It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC.

Good morning again, everyone.

Now we turn to the political fallout taking place in France, where the country's prime minister,

Francois Baru, resigned this week

after he lost a no-confidence vote. With their national debt as a central issue, could there be

lessons for the United States? As the economist puts it, it was a three-pronged issue in France.

In addition to the political chaos of ousting a prime minister, who was quickly

replaced within the day, but there have been several such replacements pretty recently,

the country is also experiencing jumpy bond markets and countrywide street protests. The yield on

10-year French government bonds has climbed to over three and a half percent. That's on

par with Italy, which has been seen as one of Europe's most financially beleaguered countries.

Roughly 80,000 officers across France were deployed on Wednesday to quell a burgeoning new protest

movement called Let's Block Everything. We spoke in an earlier segment this morning, how some people might support something like that in the United States. We'll try to explain now why that's happening and why it's being called a government collapse, important in its own right in France, of course, and across the EU, but also perhaps with lessons for here.

There are certainly debt questions in the U.S. and many Americans who might like the sound

of a Let's Block Everything movement. Joining us is Sophie Petter, Paris Bureau Chief at The Economist.

Sophie, thanks so much for giving us some time today. Hello from New York. Welcome back to WNYC.

Oh, you're very welcome. It's a pleasure to join you again. Thank you for inviting me.

I'll ask you to explain the confidence vote and ouster of the prime minister in a second. But first,

the big issue is the national deficit in France. As I understand it, the accumulated debt jumped to 114% of GDP in 2020,

where it has stayed. Can you talk about that turmoil over the last five years and why France

hasn't been able to crawl out of debt? Yes, I mean, initially when the current president took over, so in 2017, he's now on his second

term, that's Emmanuel Macron, he was able to bring down at least the deficit and to contain

...