The French Dinosaur

The most recent Newsweek takes a look at France and the trouble it's having living up to the grandiose standards of its behemoth past.

There's very little about France today, apart from history, that can pretend at transcendence. What is astounding, in fact, given its great past, is the country's current mediocrity. And pretending otherwise doesn't make it so. On the economic front, France's 2 percent growth may be double the European Union average, but that's not saying much. Remedies for this problem, from a lessening of social costs to greater flexibility in hiring and firing, have been very slow in coming. This government has never been willing or able to push through major pension reforms, and it's not likely to start now with a graying electorate fiercely attached to its security. Meanwhile unemployment among those under 25 is running at more than 23 percent.