(Posted by John.)
I've basically assumed America will never, ever forgive the French in general, and Jacques Chirac in particular, for being right about Iraq. Fine. But the sheer volume of ignorant belief (North) Americans have about France is overwhelming sometimes, and this is unbearable with all the coverage of the French election. Up north you've got Canadian columnists writing that the UK's economy is "far stronger than France's" (it isn't) and that France is a second-rank military power (after the US, everyone's second rank.) In the US you've got the more common derision for the idea that the French would dare indulge in leisure time and have slightly less money. Horrors!
Mark Weisbrot has a good column explaining that, no, France's economic problems are no more severe than those faced by any other G8 country, including the US. At the very least, there's no convincing evidence that the usual proposed "solution" -- more liberalized market reforms -- is going to solve the problems France faces.
