France economic policy doesn't look so bad if you compare it to other failed policies and look at them in a myopic way.<p>So they throw in a graph with life expectancy and total public spending as a % of GDP. France ranks high on both (compared to the few other selected countries). Oh great. But correlation does not mean causation. Let's look at the country with the highest life expectancy in the world: Andorra. So do they have high taxes like in France? Anyone care to guess how much income tax they have in Andorra? ;)<p>The Economists seems to me like a magazine like any other. Just like a tabloid they write whatever sells.
Doesn't seem like they're doing that well.<p>The Netherlands is a more interesting case. Booming in prosperious times, yet a stable unemployment rate of around 3% during this crisis (lowest in the EU).