It looks like the United States will have to put off turning over world leadership to France for a bit:

FRANCE JOINS GERMANY IN ECONOMIC SLIDE

Prospects for a vibrant eurozone economic recovery took a hammering Friday as France joined Germany in reporting flagging momentum and the EU commission trimmed its growth forecast.

French gross domestic product grew by just 0.1 percent in the third quarter from the second, well below an estimation of 0.5 percent, figures released by the national statistics institute INSEE showed.

For France the third quarter performance was its worst in a year while in the Germany the growth pace was the slowest since second quarter 2003.

In France analysts pointed to stagnant spending by French households which they said stemmed from a stubbornly high jobless rate. [9.9%]

The Lisbon Strategy, the EU plan for magically producing results by the agency of wishfulness, hasn't taken hold in France. Or much of the EU for that matter.

Of course, if world leadership were nothing more than big talk, oh-ho, Jack would be king. But world leadership mostly requires, well, leadership. And leadership requires principled commitment, clear goals, accountability, risk, sacrifice, and hard work. Perhaps France can apply for some other less demanding, more suitable, world position.

How about country-in-charge-of-sitting-by-the-door.

Hey the 35 hour work week is providing a powerhouse of an economic engine for the Frogs. How about us 'Mericans going toward that model and plunge the world into another global depression?

Hey, don't let France hoarde the credit - those German wage controls are really shining through for the eurozone as well. What's the next agenda item on the socialist spiral of doom? Historical precedent suggest printing massive amounts of currency to spur legendary inflation, doesn't it? Or do the price controls come first, I forget.

Of course the final trump card is that Frogistan and Germany tend to bust any EC economic targets just because they can. After all the targets only apply to "lesser" countries which should just take a good opportunity to shut up about it.

With the new dense legalistic
eu constitution, thousands of regulations, and a new layer of unelected bureacracy, Frogistan and Krautheim are ensuring european economic prosperity -- yeah right!

We have seen Chirac's technique before. Think of the con man in 'The Music Man'. He convinced the whole town that they could learn to play their musical instruments through use of the "think system". If each of the young people who bought a musical instrument off of him would just "think" about playing it, eventually, they would all learn, as if by magic. Athe end of the play, they all march down Main Street playing '76 Trombones'. Somebody should tell Jack that it was just a play.

This must be a mistake. Wasn't it Jackass Chirac who called France the economic engine of the world a few years ago?