The government of French Socialist President François Hollande reveals nearly $10 billion in new tax hikes largely affecting the rich and companies as part of a emphatically leftist agenda revealed July 4.
austerity
France Needs $43 Billion to Meet Debt Targets — but Rejects Austérité
French auditors reveal a $43 billion funding shortfall for 2012 and ’13, forcing Socialist President François Hollande to shift his focus from progrowth efforts to measures that look a lot like austerity he criticized elsewhere
Greek Elections: A Referendum on the Euro?
Greeks go to the polls on Sunday in an election that could determine whether the country stays in the euro zone — and perhaps the future of the currency union itself
Spanish Miners Protest Spending Cuts
Strikes, road blockades, and mine sit-ins continue as 8,000 mineworkers at over 40 coal mines in northern Spain continue their protests against their fiscally-wracked government’s decision to cut coal subsidies.
François Hollande’s Leftist Allies Lead French Vote
Leftist parties appear set to capture a majority in France’s parliamentary elections, leaving François Hollande with a freer hand to enact the pro-growth, socially-attentive policies he’s promised amid Europe’s debt crisis.
Despite the High Stakes, French Voters Yawn at Legislative Campaigns
No one ever expected France’s legislative elections to produce the sparks and passion that this year’s presidential contest did. But given the stakes involved for France—and Europe—in whether Socialist President François …
Must-Reads From Around the World, May 31, 2012
A Dissident Speaks – In an op-ed in The New York Times, Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who is in New York after escaping house imprisonment in China’s eastern Shandong province and fleeing to the U.S. embassy in Beijing, …
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 22, 2012
Summit Struggle – Ahead of Wednesday’s crunch E.U. summit, Der Spiegel reports that new French President François Hollande will pressure German Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to euro bonds, which she has so far strictly …
G-8 or G-Zero? Why the West No Longer Sets the Global Agenda
The spectacle of some of the most powerful leaders in the world gathering at Camp David on Friday for the G-8 summit and then for this weekend’s NATO anniversary in Chicago won’t disguise the fact that things seem to be gradually …
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 11, 2012
Fruit Flare-Up – China’s turned to a new weapon in its dispute with the Philippines over contested South China Sea islands. State-run People’s Daily gleefully reports that “fruit from the Philippines will receive stricter …
After Greece and France: Europe’s Revolt Against Austerity
I have a piece in the dead-tree TIME this week that looks at the election of François Hollande in France and connects it to the democratic revolt happening in Greece. What do they have in common? Both are reactions to the …
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 10, 2012
Pakistani Push-back – In an interview with the Guardian, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani insists his country did not shelter Osama bin Laden and blames global intelligence shortcomings for allowing the late al-Qaeda …
“For if austerity is allowed to run its course, and Berlin and Brussels continue to starve the beast, Europe could quickly become a hotbed of widespread social unrest.”