[bondjamesbond]

His government proposed the law as part of a series of measures designed to help youths in the French suburbs who took to the streets last year.

Are these "youth" who "took to the streets" who I think they are? Do they really expect our memories to be that short?

Or were there other French youth rioting last summer?

[twigs]

They're two different groups of young people. The first was disaffected Muslims. These are middle-class Sorbonne college students. Very different. I think they are now proving the liability they will pose as employees if they can't relatively easily be fired.

[Potowmack]

Are these "youth" who "took to the streets" who I think they are?

Surprisingly, no. There are certainly North Afrian "yutes" who are engaging in a little bit of the old ultra-violence here, but most of the protestors are from France's elite universities.

To understand just how screwed up the French economy is, you have to understand that graduates from their equivalent of Harvard and Yale have 20%+ unemployment at graduation.