Portugal’s riot police have clashed with demonstrators protesting against the government austerity measures, which include salary cuts and tax hikes. On Monday night, thousands of angry demonstrators made a large fire outside the parliament building in the capital Lisbon where the riot police used batons to disperse them. ...

Tens of thousands of Spanish and Portuguese protesters have gathered on the streets of Madrid and Lisbon to rally against the economic pain caused by the countries’ harsh austerity programs. In Spain, demonstrators spoke out against government spending cuts, tax hikes, and the nation’s alarmingly high unemployment rate. ...

No wonder the protesters are back. They are angry at the backdoor rewriting of the social contract Ha-Joon Chang   Rioters beat a policeman during a rally against government austerity measures in Athens. Photograph: John Kolesidis/REUTERS Throughout the 1980s and 90s, when many developing countries were in crisis and borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund, waves of protests in those count ...

Faced with unprecedented protests, the Portuguese government has been forced to withdraw the announced increase in workers' social security contributions. This is a victory for the movement of the Portuguese workers and people, but only a very temporary one. ...

The Deposit Flight Which Could Undermine the Euro By Yalman Onaran An accelerating flight of deposits from banks in four European countries is jeopardizing the renewal of economic growth and undermining a main tenet of the common currency: an integrated financial system. A total of 326 billion euros ($425 billion) was pulled from banks in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece in the 12 months ended July 31, a ...

Yesterday, Portugal saw the biggest mobilization since the 1974 revolution. Hundreds’s of thousands of people came to the streets to protest the new package of austerity measures being imposed by the troika. 3 People have been arrested for separate incidents. One of those arrested was caught in possession of explosives in front of the IMF offices in Lisbon. There is an uncertain number of injuries due to an ...

Its neighbors may be suffering, but the euro crisis has created conditions that actually benefit the German economy. Not only is the government enjoying the windfall of negative interest rates on bonds, but unemployment is down and exports are booming. By Stefan Schultz   It's every debtor's dream. When asked for a loan, the bank not only agrees, but actually pays the borrower for their patronage. It s ...

The threat of a Greek exit The escalating Greek crisis leaves Ireland and Portugal, in particular, ever more vulnerable   THE deep uncertainty over what will happen next in Greece unnerved financial markets. On May 7th the euro touched its lowest value against the dollar since January while in Athens the stockmarket fell by 7% and bank stocks by 13%. Greek bonds also took a hit, with the yield on the t ...

By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist and hedge fund manager   News stories continue to suggest that Greece once again appears on the verge of reaching a deal with its private sector creditors on how much of a loss they would be willing to accept on their bond holdings. The latest numbers suggest a 70% write-down. A pretty striking comedown for what is supposed to be a “voluntary default” and, h ...

On the last day of 2011, a headline in The Wall Street Journal read: “Spain Misses Deficit Target, Sets Cuts.” The cruel forces of poor economic logic were at work to welcome in the new year. The European Union has become a vicious circle of burgeoning debt leading to radical austerity measures, which in turn further weaken economic conditions and result in calls for still more damaging cuts in government s ...