Via le Canada et la famille dans la boîte mail... Bill Bonner's Diary... 25 september 2015... Ce blog retransmet pour ses lecteurs...

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Paris Still Smells the Same

Now, back to our reminiscences…

We first came to Paris as a student… almost half a century ago. So much has happened since then.

Back then, we lived on $5 a day. And because French universities were free, we found we could spend a semester abroad more cheaply than at home. Can you believe it?

But now, the dollar has become a purely paper (fiat) money. A niece, backpacking around Europe, says she tries to stay on a budget of $50 a day.

And the French franc has disappeared entirely!

The French are still the French, but the economy has been completely transformed. It used to be open and competitive – with auto, aircraft, film, wine, fashion industries that were the envy of the world.

It used to have intellectuals, too, whom the rest of the world tried – in vain! – to understand. And a young man used to be able to come out of his high school and get a job almost anywhere.

All that has changed. The intellectuals betrayed it. The crony capitalists took advantage of it. And the politicians failed it. Just like the U.S., in other words.

But, in late September, Paris still smells the same.

And the crowd at Le Poussin, a neighborhood café where we are writing, looks the same, too.

It is 9:30 a.m. The working men have already had their coffee and left for their jobs. Now, the crowd is older… and more feminine.

Retired people reading their papers.

Women have taken their children to school; now they sit, drinking coffee, and talk about how the schools are failing and how little Jean or Frederic will have to have after-school tutoring in order to keep up with his math.

At the bar, a toothless old man has a café au lait. Two very blond, stocky Russians laugh and talk. And a meticulously dressed Japanese woman is chatting with the woman behind the counter. Her coat is a bright yellow. She carefully sweeps the stool with her hand before sitting down.

“Encore!” we say to the waiter. “Another café crème, s’il vous plait!”

Regards,
Bill Bonner

P.s: angeledelamotte@gmail.com