With a steep recession in full swing, it’s French-bashing time again on the editorial pages and in the business sectionsof American newspapers. As the Obama administration frantically weighed policy options, pundits agonized over theprospect of the U.S. government’s taking stakes in banks, and automakers contemplated France with a mix of horrorand resignation. When, last February, the Washington Post dared a tentative endorsement of government takeovers,it did so apologetically, reassuring its readers that it shared their distaste for Gallic planning: “We can understand whytalk of bank nationalization freaks out the stock market: The very notion is so, well, French.” The New York Times’seconomics columnist David Leonhardt called for temporary nationalizations, but he took pains to distinguish themfrom the nefarious takeovers inflicted by leftist ideologues.