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So you believe.

But I look and see French companies functioning and succeeding in sector after sector.

I do not think France will change, much.
I do not think France will collapse.
I do think that the US is headed for a sharper and more terrible set of corrections, and that an excess of debt will fall like a souffle owing to a few key developments, such as the inexorable march away from the dollarization of energy purchases.

But we shall see.
I am well content to see the CPE effort collapse. It is the wrong way to go about doing it.

Alcatel about to merge with Lucent, since 1990 has acquired various North American companies: Spatial Wireless,Rockwell Technologies, DSC, Xylan, Packet Engines, Assured Access, Newbridge, iMagicTV, TiMetra, eDial ; giving Alcatel a strong U.S. and Canadian presence. Alcatel has its North American headquarters in Plano (the former Rockwell & DSC campus), and R&D operations in Ottawa, Mountain View, Petaluma, Saint John, Calabasas, and Raleigh.

I am very familiar with the former Rockwell/Collins Division equipment, the DSC (Digital Switch Corp.) equipment and of course Newbridge Digital Access systems.

Alcatel rivals any of the International Corporations.

{I bet they avoid home-base like the plague when they want any work done)

It is not what *I* believe... it is well known within the country among most politicians and chefs d'entreprise that the country is reaching an untenable position. If you don't believe me, perhaps M. Balladur's words will provoke your interest:

« Personne ne peut plus croire que nos institutions fonctionnent bien (...) Notre régime politique apparaît tantôt cadenassé, tantôt instable » (No one can believe anymore that our institutions function well (...) Our political regime sometimes appears deadlocked, sometimes unstable)

The French companies that are doing well are doing well because of their activities OUTSIDE of France, others are subsisting merely because of protectionism. The best and brightest are leaving by droves, many to England, some to China, and myriad other countries because of the stifling regulatory burden on initiative. In your expat nostalgia, you are seeing the country as you want to believe it is, not as it truly is.

But I will agree with you that the CPE was an utterly wrong way to tackle it. Sweeping reform across all ages is necessary. And there are many people willing to hire employees that won't hire under a CDI and prefer to turn away contracts, rather than have an employee they can't get rid of. If you believe everything is really fine inside of French commerce, you really are willfully blind.