 |  | | Economics & Politics | | ON March 24 the Portuguese
prime minister, Jose Socrates,
resigned after all the opposition
parties rejected his austerity
plan, which included slashing
pensions by more than €1,500 a
month and more cuts in tax benefits.
His government´s collapse triggered an
election, which could not take place for
another two months. During the interim
Socrates stayed on as acting prime
minister and reached an agreement
with the European Union and the
International Monetary Fund for a
€78bn bailout. The terms? Almost
exactly the same as those proposed by
him and rejected by the Portuguese
parliament six weeks earlier.
When the elections finally took place
the political class could sense a certain
degree of cynicism. The Portuguese
president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, warned
voters they could not complain about
what... |
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| |  | | CASH CON BY
CORPORATES |
| WATCHING the evolution
of economic discussion
in
Washington over the
past couple of years
has been a disheartening experience.
Month by month, the discourse
has gotten more primitive;
with stunning speed, the lessons
of the 2008 financial crisis have
been forgotten, and the very ideas
that got us into the crisis - regulation
is always bad, what´s good
for the bankers is good for
America, tax cuts are the universal
elixir - have regained their
hold.
And now trickle-down economics
- specifically, the idea that
anything that increases corporate
profits is good for the economy -
is making a comeback.
On the face of it, this seems
bizarre. Over the past two years
profits have soared while employment
has remained disastrously
high. Why should anyone believe
that handing even more money to
corporations, no strings... |
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Philippine policeman kills witness
AFP
ZAMBOANGA
A PHILIPPINE policeman assigned to protect witnesses in a kidnapping trial went on a shooting spree, killing a colleague and one of the people in his care on Tuesday, their commander said.
A second witness was wounded in the incident at a justice department safehouse in the southern city of Zamboanga, said the city police chief, Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo.
The shooting suspect, Carmelito Macasantos, and his dead colleague had been detailed to guard the witnesses and protect them from potential reprisals in a trial involving other police officers, de Ocampo told reporters.
“Those two (police guards) had a long-standing grudge and they had an altercation and a shoot-out,” de Ocampo said.
The two witnesses were hit in the crossfire, and one of them was later pronounced dead at a local hospital along with the other officer involved in the shootout, the police chief added.
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