From the story: "But only France has seen shortages, because of the way its food supply chain is organized. In France, Mr. Calbrix explained, prices between suppliers and big retailers are negotiated once a year, in February... ...many retailers were refusing to pay the increased market price for butter."
It feels like a big problem with the French economy is simply a failure to understand how supply and demand works. I live in France and my local SuperU was completely out of butter. I would have been willing to pay €10 or more for butter -- if they only had it. Instead everyone hoards it when it's €2, causing shortages and people with freezers full of butter they don't even need.
The failure to understand supply and demand extends to labor law as well -- an increased cost of labor results in a decreased demand, yet here people are wringing their hands over why unemployment is almost 10%, while just over the border in Germany, unemployment is 3.7%.
It feels like a big problem with the French economy is simply a failure to understand how supply and demand works. I live in France and my local SuperU was completely out of butter. I would have been willing to pay €10 or more for butter -- if they only had it. Instead everyone hoards it when it's €2, causing shortages and people with freezers full of butter they don't even need.
The failure to understand supply and demand extends to labor law as well -- an increased cost of labor results in a decreased demand, yet here people are wringing their hands over why unemployment is almost 10%, while just over the border in Germany, unemployment is 3.7%.