This deserves a diary, Laurent.

« Pourquoi l'Allemagne, malgré le poids de l'ancienne Allemagne de l'Est, malgré l'Euro fort, réussit à avoir une croissance beaucoup plus élevée que la notre ? »

"Why has Germany's growth been much higher than our own, despite the heavy legacy of East Germany, and despite the strong euro?"

Real GDP Growth

Real per capita GDP Growth

I guess Ms. Moryoussef and her journalist cohorts might be the source of all this fuss about the euro in France?

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

I saw the show and reacted to that too, but I think there is a basic misunderstanding here. If I remember well the discussion was about the ECB and the Euro. Both Sarkozy and Royal have accused the "insensitivity" of "Europe" for being responsible in losses in employment because of the high value of the Euro compared to the dollar, making export more difficult (thus the need to put the independence of the ECB in question). Needless to say that this is mostly demagoguery, the typical blaming of one's shortcomings on "Brussels".

But German export volumes are beating all records, compared to France (I think there was a graph about that on ET not that long ago) despite the fact that both countries are using the same currency.

A verbatim of the show would be needed to ensure that the question was not about the German BNP, but about the exports. Because in that case the question makes sense and the answers from Montebourg and Barnier more "plausible", even If I think that they both wrong, guessing that if the Germans succeed in exporting much more than France - despite a high Euro - is because their products are more competitive or maybe more needed than the respective French ones, or because the French don't export the kind of stuff the Germans do.

Maybe some of the economists on ET could explain that for us...