Paris Theme Park

Europe essentially remains in the doldrums, and the French economy begins to look more like Italy’s or Spain’s and less like Germany’s, while the Germans feel the drag of the rest of the region. The various Eurozone governments talk about increasing spending and lowering taxes after a bout of raising taxes and lowering spending. And of course, interest rates stay low to facilitate any chance of sustaining even tepid growth.

France begins to wake up to reality—propping up the pension state is a tall order even if the economy ever can get untracked—an open question. Locals in Paris (where I recently visited) despair of the lack of high paying financial and tech sector jobs and burdensome tax rates. If you think college grads are having a hard time cracking into the work force in the U.S., French 20-somethings face a brick wall. “Everybody is going to London,” explains a friend, just returned from visiting her sister who has relocated across the English Channel—not that the UK economy is anything to crow about either.