Portugal to face bailout review

27 February 2012

BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17183345

 

 

“Portugal’s austerity programme has sparked major protests.

Portugal will find out on Tuesday whether it has passed the latest test of its main international backers…  Last month, it reached an agreement with unions and employers to cut holidays and the compensation paid when workers are laid-off.  Under the deal, it was also made easier to hire and fire staff. There have been deep cost cuts that are hitting public sector workers particularly hard. Many will see their income cut by a quarter this year compared to 2010.”

 

The “well to do”,  many “one percenters”, who work for and manage the lending institutions, banks and corporations are responsible for the irresponsible “deals” that resulted in the great crisis of 2008.  Yet, these same organisations ply their management with huge bonuses, have mostly more than recovered – many boosted their net worth with “bailout” money – and have emerged better off than before. 

Sadly, we see here, as in other countries such as Greece, that it is the relatively poor – workers they are referred as – who bear the cost.  With 25.4 millionaires around the globe, just think about what a mere 1% tax increase, which they wouldn’t miss, would mean to “the workers.”