PARIS (Rooters) — The wave of Muslim youth violence that has spread across France for two weeks appeared to lose some momentum today, French police said, raising hopes that the country's worst civil unrest in almost 40 years may be starting to draw to a close.

And the reason was not the get-tough measures called for by France's hardline interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy and various conservative pundits, like aggressive policing, mass arrests, or sending in military troops. Rather, the riots seem to be petering out due to one simple fact: There aren't that many cars left to burn.

After torching hundreds, even thousands, of cars night after night, rioters are finding new ones hard to come by. "It used to be you could walk down any street and have your pick of Renaults, Peugeots, even the occaisional Fiat," said Karim Sharraf, 18, his words muffled by a black bandanna tied over his nose and mouth. "Now you have to hunt around for hours before you find anything good."

Another rioter agreed: "I'd even settle for a rusty old Deux-Cheveaux," said Ali al-Jadda, 16, aimlessly tossing an unlit molotov cocktail from hand to hand. "But there's hardly anything left."

In an afternoon press conference, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the ebbing tide of violence proves the superiority of France's economic policies.

"In America, where there are so many cars, this kind of unrest could last for months," de Villepin said. "But here in France, with our low levels of productivity and high unemployment, there just isn't that much to destroy in the first place."

De Villepin said France would act quickly to raise taxes and shorten the workweek to avoid any possibility of further riots.

FOLLOW-UP:
Wretchard of The Belmont Club takes a more serious look at French car-burning rates here.