GroKo Politics - No Change of Key

Victor Grossman, Berlin Bulletin No. 67 Portside
The wrangling between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) had two main goals. In its election campaign the SPD had tried to sound leftish so as to keep or win back the votes of union members and at least some progressive voters. But now, to become part of a "grand coalition" government, it had to tone down such escapades and sooth the fears of big biz bosses.

labor

Irish Doctors Strike to Protest Work Hours Amid Austerity

Eamon Quinn The Wall Street Journal
There is a growing impatience with austerity among public-sector workers, as the government prepares a budget for 2014 that will inflict a seventh year of spending cuts and tax increases. Irish governments have sought to control costs in response to the country's worst-ever property and banking crisis that started over five years ago. The country is obliged by its bailout with the European Union and International Monetary Fund to public sector spending and jobs cuts.

The US-EU Trade Deal: Don't Buy the Hype

By Dean Baker The Guardian
In reality, this trade agreement is not about promoting prosperity for all, but powerful industry lobbies trying to dodge regulation

Lighting Europe's Lamp

Conn M. Hallinan
After years of brutal austerity, collapsing economies, widespread unemployment and shredding of the social welfare net, Italians said "basta!" "Enough!"

Europe’s Perpetual Crisis

Conn M. Hallinan International Policy Digest
Why, given the failure of austerity economics, haven't we seen a policy shift to stimulation of the economy?...the push for yet greater austerity has less to do with a deep concern by Europe’s elites over debt—it is high but manageable—than as part of a stealth campaign aimed at dismantling rules and regulations that protect worker rights, unions, and the environment. Meanwhile Washington is concerned with the effect of the economic crisis on the viability of NATO.
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