GERARDO GOMEZ/AFP

The perks of being a worker in France are well known: thirty-five hour work weeks, months of vacation, virtual immunity from being fired. The benefits were enough to draw students out into the streets en masse last year to protest even the slightest erosion of the carefree employment conditions that are their birthright. Throw in cultural acceptance of drinking wine at lunch, and it becomes clear that the French really do have nothing to complain about, right?

Well, don't tell that to the French. According to a new study, the French are the world's whiniest workers, edging out Britain and Sweden (another socialist labor paradise) for the top spot. Charlotte Cornish, who heads the company that ran the study, thinks the results bode ill for new French president Nicolas Sarkozy's reform plans:

The French come out on top -- it seems unlikely that Nicolas Sarkozy's election and the likely shift to more Anglo-Saxon economic practices will make the workers in France any more happy with their lot."

Another interpretation is more plausible, though. If some of the best working conditions in the world haven't been enough to make French workers happy, then maybe the paternalistic coddling and stifling embrace of its system are at fault. The Swedes' foul moods lend credence to that interpretation. If so, then Sarkozy's "rupture" might be just what the doctor ordered to cure the French maladie. With some more dynamism in the their economy, maybe the French would only be as unhappy as Americans—who ranked number five.

ATTA KENARE/AFP

Several accelerating trends should give heart to those eager to see the end of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's rule in Tehran. First, as my Passport colleagues have duly noted, Iran is acting more erratic than usual toward the United States and the West in general. Iran's foreign minister famously blew off Secretary Rice last week with comments about ice cream and a violinist, and on Tuesday, authorities detained a prominent U.S. intellectual who had been under house arrest in Tehran for months.

Most importantly, though, Iran's economy has continued to tank. Iran seems to be alone among oil-exporting countries in being completely unable to wring domestic growth out of the high oil prices of recent years. The economy has expanded by less than three percent under the current regime, while inflation gallops away at 18 percent and nearly a third of the labor force remains jobless. Notably, the malaise is more a consequence of bad domestic policy than it is international sanctions. Longtime Iran observer Amir Taheri writes in the Wall Street Journal that serious unrest is brewing:

One result of the president's weird policy is the series of strikes that have continued in Tehran and at least 20 other major cities since last autumn. Last year, one major strike by transport workers in Tehran brought the city of 15 million to a standstill for several days. Right now tens of thousands of workers in industries as diverse as gas refining, paper and newsprint, automobile, and copper mining are on strike.

Politically, serious opposition is coalescing around the "moderate conservative" mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. As Passport noted several months ago, dissatisfaction with Ahmedinejad's nuclear brinkmanship has been producing a backlash on the religious right, centered around former president Rafsanjani. He's too old to run again, and anyway closely tied to hardliners in the government. But Qalibaf is relatively young and popular. Even better, he ticks off the hardliners, so much so that they're working hard in what's likely to be a futile effort to prevent his re-selection as mayor.

What does it all mean? Iran's truculence is probably an attempt by the regime to distract attention, both at home and abroad, from its increasingly precarious position. More of the same is probably on the way. Don't be surprised if Iran starts making even more noise about its nukes to try to gin up nationalist support at home. Iranian-made weapons will probably also show up in increasing numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the strategy seems to be generating more resistance than it's deflecting, and will probably only hasten the day when someone steps in and pries the reins out of Ahmedinejad's hands.

As globalization accelerates, some fear most things will take on a depressing sameness. English is becoming the world's language, the dollar is a de facto world currency, and American celebrities' antics are inescapable as a global lowest common denominator. But, in measurements at least, the world will continue to preserve some variety for culture's sake. So one can infer from the EU Commission's decision to spare what the British still call the "imperial" system of measurements from the bureaucrats' ax. Plans had been to ban use of the units by 2009.

The British will now be permitted for the foreseeable future to print measurements in their beloved miles, gallons, and pounds (along side the metric units that the EU has required be printed for some time). And the United States has been saved from being one of only three countries to make extensive use of the system—along with economic powerhouses Liberia and Burma. 

Alan Blinder, the eminent Princeton economist who literally wrote the book on the subject, has been making waves lately with his confession of doubt about the benefits of free trade. Because of the wide range of jobs that can be done remotely and the massive populations of India and China entering the world's labor force, he worries that some 30 to 40 million American jobs will be at risk of offshoring. 

