The French state is often painted as a sprawling, interventionist machine — and not only by foreign observers. Free-market critics complain that it overtaxes business and stifles private sector growth, all for the sake of funding an unsustainable welfare model. It’s a claim that’s driven a series of recent “reform” projects, in the name of modernizing France’s economy.

In her new book, economist Anne-Laure Delatte shows that the French government does indeed plays a big role in the economy — but not quite in the way the neoliberals claim. Published this May by Fayard, L’État droit dans le mur (The State Headed for Disaster) shines a light on the regressive nature of French tax policy — and, thanks to analysis of previously overlooked data, the inequities of French public spending. Delatte’s work shows how Paris doesn’t just fund social programs, but pours billions of euros a year into tax credits and tax breaks for big business, putting itself “at the service” of the private sector.

In between sessions at La France Insoumise’s late-August summer school, Delatte spoke to Jacobin’s Cole Stangler about the kind of interventions the French state is making — and what alternative fiscal and monetary policies might look like.