“Half way through his four-year term, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is trying to curb popular resentment over what opponents say is a widening gulf between private employees and about 600,000 public workers who have mostly stayed immune to mass job cuts. What’s bothering the Portuguese isn’t just that austerity helped prolong a recession and sent unemployment to a record 18 percent, it’s also that the government used taxation more than those in Greece and Ireland to try to narrow the budget deficit. Some workers on the state payrolls are perceived to have escaped the deterioration in living standards being felt by others.”
Related posts:
Hunt for Dollars Sends Argentines Into the 'Cave'
Body cam shows dad had hands up when cops killed his 6-year-old son
Engineers build bug-eyed camera that sees the world as flies do
American teens savvy to smartphone apps that include location tracking
How a gov. spelling mistake bankrupted a 134-year-old family business
Target Increases Number of People Hit in Data Breach To 70 Million
D.C. house inspires 168 bids in red-hot real estate market
Arizona governor vetoes bill making gold legal tender
Spanish bank deposits turn into a waking Iberian nightmare
Has military Keynesianism come to an end?
John Kerry: Syria war no time for 'armchair isolationism'
U.S. banks eye metal storage exit
Jeff Berwick on Bloomberg TV: Galt's Gulch Chile and Bitcoin
Contra Costa's $45 million computer health care system endangering lives, nurses say
California man is exonerated after 25 years on death row