Anti-austerity bloc brings down Portugal's government

Hi

This is great news for all of those people working or wanting to work.

The pro austerity government of Portugal which was only sworn in 2 weeks ago has been forced to resign.

Proposals to continue with austerity were blocked by parliament and backed by public anger.

This is fantastic news. This myth of cutting government spending is being exposed. The fact this is destroying people's lives is being heard finally by those in government. Now let's see what the big bad bankers response will be.

link

a reply to: liteonit6969
Right On, Right On, Right On

a reply to: liteonit6969

As they would say in Poland

Jesteśmy Ludźmi

"We are the people!"

A WIN FOR THE PEOPLE!!!!! This is great news, let's see more of THIS!

a reply to: FamCore

Hoping this spreads. If people see this and take hope from it maybe the people will win. The British government are the worst. The English people HAVE to wake up now before its too late. Educate yourselves. The lies the tory government spew is frightening given they get away with it.

Portugal is a beautiful country. Hopefully the world see how free they are and flock there for the tourism. Small business will benefit.

So now what?
They already took a bailout to get them out of trouble. They will have to cut or they will not be able to pay their bills.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Who took a bailout? Whose they?

The fact is the people living, working didn't see any of this so called bailout. It's all a con.

When spending cut /austerity implemented the economy drops and wealth is redistributed back to the wealthy who bought government bonds. When the government spending is high the economy booms.

If these governments are trying to kickstand their economies then why are they taking money out of the public domain? Why are they deliberately crashing their economies? Because these people can't all be stupid.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
So now what?
They already took a bailout to get them out of trouble. They will have to cut or they will not be able to pay their bills.

It appears that in Portugal, they were in austerity after the bailout and it ended in people leaving the country, unhappy people and high unemployment. More austerity is not going to help.

a reply to: liteonit6969


This is right out of the article.

"One of Europe’s troubled PIGS, Portugal took a €78 billion bailout in 2011 and since then has spiraled into austerity dead-end fueling mass social unrest and emigration."

You can decide who they is.

Why they had debt issues is another question.

originally posted by: liteonit6969
a reply to: FamCore

Hoping this spreads. If people see this and take hope from it maybe the people will win. The British government are the worst. The English people HAVE to wake up now before its too late. Educate yourselves. The lies the tory government spew is frightening given they get away with it.

They get away with it because the vast majority only ever use the papers and/or TV for their news. THe ONLY way news was disseminated in the 70's to 90's was via this way which is why the general public has a very distorted view of left wing ideas. That news is fed at best in such short paragraphs (to match the attention span of the average reader) that the full truth is never explained.

For example, consider this one liner which was spouted every time any member of the coalition was interviewed :

"Due to the economic mess that the previous administration left us with....."

It's actually quite brilliant. Half a sentence. It is not a lie. What it does not say is what the cause of the economic mess was (the banking crisis which affected the whole world ). Instead they imply it was decisions made by Brown. Any idiot with a browser can download the data and see what boll.cks that assumption is.

Now we have Jeremy Corbyn who is bypassing the press and instead posting full facts on social media. No more cherry picked videos that make Cameron look assertive but the full PMQ that shows him to be an agitated liar. Full videos of JC hitting back with clever put downs instead of the bar room slagging. "The Prime Minister did try and answer that, and I respect that I really do" or "If the Prime Minister does not know the answer he can always send me letter afterwards". Every time the press or Cameron come out with lie about what JC said in the past he posts the original full video for all to see.

THe anti Corbynistas are getting very agitated on social media, it's fricking brilliant.

And how many of those people out of work were working government jobs previously?

a reply to: Bluntone22

Cutting government doesn't help pay the bills, it makes thing worse.

a reply to: ScepticScot

Out of curiosity, what does increasing government do?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: ScepticScot

Out of curiosity, what does increasing government do?

Depends both on the type of government spending and the state of the economy. When demand is low and unemployment high, increased government spending can raise economic output and therefore raise government revenues. The rather counter intuitive, but fairly obvious when you actually think about it, point is that spending more can (in the right circumstances) reduce the deficit.
Portugal's situation is of course complicated by being in the Euro which is why stimulus activity really needs to be coordinated at European level (which it wont be because of Germany).

a reply to: ScepticScot

The rather counter intuitive, but fairly obvious when you actually think about it, point is that spending more can (in the right circumstances) reduce the deficit.

Actually, it isn't obvious. Unless you consider inflation to be productive.

Don't get me wrong, I understand how money actually works and that debt is not necessarily bad. I also understand that government does not produce anything and that spending without production only results in more debt.

a reply to: Phage

Inflation would only be the likely result if there is no spare capacity within the system to increase production, does that sound like the Portuguese economy at the moment? In time of crisis government have to be prepared to be the spender of last resort as well as the lender of last resort.

Not a believer in the quote from authority thing, but for me this sums it up pretty well.

With men and plants unemployed, it is ridiculous to say that we cannot afford these new developments. It is precisely with these plants and these men that we shall afford them.”
- J M Keynes

So...what's the plan, and since they're evidently eyeball deep in debt, where's the ROI for anti-austerity measures?

I get that you gotta spend money to make money, but if you're fresh out of moolah, where the hell do you get the money you need for ROI? Inflation doesn't exactly work wonders (ask Zimbabwe)

a reply to: ScepticScot

In time of crisis government have to be prepared to be the spender of last resort as well as the lender of last resort.

What capacity does the government of Portugal have to dig it's way out of the deeper hole it is digging?

a reply to: Nyiah

Portugal is limited by being part of the Euro but there is no limited to the money the EU has. Inflation would only be an issue if production didn't rise and I believe there is currently plenty of spare capacity across Europe.

a reply to: Phage
On its own fairly little, the EU on the other hand.

a reply to: Bluntone22

So now what?
They already took a bailout to get them out of trouble. They will have to cut or they will not be able to pay their bills.

I wonder where all that bailout money went ?...did it go to the people ?...the government ? or to the banks ?...

I am going to take a wild guess and go with option number 3 ..how about you ?>