IMF Fascist Blanchard Calls for Overhauling Health-Care, Raising Retirement Age To Avoid Catastrophe

September 26, 2009 (LPAC)—Fascist Olivier Blanchard, IMF chief economist, called once again, in an interview in L'Express on Sept. 23, for France to overhaul its health-care and retirement expenses, because the financial markets will not continue lending if the deficits grow too large. Blanchard does not hide the fact that the present upswing is "technical," and "the phenomenon is temporary," as are the stimulus packages, "whose impact will only be felt up to the first quarter of next year, and will then start diminishing."

Asked how to avoid what they call a "Japanese-style scenario" of 20 years of stagnation, Blanchard says, the stimulus, which was intended to be temporary and therefore cost less and less, might have to be continued, combined with structural reforms. But when it comes to health-care and retirement costs, "we're taking a route toward problems which, over time, will be much greater than those occasioned by the stimulus plans."

We have to work on two fronts, he says, "lest financial markets sooner or later lose confidence in states' ability to repay. We don't know when or how, but the consequences could be extremely unpleasant. Reforms are therefore all the more necessary today. In France, for example, that means raising the retirement age. In the United States, health-care reform, to bring in a more equitable and effective system, is crucial for the same reasons."