Peter Praet: Is secular stagnation the new economic reality? Remarks by Mr Peter Praet, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, for the policy panel entitled "How to deal with potential secular stagnation?" at the Secular Stagnation and Growth Measurement Conference, Bank of France, Paris, 16 January 2017.
The latter is especially disturbing, because the rule of law in modern societies seems to be a French invention. It is based on the principle of separation of powers which was formulated as early as 1748 by the great French political philosopher, Montesquieu. Moreover, it was the French people who first realised this concept in continental Europe.