French debt reaches critical levels with 10-year rates close to 5%

Black September for French debt. Interest rates on 10-year government debt securities are flirting with the 5% mark (4.99% on Friday). They were at 4.2% a month ago, at 3.3% in March. The acceleration is prodigious. It comes in a context of very strong tensions on international bond markets, particularly in the United States. But, in this maelstrom, France stands out. The gap between the price it pays for its debt and Germany's cost of money is widening every day. This spread increased from 65 basis points in June to 80 points at the beginning of September, and to more than 150 points this Friday. It’s dizzying.

Are we falling into a financial crisis, as did, for example, the United Kingdom exactly fifty years ago, forced to call for help from the International Monetary Fund, or Greece, forced into near-bankruptcy in 2010? Financial crises take different forms. But they are characterized…