Among Italian newspapers reacting to the new "solidarity" tax hike for high-earning Italians, Il Giornale – which is owned by Berlusconi's brother – was the fiercest, saying "We are furious" in a front-page editorial and claiming that the PM was hitting his own electorate hardest. Berlusconi himself appeared a shadow of his former ebullient self on Friday as he announced Italy's second austerity budget in as many months, blaming the global economic crisis. He said: "Our heart bleeds when we think that one of the good things about this government was that it had never put its hands in the pockets of Italians." For Italian daily La Stampa, the cuts and tax increases, which must now be approved by parliament, are another nail in the coffin of the scandal-weakened prime minister. "A funeral has been celebrated where the man officiating and the man buried were one and the same – Silvio Berlusconi," it wrote. Hastily concocted to satisfy the European Central Bank, which stepped in to buy Italian bonds last week after interest rates soared, the cuts have been criticised for threatening to strangle economic growth when Italy needs it most. But the decree also contains measures to liberalise the moribund Italian economy, seen as the best way to boost GDP and work off some of Italy's €1.9tn public debt, which has ballooned since Berlusconi took office. The simplification of Italy's complex local government structure will see the scrapping up to 35 provincial councils and around 50,000 elected posts. Companies will have freer rein to negotiate contracts with staff, while a plethora of non-religious holidays will be shunted to Sundays to improve productivity. But the decree offers no more than incentives to local authorities to privatise services and limited plans to open up Italy's closed-shop trade guilds, which help perpetuate the country's system of fixed prices and nepotism. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Tuesday in their latest effort to get a grip on the mounting sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone. The embattled leaders have promised to put forward "joint recommendations aimed at strengthening political and economic governance in the euro area", by the end of the summer.
Access Investments-Building Awareness - European Union-ROMANIA
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Among Italian newspapers reacting to the new "solidarity" tax hike for high-earning Italians, Il Giornale – which is owned by Berlusconi's brother – was the fiercest, saying "We are furious" in a front-page editorial and claiming that the PM was hitting his own electorate hardest. Berlusconi himself appeared a shadow of his former ebullient self on Friday as he announced Italy's second austerity budget in as many months, blaming the global economic crisis. He said: "Our heart bleeds when we think that one of the good things about this government was that it had never put its hands in the pockets of Italians." For Italian daily La Stampa, the cuts and tax increases, which must now be approved by parliament, are another nail in the coffin of the scandal-weakened prime minister. "A funeral has been celebrated where the man officiating and the man buried were one and the same – Silvio Berlusconi," it wrote. Hastily concocted to satisfy the European Central Bank, which stepped in to buy Italian bonds last week after interest rates soared, the cuts have been criticised for threatening to strangle economic growth when Italy needs it most. But the decree also contains measures to liberalise the moribund Italian economy, seen as the best way to boost GDP and work off some of Italy's €1.9tn public debt, which has ballooned since Berlusconi took office. The simplification of Italy's complex local government structure will see the scrapping up to 35 provincial councils and around 50,000 elected posts. Companies will have freer rein to negotiate contracts with staff, while a plethora of non-religious holidays will be shunted to Sundays to improve productivity. But the decree offers no more than incentives to local authorities to privatise services and limited plans to open up Italy's closed-shop trade guilds, which help perpetuate the country's system of fixed prices and nepotism. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Tuesday in their latest effort to get a grip on the mounting sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone. The embattled leaders have promised to put forward "joint recommendations aimed at strengthening political and economic governance in the euro area", by the end of the summer.
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1 comment:
Well done Maggie thatcher....what a load of twaddle...'private enterprise will be more efficent, provide competition and keep prices low for consumers'..we knew it was bollocks when you said it.
The decision makers (highly paid execs and millionaire politicians) don't give a shit about the rest of us. OFGEM are useless but under political rule.
Suppliers are simply doing cost plus pricing, and as a cartel don't need to cut costs and become 'efficient', easy money
best idea is to emigrate or just say we've had enough, along with all the other cuts the Coalition impose on us while Banks laugh all the way to the next champagne party.
It'll never end until we have a bloody revolt and SHOW them we've taken enough of this crap, which will never happen because people are just too blooming lazy and apathetic...so, you get what you deserve...stop whinging !
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