[bahblahbah]

You're quite correct that we don't run the world, but I think he was just taunting Chirac and their quest to create a multi-polar world.

The Euro was created to counter the dollar. They heavily subsidize their businesses to compete against the American ones. He coddles dictators who are enemies of the US. The French tax American movies to subsidize their movie industry. They have some organization to create new French words to protect them from their language from assimilating English words. Hell, they even go crazy when Google was going to start digitizing libraries because of the cultural impact that might have.

The French are quite the pathetic, jealous xenophobes.

[Destro]

They heavily subsidize their businesses to compete against the American ones.

Yes and no. We also heavily subsidize the same type of industries. The EU subsidizes some industries and forces others to compete in the market place without govt. subsidizies like national airlines. Yet the EU subsidizes airbus - but we also subsidize Boeing (military contracts as one example).

But American examples are few - while the EU has many such contradictions. The EU is a many headed hydra thing of a mutation. So I can see why people simplify it to "Euro-Socialist".