France was a deeply divided society in which the political right sought to raise excise and consumption taxes on everyone else, while the political left wanted to tax only the right's income and wealth. Protecting the right, whenever it looked like the left might win an election, the Bank of France refused to roll over Treasury bills, that is, the short term debt instruments funding the government, thereby "forcing the authorities to print money." By 1924, after several rounds of stoking inflation this way, the right came to power and as expected raised taxes on the left's constituents. The left won the next election that same year but was unable to shift the burden back. As a result, deficits ballooned. Eventually, the left government resigned and in 1926 a rightist government under Raymond Poincaré raised enough taxes to close the shortfall.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 547