France's next president, Francois Hollande, has a quieter style

This article speaks of both the personality and some of the future plans for France's economy that he has.

Do you think that Hollande will be able to "boost France's ailing economy?"

Do you think socialism will help France (Hollande led the socialist party for 11 years before his election)?

Do you think it's a good sign the fact that he was elected without much campaigning? Or that he wasn't originally planning to follow Sarkozy's presidency before he was named favored candidate by the socialist party?

Overall, how well do you think this presidency will go?

---------- Post added 06-26-2012 at 05:33 PM ----------

I'm a Keynesian. As a result, I'm going to be fairly biased toward Hollande. I think that Sarkozy's austerity measures caused just as many problems as they solved. Austerity seems to be a very counterintuitive approach to recessionary gaps: austerity further reduces aggregate demand, exacerbating the recessionary gap. Even if the neoclassicists have a point that austerity results in market forces restoring equilibrium, I think that the decrease in aggregate demand stemming from austerity has a larger effect than any potential increases stemming from free market forces. Thus, Hollande’s policies, I believe, will have more success in restoring France and the EU to economic stability.