The French government thinks it knows the solution to its slow growth and loss of industry: Be more German, The Wall Street Journal reported. "I admire the German model," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said recently. "We need to learn from some aspects." The government is now carrying out a detailed comparison of its tax system with that of Germany, which has lower corporate and payroll taxes than France. Germany traditionally has grown more from investment and exports, which are now booming thanks to demand from China, and it generally has run lower budget deficits than France.

Analysts and investors said that France risks losing its top AAA grade as Europe’s debt crisis prompts a wave of downgrades that threatens to engulf the region’s highest-rated borrowers, with Belgium also facing a possible cut, Bloomberg News reported today. Moody’s Investors Service said on Dec. 15 that it may lower Spain’s rating, citing “substantial funding requirements,” and slashed Ireland’s rating by five levels on Dec. 17. Standard & Poor’s is reviewing its assessments of Ireland, Portugal and Greece.

French bank Natixis Thursday denied allegations made by a trustee seeking to recover assets for victims of Bernard Madoff's investment fraud, The Wall Street Journal reported. A lawsuit filed late Wednesday is seeking around $1.4 billion from seven U.S. and European banks, including Natixis. The trustee, Irving Picard, said the lawsuits, which were filed under seal, accuse the banks of overlooking warning signals about Mr. Madoff's fraud while receiving transfers of money from his firm through so-called "feeder funds" that invested most or all of their assets with him.

French bank officials lashed out Friday at a European plan to restrict bankers' bonuses, arguing it will put the lenders at a competitive disadvantage and complicate their operations outside Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. At a public hearing in London, bank executives and industry groups complained about rules that will force European banks to change the way they pay bonuses. The rules will require that a greater portion of the payouts take the form of stock rather than cash and that a large chunk is deferred several years rather than paid immediately.

Claiming a violation of rights to free movement, the European Commission Thursday said it has asked France to change a law that excludes nonresidents from enjoying limits on the taxes that wealthy citizens pay, a change the French government fears will force it to refund some revenue, The Wall Street Journal reported. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde rejected the request, saying it didn't seem legitimate that France should refund taxes that may well have been paid to another country on the income in question.

President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Tuesday “to guarantee order,” restore fuel supplies and crack down on “troublemakers,” as a quarter of France’s gas stations ran dry and other disruptions built from nationwide protests and strikes, the International Herald Tribune reported. His comments marked a hardening of the government’s resolve to hold to its program of reforming the indebted pension system despite the job actions by public workers at refineries and railways and in other key sectors. The final parliamentary vote on the plan may not come until early next week.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has aligned himself with German chancellor Angela Merkel in her push for changes to the European treaties to fortify the EU’s economic system, The Irish Times reported. In a joint declaration issued in Deauville last night, the two leaders said they had reached a new consensus on measures to strengthen Europe’s system of economic governance.

High school students clashed with police and protesters blocked two main highways in France on Monday as confrontation stiffened between an array of strikers and the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy over plans to raise the minimum age for retirement, The New York Times reported. The protests, as labor unions called for national stoppages on Tuesday, came as the Senate prepared to vote on Wednesday on a package of reforms to the retirement system proposed by Mr. Sarkozy to wrest France from the economic doldrums gripping many parts of Europe.

French strikers are extending their protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposed overhaul of the pension system as the government rebuffed calls to drop its plan to increase the retirement age, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. The Paris metro and long-distance trains will be disrupted for a second day after some unions opted to stay off the job, as did port workers in Marseille. The government said it won’t back down on a plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60, saying it’s necessary to save the pension system.

Aerospace giant Airbus says it’s confused as to why Mexicana continues to order replacement parts even though the Mexican airline hasn’t operated flights for the past month, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. Airbus is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan for vendor protections, such as assurance that it will be paid within seven days of delivering parts, after it received several unexpected orders from Mexicana in the past two weeks.