Daily Headline – 20/03/13

Cyprus rejects EU bailout

Cypriot MPs all vote to reject the EU bailout, the terms had been amended to to save the poor, there would be no levy on savings under €20,000 but still it was rejected.

If you are Cypriot and have under €20,000 of savings in the bank then surely you would have been happy at the deal, the poor wont have to pay for the crises and the wealthier will.

However Cypriots are up in arms! One could assume that the vast majority have more than €20,000 of savings, is Cyprus one of the richest countries in the world?

Admittedly this is coming from the same people who voted not to unite their island while those in the illegally occupied north voted yes!

Maybe the Cypriots would be happy if the 0% line was raised to €50,000 or do they think someone else should help keep their country afloat, can they not accept responsibility for their own decisions?

With the mafia, dodgy Russian money, Greece, Turkey and the EU it’s about time the Cypriots woke up, grew up and took control of their lives, the reality is capitalism doesn’t work, stop keeping it on life support!

Daily Headline – 17/03/13

Cyprus; workers pay the price for capitalism

The European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed a €10bn bailout of Cyprus.

The ongoing economic crises continues to engulf nations, this time it’s Cyprus, which without the bailout would cause ‘disorderly bankruptcy’ according to President Nicos Anastasiades.

As part of the ‘painful’ deal bank customers with savings under €100,000 will have to contribute 6.75% and those who have over €100,000 of savings will have to contribute 9.9%.

Naturally this has caused outrage amongst the people of Cyprus, both Cypriots and non-Cypriots. Though the alternative could be not being bailed out and savers losing 100%.

Anyway as per usual it is the normal people who suffer for the failings of capitalism, when will people stand up and stop accepting the constant attacks that capitalism blows upon the working class.

Cyprus’s ruling AKEL party, who rule with a minority government had this to say:

‘AKEL will not agree and consent to measures that will condemn the whole of the Cypriot people, and in particular the workers, unemployed, the young generation or the pensioners to dead ends and poverty, just as other peoples in southern Europe have been led to..’

Daily Headline – 07/03/13

Portuguese at their limit with austerity

The Portuguese are realising that the spending cuts are not working, the people are angry and depressed.

March 2^nd saw huge protests in the capital Lisbon that included people right across the spectrum, young, old, left, public workers and students.

The Portuguese accept that there must be some cuts but the level imposed by its government under the EU bailout terms are too much, too fast.

The EU has praised Portugal’s progress and urges them to continue despite the strong protests.

On March 13-14 there will be strikes by rail workers.
On March 21-23 there will be further strikes by staff at the national airline TAP.

People are calling for the resignation of all austerity-minded government ministers, an end to budget cuts, pay cuts/freezes and unemployment (which now stands at over 16%).

For further details click here.

Iceland; Socialism works!

By Leon J Williams

Since the economic crisis Iceland has been on the verge of bankruptcy, it’s banking sector collapsed followed by huge international anger at the government allowing their banks to fail, rather than as with the US and UK which bailed out those banks with taxpayers money.

So since these times how have the three countries fared?

I have taken a little look at unemployment, national debt and tax rates for Iceland, the US and the UK from 2010-2012.

Unemployment
……….Iceland   USA      UK
Peak     9.4%      9.4%     8.1%
Now      5.4%      7.75%   7.8%

Debt (as % of GDP)
……….Iceland   USA       UK
2010     123.8     94.2      82.2
2011      99.1      102.9     82.4
2012      97.3      106.5     88.4

Tax Rates (up to)
…………… Iceland    USA      UK
Income tax      46.24%     15.3%    50%
Corporate tax   20%        39%      24%
VAT             25.5%      0%       17.5%

Movement
……….Tax   Debt   Unemployment
Iceland   ↗       ↘          ↘
USA       ↘       ↗          ↘
UK        ↘       ↗          ↘

Iceland’s unemployment rate has fallen by 4% the most during this period and is the only country of the three whose overall tax has increased and is the only country whose national debt has fallen.

Some will say this is clear that the policy of socialism of increasing taxes for everyone (not just the poor) works and in a sustainable way.

Often the specific type of socialism is referred to as ‘Nordic Socialism’.

Whether or not this is a form of socialism or not it should help put to bed the myth that the right-wing churn out that you must lower taxes so that businesses will employ people which will in turn reduce government debt as less people depend on the state.