Here’s an awesome graphic from Harvard Business Review. Essentially it shows a pie chart for each major nation in the world, and then shows the size of their A) government bail outs and B) government stimulus programs relative to the size of their economy. It’s definitely an interesting read for many reasons, it really puts things into perspective.

Yet what struck out to us was the tiny, tiny use of bailouts and stimulus by France relative to every other major economy. Despite all the anti-socialist rhetoric from certain pundits and the notion that somehow nations like the U.S. and U.K. are free market bastions while France is some sort of government-infested economic monster, the reality is that France showed the most spending restraint of all nations during the financial meltdown. And it’s during crisis when our true philosophical colors shine... They may not talk the talk, but they showed the least manipulation of the economy.

See blow-ups of the graphic below, or see the full size one via The Big Picture here >