French President Francois Hollande must learn taxes alone can’t solve the problems of Europe’s second-largest economy
austerity
Britain’s Breadline: Austerity Leads to Growing Ranks of the Hungry
For the first time since World War II, the Red Cross has had to help collect food aid in the U.K. as welfare cuts and rising prices lead to an explosion of charity food banks for the hungry
Spain Ends Two-Year Recession
The country with the highest unemployment rate in Europe has announced economic growth for the first time in 10 straight quarters
Greece’s Garbage Crisis: A Stinky Metaphor for an Economy in the Dumps
It is like a dark inversion of the tourist images of Greece. Seagulls circle not over the clear blue waters of the Aegean, but a bleak, cratered landscape, swooping down to compete with human scavengers and mangy dogs for spoils …
Spain and Portugal’s Huddled Masses Seek Jobs in Former Colonies
There are few better places that illustrate the impact of the Spanish conquest of Latin America than the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco, Peru. Cathedrals with foundations of perfectly hewn Incan stone sit atop the ruins of what was once the mountain capital of the great Incan empire. Chapels gleam with Andean gold and silver, a testament to the …
Must-Reads from Around the World
WHO says strain of bird flu found in humans for the first time in China is not a cause for panic, and the Catholic Church in Western Europe and the U.S. have a severe shortage of priests
Swiss Account of Ex-Minister Further Darkens Hollande’s Political Fortunes
Former French Minister responsible for hunting tax dodgers and enforcing austerity acknowledges claims he has a secret Swiss bank account, dealing another blow to President François Hollande’s slumping fortunes as appeal of extreme-right rises.
Portuguese Prime Minister’s Personal Tax Number Leaked by Anti-Austerity Group
Thousands of fake bills bearing Pedro Passos Coelho’s personal tax number are pouring into revenue offices — and could prompt an investigation of the Prime Minister’s finances.
Italy’s Elections: Split Vote Yields No Clear Winner and an ‘Unholy Mess’
What Italy needed was stability. What it got was anything but. After a lackluster campaign, the front-running center-left candidate Pier Luigi Bersani fell short of being able to being able to form a government, leaving the third …
The European Slump: France Gives Up Lowering Its Budget Deficit
France’s ruling leftists concede they won’t meet 3% budget-deficit-reduction targets amid 2012 fourth-quarter growth numbers from across Europe indicating things getting worse, rather than better
Entombing the Tomb of the Gladiator: Who Will Save the Roman Ruins?
Italy is running out of money to preserve the remains of the Roman Empire
‘No Glimmers of Hope’: Two Years After Egypt’s Revolution, an Economic Crisis Looms
Ramadan Khalaf Amin, 24, a microbus driver who earns the equivalent of $4.50 a day, is one of the myriad faces of the Egyptian revolution the world does not know. “I was going down to Tahrir the whole time,” Amin remembers of …
Europe Rises Up: Day of Anti-Austerity Rage Grips the Continent
From Portugal to Greece, activists and workers furious with the new conditions of austerity governments are imposing on their societies took to the streets in what was dubbed the continent’s first ever united General Strike.