UNTIL DEATH. France should take advantage of yield-famished investors while it still can. That’s the message from legendary financier George Soros, who on Wednesday called for President Emmanuel Macron to issue perpetual bonds, pointing to already high demand for long-dated debt among pension funds and insurers who need to match their lengthy liabilities: the yield on French debt maturing in 2072 is currently just 90 basis points. That makes sense – but a related argument that they may lower France’s dues is more provocative. Plainly, state finances need some fixing: the Banque de France reckons debt to GDP will reach 120% by 2023, roughly a fifth higher than its pre-crisis level. To lower that with perpetual bonds, however, means investors would have to buy the controversial argument that they wouldn’t count as debt because the principal doesn’t have to be repaid. And history is a mixed guide: following the end of the Second World War, British perpetual debt – known as “consols” – lost almost all their value over the ensuing decades as inflation reemerged. At least Macron need not worry about that yet. (By Christopher Thompson)