It's easy to provoke the anger of Yvon Gattaz, the former president of CNPF (Conseil National du Patronat Francais - the French national employers council). Being a liberal economist, he can't hide his feelings about state forays on French small and medium sized companies (SMEs).
According to the French association of family owned companies which he chairs, close to 80 per cent of SMEs being sold in France are bought by foreigners. The list of family jewels that have passed to foreign control is daunting, from Acova radiators to Imaje laser printing, from Fischer beer to Miko-Ortiz ice cream, from chemist Upsa to boiler manufacturer ELM-Leblanc.
Many large firms are also falling to international operators. Since the German Allianz group bought them, Assurances Generales de France doesn't know what to do with the "France" part of its name.
The head of the Paris Bourse, Jean-Francois Theodore, has said that most big French firms listed are more than 50 per cent owned by foreign investors - mainly by pension funds and mutual funds from the Anglo-Saxon world.
Yet, old nationalist reflexes are nowhere to be seen. Nobody envisages shutting the door on them, although political leaders, left and right, are well aware of the situation.
At the start of the 1980s, the socialist Francois Mitterrand nationalised many French companies to prevent them being absorbed by foreign groups. Now, at the dawn of the new century, France has become one of the countries most open to foreign capital. The weight of international investors in the Paris stock exchange has gone from about 10 per cent in 1985 to 40 per cent in 2000. In Britain the figure is 15 per cent. In the US it's 10 per cent.
On the Parisian market, close to 85 per cent of transactions are currently the work of non-resident traders. In industry, close to one employee in four works for a foreign company. These levels are particularly high in comparison with countries of similar size and development.
This massive foreign presence can perhaps be seen as a homage to France Inc - an entity directed by a "plural left" composed of socialists, greens and communists.
The foreign presence is the natural counterpart to the development of French companies abroad. After all, it's difficult for the French to dispute the incursion of the Dutch post office in France when the French electricity company EDF is extending its networks to Germany, Britain and elsewhere. French companies are investing on a massive scale beyond their borders, so they cannot decently oppose the other side of the coin.
Yet, most French managers wonder about the huge foreign presence. Like Gattaz, they fear this dependence. Major decisions in banks, services and various companies are not taken in France, but in the offices of New York financial analysts. Decisions are made with an eye to future pensioners of California or Kansas, rather than in the interest of French employees.
Behind all this there is a taboo which politicians hesitate to challenge. Over the past 20 years, France has been considerably modernised and, in particular, its financing system has been radically transformed. Basically, the left and right combined have, with formidable efficiency, organised the withdrawal of the state.
This has given France a new engine - a capitalism finally fairly close to the so-called Anglo-Saxon model. It is an organisation in which the Bourse plays a crucial role.
However, its leaders have neglected to provide fuel pumps, the means of manufacturing capital. Admittedly, the French are big savers, but they place their savings in government securities and not in their companies.
So, despite a genuine capitalist revolution, France is experiencing a "capitalism without capital" as the president of the Credit Lyonnais bank, Jean Feyrelevade, likes to say. If the engine runs, it is thanks to the fuel that the foreign groups and investors contribute to it.
Will France give itself the fuel it needs? Will the French accept that the role of capitalists? The signs are good - more people are buying shares, getting involved in companies. But they remain suspicious about money, markets and, ultimately, capitalism.
Erik Izraelewicz is chief editor leader of Les Echos, the French economics daily newspaper