Most other economists have rushed to the defense of free trade against this "apostasy." This laissez-faire crowd argues that Blinder fails to take into account the benefits from trade to consumers; that he underestimates the economy's ability to adjust; that the same changes he looks at open new export possibilities; and that the transition will be so gradual that it won't be a problem. And finally, there's little that can be done about it anyway.

All of the criticisms are correct. But all of them miss the point.

Blinder continues to recognize the benefits that free trade brings, and emphatically eschews any protectionism. What he is picking up on is a brewing change in the U.S. political debate over trade. So far, the losers from trade have come disproportionately from the manufacturing sector. Service sector employees and highly skilled professionals, meanwhile, benefit from lower prices and increased demand for their work. Members of those two groups, however, will be increasingly less likely to see tangible benefits that outweigh the added risk that free trade brings. Since any protectionist fix will almost certainly be a cure far worse than the disease, it is crucial to head off the development of a new anti-trade coalition before it grows too strong.

Blinder recommends a pretty standard mix of social support and education to prepare the workforce for the coming changes. But trying to address a political problem with wonkish economic policies probably won't cut it. More important will be the realization by the businesses and professionals that benefit from open economies—business services firms, technology companies, and the many exporting industries in which the U.S. still has a competitive advantage—that they need to actively defend a system that allows them to prosper.

Back in January, Passport posted on a scary Defense Department report that warned of Canadian coins that had been transformed into tracking devices.  It turns out the whole things was a big misunderstanding:

An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind a U.S. Defense Department false espionage warning earlier this year about mysterious coin-like objects with radio frequency transmitters.

The harmless "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them.

The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nanotechnology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.

Yes, U.S. defense officials were spooked by Canadian lucre bearing an unusual floral design. Moreover, their fears were transmitted pretty much uncritically to the rest of the defense establishment. And the whole thing could have been cleared up by turning to the nearest friend from north of the border and simply asking, "What's this coin thingy, eh?" 

Andy Richter sure gets around. Two weeks ago, Passport noted the late-night comedian's eerie resemblance to Swedish Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg. But Richter may have had a prior second job—as first president of the Russian Federation. Take a look at the video tribute to Yeltsin below, this week's Thursday Video: 

Could Andy Richter have actually secretly ended the Cold War?

Burak Kara/Getty Images

Democracy has had a rough run over the past year or so. Military interventions in Thailand and Bangladesh ended decades-long experiments with elected governments. In Lebanon and Ukraine, the "color revolutions" of 2004 have barely been able to hold back revisionists seeking to grab back the power of the state. Elections in Nigeria last week were a debacle, while earlier polls in the Congo were followed swiftly by a resumption of political violence. China cheerfully peddles its recipe for one-party state-sponsored growth with a side of brutality throughout Africa. Russia, meanwhile, increasingly doesn't even bother to pretend it's a democracy, while those who point that out have developed the disturbing habit of turning up dead.

Now Turkey may succumb to the anti-democratic tide as well. The mildly Islamist ruling party enjoys wide support, but not from the military or the traditional governing elite. An attempt by the government to move its candidate for the presidency through parliament met with widespread protests by secularists and an ominous veiled threat from the military to intervene if necessary to protect the separation of mosque and state. A court ruling against the government and a call for fresh elections have postponed a direct clash between the two sides. The conflict seems to pit modernity and secularism against democratic values, however—not an appetizing choice.

To get to the bottom of these developments, FP talked Turkey with Andrew Mango, a longtime scholar of the geopolitically crucial country. In this week's Seven Questions, he explains that the conflict has roots deep in Turkish culture and that neither side can claim a monopoly on democratic values. Sitting uncomfortably between the West and the Middle East, Turkey has long been a bridge between the two; its direction will have far-reaching implications for them both. Check it out.

President Bush has kept his dance moves mostly under wraps for six years, preferring, it seems, to let subordinates step into the limelight when the music comes on. At a recent White House event on combating malaria, though, the president just couldn't help himself. His rhythmic stylings are today's Thursday Video. Personally, I think he's got Karl Rove's moves beat.