Many Americans have been cross at France of late, and we hope Nicolas Sarkozy puts an end to it.(The Week)(Brief article)

Many Americans have been cross at France of late, and we hope Nicolas Sarkozy puts an end to it. As the new French president, he has promised to be a friend of the U.S.--an implicit repudiation of Jacques Chirac's haughty anti-Americanism. Sarkozy is good news for France, too, having backed an agenda of long-overdue economic reforms. They include deregulating the labor market, slimming down the public-sector payroll, abandoning the 35-hour work week, reducing public spending from its current 52 percent of GDP, and reforming the welfare state. Doing this will be a challenge, to say the least. Sarkozy's problem is ...