No doubt. We are in the hands of thieves. The Barcenas, Pallerols, Crespo, Nóos and Mercurio cases, added to the Gürtel case, Millet, Champion, Pretoria and many others, show that those who have been giving us lessons of austerity have been benefitting: not only the bankers and businessmen but also, when the cameras have not focussed on them, the politicians, who have filled their pockets in order to live i ...

Germany and Switzerland: two solid financial rocks in the EU crisis or just fantastic at “social maquillage”? (with thanks to Mr. Kundera). These days the EU is going through serious growing pains. The economic disciplining is in full motion and it’s a very “tough discipline”. The irresponsible countries and people of Southern Europe need to be more like Germany and Switzerland or it will be chaos. This pre ...

By R. Nastranis Church leaders from around the world have expressed solidarity with the much pooh-poohed and crisis-ridden Greece in a two-day visit to the country during which they met Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece as well as the Deputy Foreign Minister Constantinos Tsiaras. They were told that the severe challenges facing Greece are only one part of a larger dilemma within Europe and th ...

A general strike is underway across Europe today as millions are protesting spending cuts and tax hikes they say have deepened the region’s economic crisis. Spanish and Portuguese workers are coordinating their strike with work stoppages underway in Greece, Italy, France and Belgium. We go to Madrid for an update from independent journalist María Carrión. She notes the general strike comes after a 53-year-o ...

By Apostolis Fotiadis Ignoring the thousands of protestors gathered outside the Greek parliament on Wednesday, the government voted in public spending cuts amounting to 17 billion dollars in an economy already on its knees from a lacerated budget. The government was promised 40 billion dollars of bailout money in exchange for the implementation of this fresh bout of austerity. But the country’s creditors – ...

Let the banks fail 2008 was a year of financial disaster and near government collapse. The crisis has been deemed by economists as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1930s. But in the worldwide turmoil, the country that got hit the hardest is undoubtably Iceland. With so many countries sticking with the “Too big to fail” mentality, Iceland took a different approach. Take a look at this ...

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, rejected today any negotiations with Catalonia that may lead to grant the region more autonomy in tax matters because it is not compatible with the Spanish Constitution. In a statement, the president of the conservative Popular Party (PP) marked thus his position on this complex issue that was discussed Thursday in Madrid during a meeting with President Rajoy with ...

Record unemployment rates and budget cuts implemented by governments have caused a fall in consumer confidence within the Eurozone, the European Commission (EC) reported on Thursday. The indicator dropped to a negative 25.9 points from a negative 24.6 in August, an action also caused by dismissals and elevated inflation resulting from high oil prices. In July, unemployment hit 18 million people in the Euroz ...