PARIS -- A number of problems continue to darken the world as it prepares for a new century and a new millennium: chronic warfare in Afghanistan, Africa and Columbia; widespread terrorism; a stalemate in Kosovo; fear over the plans of "rogue states" such as North Korea, Iraq and Iran; the refusal of the United States, Russia and China to give up the production of antipersonnel mines; the likelihood that the U.S. -- whose senate has already rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty -- will open a new chapter in the arms race with its new antiballistic-missile program; growing tension between Moscow (increasingly backed by Beijing) and Washington, the abject failure of the WTO meeting in Seattle; the spread of AIDS, environmental destruction, hunger and poverty in the developing world and soaring unemployment and crime in many supposedly developed countries.

Given these problems, plus the usual assortment of natural disasters, it seems paradoxical that the French are more optimistic now than they have been for decades.

While the incredible gains in the Paris stock market can be largely attributed to action by Anglo-American pension funds, global confidence in the French economy is steadily increasing.