Hollande Sworn In as French President

French President François Hollande was described as an “amateur” and compared to the emperor with no clothes Sunday as members of his party began to turn on him after his flagship 75% tax rate for France’s richest was ruled unconstitutional. France’s Constitutional Council said on Saturday that the president’s tax on earnings of at least one-million-euros-per-year “failed to recognize equality before public burdens,” because, unlike other income taxes, it applied to individuals and not households.

French president-elect François Hollande has launched a preemptive attack blaming outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy for the huge budget deficit of France. Given Hollande wants to tax millionaires 75%, I find it quite ironic that Hollande blames the problem on "hidden taxes" of Sarkozy. Please consider Brussels raises alert over French deficit

Not many people realize this but in spite of polling anywhere between 16% and 22% in recent election polls, Marine Le Pen might not be included on the French presidential ballot. The reason is Le Pen needs 500 signatures by elected official supporting her campaign. Le Pen says she only has 350. I had been aware of this for some time but figured she could scrape up 500 signatures from a pool of 47,000 or so bureaucrats eligible to sign. Perhaps not.

Latest polls show French President Sarkozy is losing ground to right-wing anti-euro candidate Marine Le Pen in the first round of the France presidential election. Via Google translate, please consider Le Pen and Bayrou Back

Echoing sentiment that should be widely-held but unfortunately is not German central bank president  Jens Weidmann says Not ECB's Job to Tackle Spain's Problems. Spain should take a rise in its bond yields as a spur to tackle the root causes of its debt woes, not look to the European Central Bank to help by buying its bonds, European Central Bank policymaker Jens Weidmann told Reuters.

~ Frederic Sautet ~

By Katchum:Investors are speculating on what will happen when François Hollande becomes president of France. Many things can occur, but here are the most prominent ones.