Is Paris (France, Not Hilton) Burning Yet?

New riots in the heart of Old Europe, this time by France's answer to Jughead Jones over labor laws that threaten to put a dent in unemployment rates for them that run as high as 23 percent. Zut!

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at youths who pelted them with stones and torched cars in the heart of Paris.

The violence was part of nationwide protests against a new labour law that brought a quarter-million people onto France's streets. …

Their anger focuses on a new form of job contract that will allow employers to fire young workers within their first two years in a job without giving a reason.

The government says the flexibility will encourage companies to hire thousands of young people, bringing down unemployment rates that run at 23% among young adults and around double that in some of the depressed suburbs that were shaken by weeks of riots last year.

More here.

For a discussion of the connection between France's high unemployment and its labor laws that make employers less likely to hire workers, go here.