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The Long French Goodbye

PHILIPPE LOPEZ
/
AFP/Getty Images

When Buzzfeed France tried to shut down its office and let go of at least twelve employees, a judge stopped it. The business had to prove it was not economically viable, and justify its decision to end operations, or otherwise it might have to pay its employees a big severance.

Because in France, if things aren't going well for your business, you can't just close up shop and cut loose your workers — you actually have to prove that you can't afford to stay open. It's a system designed to protect workers, but it also has consequences for the rest of the economy.


Music: "Quello E Amore" & "Gastons"

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Cardiff Garcia is a co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, along with Stacey Vanek Smith. He joined NPR in November 2017.
Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.