Macron Is Way Off Beam!

 Economies respond to incentives and disincentives. If we disincentivise innovation, by stifling and over-regulating business, we will inevitably hamper growth. The solution probably lies with providing positive incentives towards behaviours we wish to encourage from business, reducing the regulatory burden or taxation in those cases.

Otherwise, we run the risk of legislation in a time of massive technological growth becoming obsolete almost as soon as it is on the statute books. Government would forever be chasing its tail, constantly trying and failing to keep pace.

For that reason, if no other, Macron's words illuminate a genuine issue. Does the nature of modern capitalism need to change, or do we need to question the nature of modern government? Are our institutions really fit to respond to modern challenges?

If "modern capitalism" is not the answer, modern state interference in the private sector is not the answer either. Capitalism is an imperfect, flawed system - but the onus is on those who advocate change to spell out an alternative which will not severely stifle growth. It is not enough to oppose a system; they need to offer a 21st-century blueprint for something workable which could reasonably do better by replacing it.

Macron's speech, which seems to do little more than recycle 20th-century centre-left political thought, offers nothing new or noteworthy to that conversation. Jonathan Arnott. CGTN.