French President Francois Hollande woke up to a nasty surprise yesterday - a 14 billion euro shortfall in his budget due to wildly inaccurate priojections of how much revenue would be generated by his massive tax increases. Like politicians in Illinois, New York, and California who banked on big tax incresases on the "rich" to bankroll their spending, Hollande has discovered the law of diminishing returns; people will either seek to avoid the higher taxes or simply refuse to earn the higher income. In the case of France, several high profile citizens have left for greener - and lower tax - pastures. All in all, Hollande, whose approval rating is below 20, is in deep trouble. BBC: The Court of Auditors said receipts from all three taxes amounted to an extra 16bn euros in 2013. That was a little more than half the government's forecast of 30bn euros of extra tax income. The Court of Auditors, which oversees the government's accounts, said the Elysee...(Read Full Post)