[Mish's] France Considers Ban on Free Shipping by Amazon, a "Destroyer of Bookshops"

"The amount of economic illiteracy in France is simply staggering. (...)

"France’s culture minister has attacked Amazon, the online retailer, for deliberately undercutting traditional rivals to create a “quasi-monopoly”, in the latest assault by the socialist government on internet companies. “Today, everyone has had enough of Amazon which, through dumping practices, smashes prices to penetrate markets to then raise prices again once they are in a situation of quasi-monopoly,” said Aurélie Filippetti, the culture minister." (...)

If the goal is to get people to read books, logic would dictate the cheaper the price the better. Kindle, Nook, and other eBook readers come to mind.

What good would banning free shipping do? Amazon could easily up shipping charges and lower the price of the book and get the same result. Of course, France would then want to dictate the price of books as well, all in the name of "preserving culture." "

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/06/france-considers-ban-on-free-shipping.html

Drugi akapit to cytat z artykułu na FT.com, fragment oraz link w tekście.

What do countries want in the long term?

Ciekawe porównanie kilku państw przygotowane przez Natixis.

"Some OECD countries have extremely clear long-term strategies: 

- Germany wants to remain a large industrial country integrated in globalisation; 

- The United States (thanks to a reduction in labour costs and energy prices, perhaps exchange rate depreciation), the United Kingdom (thanks to a reduction in labour costs and in the tax burden on companies, perhaps also exchange rate depreciation), and Spain (thanks to a reduction in labour costs) want to reindustrialise. 

But we cannot see any clear strategy in France or Italy: 

- Competitiveness continues to deteriorate; 

- Taxes are not attractive; 

- Deindustrialisation continues; 

- Exports of services are not growing."

http://cib.natixis.com/flushdoc.aspx?id=68860