23/11/2012: France's fall from economic Olympus

 Charting France's descent into the newsflow hell:

So the current state of economic affairs is now:

1. Structural downturn (see grey-shaded turning point indicator in the first chart above) 
2. Worse than current crisis period average (from January 2008 through today)
3. Comparable to Q1 2010 reading at levels and to Q4 2008 reading levels
4. Worse than the lowest reading for 2002-2003 downturn period
5. Worse than the average for the early 1990s recession
6. Almost as bad as the lower points of the 1980s recession