France Plans Cash Controls in Effort To Fix Finances

Because spending less is unthinkable

But spending cuts—whether corporate welfare projects or social programs—would be highly unpopular. Hence, the government's emphasis on fighting tax fraud. Some estimates put tax fraud in the range of €60 to €80 billion per year, others at half that. Either way, a free gift. If the government could just get its hands on that money.

So Ayrault trotted out his national plan, a 20-page document that outlined his all-out effort to go after any kind of behavior that could possibly deprive the government of those sorely needed euros. A seamless fit for France's principle: squeeze hapless "fiscal residents" like lemons to get their last drop of juice—fiscal residents, because citizens or foreigners who live in France only part of the year and pay taxes in some other country escape income taxes in France.

Stuffed into that 20-page national plan is a draconian tool: prohibiting cash payments of over €1,000 per purchase. The current threshold is €3,000. It's urgent. He wants to get the process started soon so that "a decree and legislative measures" can be finished by the end of 2013.