Europe’s future, such as it is, may belong to France (dixit Krugman)

Amid all this gloom and doom about France, I can't resist a second posting on the "Coming French Imperium" ;-)

More on the Coming French Imperium

I wrote a little while back about the little-discussed French demographic advantage within Europe; its relatively high fertility rate means that it should eventually overtake Germany and become the largest continental European economy. It turns out that the French Economic Observatory has been on this case. Their projections are fairly startling:

And to the extent that we believe advanced countries will suffer from the burden of large elderly populations, France will suffer less:

Germany should enjoy its hegemony while it lasts; Europe’s future, such as it is, may belong to France.