More market for more state!

Summary The essential function of the market is to "tell the price" by matching supply and demand. In a market economy, price signals guide the allocation of resources. In Colbert's homeland, this conception clashes with the dominant ideology. In theory, prices were liberalized in 1987. In reality, "false prices" abound: the minimum wage, real estate boosted by housing allowances and tax breaks, while guaranteed savings rates maintain the illusion of risk-free returns. As for regulated energy prices... State interventionism has very negative consequences: massive unemployment among the unskilled, a housing crisis in the metropolises, the drying up of financing channels for innovation and the crushing cost of palliative policies. The French people judge its inability to find solutions severely. The State is in fact faced with a triple impasse. Strategic: it no longer controls the destiny of national champions. Financial: its dilapidated accounts prevent it from preparing the future. Intellectual: it does not perceive its powerlessness and its loss of sovereignty. Paradoxically, it is the use of market solutions that can cut this Gordian knot. The enlargement of the market place will improve collective well-being and reinforce the authority of the State. It will strengthen the state's role as guarantor of social cohesion and master of the national narrative, while giving it back some financial room for manoeuvre. The market is an efficient technique, but it has no vocation to constitute a project for society. This essay opens the debate by proposing an original reflection on the state/market couple, based on international academic work. The authors use the examples of work, housing and innovation to present economic solutions and a new vision of governance... to resolutely break the deadlock.