France, from crisis manager to problem

In view of the unrest on the international financial markets, France on Thursday provisionally banned the so-called short selling of bank shares by which traders hope to profit from a fall in share prices. The French banks that were at the heart of the economic crisis in 2008 have become more resistant while the state is now to blame for the crisis, the business paper Les Echos writes: "Today doubts focus increasingly on the state's financial resilience. These doubts work in two ways. First, the French banks have Greek public debt on their balance sheets, some of them have substantial Italian debt packages, and all are chock-a-block with French debts. ... Secondly, a bankrupt state can no longer guarantee that the system will survive. ... Three years ago the state was the solution to the bank crisis. Today it is the problem. That's where all this has got us."

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