Not so fast. The very first sentence is wrong:

the French government's decision to raise its pension retirement age from 60 to 62

That's the early retirement age they're raising, to the same 62 as the US has. The normal retirement age is being raised from 65 to 67, 1 year later than the US at 66. Oopsies.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/more-comm..., confirmed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement

Despite it all, I enjoy reading Friedman. Even though his job description is apparently "be professionally wrong about everything for the New York Times", there's something cozy and comfy about his writing. His tone communicates that the world makes sense and the moustache will explain it to you. What's interesting is how nice it makes one feel, even when one knows the probability of any sentence being bullshit approaches 1.

Edit: Friedman also has the merit of inspiring the greatest smackdown review of our time. There aren't nearly enough laughs of this calibre in this world:

http://www.nypress.com/article-11419-flathead.html