economy of France

Moving right along for my third post on the economy of France for my macroeconomics class. Since we discussed unemployment this past week in class, I thought it would good to look up information and write about the unemployment of France.
I found a website that included some exact information we discussed in class. According to tradingeconomics.com, it seems that France's unemployment rate is pretty high. This website discusses what is covered in our notes that the work labor has a 10% unemployment rate. And the term work labor means those that are working or looking for it and the non labor would include those that are not looking, those that are affiliated with the military and those who are in institutions. The unemployment rate has only increased because according to another website, dallasfed.org with an article titled "Why is French Unemployment So High?", in 2001 the percentage was around 9% and now it is currently at 10%. If someone is signed up for unemployment in the U.S. it usually lasts for several months but in France it can last up to four and half years. In my opinion, I think this is way to long to be giving out benefits to people that are unemployed. Now how is France trying to fix all this? According to dallasfed.org, there was a study done which insisted that France should really lower the time allowed for unemployment benefits and become more strict on who should be allowed these benefits.
The government is trying harder to have unemployed people look for jobs and the French economist has said that France should strengthen the efforts to have it strongly required to have these people search for jobs if they want to obtain benefits. I hope this was a little helpful to everyone!
Oh, above are a couple charts to compare France's unemployment rate within the past few years and one comparing it to the United States(although the one with the U.S. is not quite up to date). I also got these graphs from both of the sites that I mentioned above.

More on the Economy of France

Well, this is going to be my 2nd post for this blog that I've made for this class. I've been looking throughout the internet for information and came across a website that had some interesting information although this is based around 2008-2009. It still included some facts though that could be related a little bit to what we all learned in class.
I remember learning about GDP( Gross Domestic Product) in class and in this website I found what the GDP was for France. According to state.gov, it is $2.865 trillion making France the fifth-largest economy world wide. What I also learned is that although France has a large economy it also has had its bad times as well. A main goal that they have been trying to accomplish is to restore more job opportunities to the ones that have lost their jobs and lower the unemployment rate. Also according to the website, "the unemployment rate in metropolitan France increased to 9.1% in the second quarter of 2009". France's government is trying to better the environment for those seeking work and work seeking workers. There has been alot change and attempts to better the economy, but it seems as if the government has continued to spend money at a 52.7% rate back in the year of 2008. This was considered to be one of the highest rates in the G-7. I was not too aware of what some terms mean and if there any people out there that were like me and not too sure what the G-7 is, then here is a quick explanation. The G-7 has to do with government positions that include seven different countries which include Canada, U.S.A, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, and of course, France. Although France has had its struggles it has not stopped this country from having alot to offer for example an abundance of agricultural goods as mentioned in my last post and a work force which is highly skilled. It seems to me that all the countries are always in competition to have the best running economic system and France surely is attempting to do that. Their government has also passed severals bills in order create a more modern economy.

As we continue with our Macroeconomics class, I hope this little post was able to teach others a thing or two about France's economy as it did for me! Thank you.

My first blog

Well, this is my first time blogging and I will be keeping this one for the remainder of this semester for my Macroeconomics class. I really do not know much about economics but all I can do is try my best!

My first assignment is to write a little about the economy of France. I spent some time looking for a website that would help me understand the economy of France and I came across Infoplease.com. What I learned was that France is very well known for its economy and it seems to be abundant in many things. Its tourism, agriculture, and trading are extremely important to France. I remember learning a little about trading in class and France seems to exemplify this in its economy. "According to OECD, in 2004 France was the world's fifth-largest exporter and the fourth-largest importer of manufactured goods"(France.com). I found this very interesting because out of all the countries in the world France was ranked fairly high when it came to trading goods. Some countries that France trades with would include our country, the United States, Italy, Germany, Spain, and several others. When it comes to exporting, such goods can include machines that assist with transportation and machinery, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and beverages. France tends to import goods from those countries mentioned above such as motor vehicles and crude oil. This all catches my attention because it does seem that France is able to be in control of their trading system which strengthens their economy. Also after reading from Infoplease.com, I learned that tourism helps with this, too. Paris is the biggest location for tourists which provides higher priced goods to them. Lastly, agriculture plays a major factor in France's economy. A decent size of the agriculture comes from the animals such as hogs, cattle, and sheep, that are located in the more mountain areas. This country is abundant in their crops also for example potatoes, wheat, and barley. And of course, fruit would be important because France's wine has its own trading which puts their wine at an extremely high rank for wine production world-wide.
This assignment allowed me to grasp what is important to France and what makes its economy so powerful. I hope this was able to teach others a couple things about France and its economy, as well! Thank you!

~Analiese