. . . French protectionism is baffling. This year, while the political class has railed against globalisation, companies have been cashing in. In the first eight months of 2005, France topped the league table for European cross-border acquisitions, bagging €59.5 billion ($71.8 billion), according to Dealogic, a banking analyst. Pernod Ricard, a drinks company, bought Allied Domecq, its British rival. Suez, a utilities firm, picked up Belgium's Electrabel. France Télécom nabbed Spain's Amena, a mobile-phone operator. All this brings profits and tax revenues to France.

The paradox is not only that corporate France eagerly embraces what the politicians denounce. It is that the politicians themselves are all the while putting in place certain liberalising policies that clash with their own protectionist rhetoric. This week's decision to go ahead, albeit belatedly, with the sale of a first slice of EDF is but one example. Michel Camdessus, former IMF boss and author of a devastating critique of the French economy, told Le Figaro this week that "reform in our country moves ahead in disguise. Certain measures are taken, but we are never told why." Little wonder that the electorate is confused and fearful. One poll this month showed that 80% of the French thought that the outlook was bleak, and that the social climate was bound to get worse.

I was struck by this passage because of how similar it sounds to the situation in the United States. U.S. politicians of both parties rail against foreign competition, outsourcing, and globalization as "giving the country away." Some are demagoguing the issue, and others have no clue what they’re talking about. It’s hard for me to figure out the difference sometimes.

The hypocrisy of it all is pitiful. U.S. politicians receive significant campaign contributions from the very companies and executives in those companies which they criticize when the television cameras are turned on.

The very core of this situation revolves around power, and the loss of it. Politicians both in France and the United States don’t like the power shift which globalization gives companies and individuals, for that matter. They want their citizens beholden to Paris and Washington, respectively.

Global markets for trade and labor weaken the need to kiss rings in the capital. Companies and individuals with the ability to work, live, and play how they want to and with whom they want to, when they desire are dangerous to a centrally governing power structure.

They will never admit it, but down deep it scares politicians to death, both in France and in the United States.