The Americans claim to know how to make money, but don’t.

The French don’t claim to know how to make money, but do.

I spend much time among the French in the rural countryside. Relax. Disdain is too strong a word. They ARE mildly amused, rather often.

For decades the US-controlled World Bank and similarly Washington-centric multinational bodies have been telling the French government not to let its farmers grow so much food.

Oops! Wrong again!

Now there is a global food shortage. All the farmers have sold all of their crops — this year and three years into the future — at the highest prices in recorded history. (A lot of great new tractors are an the road these days).

If the UK gets the nuclear power that its government says it has to have (I don’t agree, by the way), it will buy most of it from EDF (Electricite de France). EDF now pretty much owns the UK nuclear industry.

When a goofy trader Jerome Kerviel blew a ton of money for Societe General, there wasn’t a bailout. SG even hung on to a modest profit for the quarter. There was never going to be a bailout.

SG’s motto is, “Red, black and rising.” I suggested, “Red, black, but mostly red.” It didn’t catch on.

Renault wasn’t content building cars and selling them profitably all over the world. It got control of Nissan and made them profitable. Now they are sniffing around and lurking in the shadows, trying to see if they can take over General Motors and restore them to profitability, too.

Trust me. France can pay for it.

REG CROWDER