[Europe] [2009.02.26] In a stew 麻烦缠身的政府 stew, 政府, 缠身, 麻烦

stonechow

Protests in Ireland   爱尔兰的抗议

In a stew    麻烦缠身的政府

Feb 26th 2009 | DUBLIN
From The Economist print edition

Tough times for Ireland’s government—and its people

爱尔兰政府的日子不好过——人民也是如此


WHEN more than 100,000 people paraded through Dublin on February 21st, it was the biggest march the Irish capital had seen since 1980. Then, binmen joined bankers in protest against Ireland’s high tax rates. This time there was less social solidarity. The marchers were mostly public-sector workers angry over a plan to cut their pay, via a 7% pension levy. They were also outraged by the behaviour of bankers, whom one union leader accused of economic treason.

二月21日，十万多人民聚集在都柏林举行示威游行，这是自1980年以来爱尔兰首都经历过的最大的游行。当时清洁工人还与银行家站在同一战线来抗议爱尔兰的高税收政策。而这次，缺少了那样的社会团结，示威者大多数是公共部门的员工，不满政府想要通过提高7%的养老金征收额度而减少他们的实际收入的计划。他们也被银行家的行为激怒，其中一位负责人被指控犯经济叛国罪。

The government has injected euro 3.5 billion ($4.5 billion) into each of the country’s two largest banks, but this has not impressed markets. Shares in Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland have fallen sharply. After the bursting of the property bubble, more than euro 7 billion may be needed to cover bad loans to developers. In January the government nationalised Anglo Irish Bank (often seen as the builders’ bank), after its chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick, failed to disclose some euro 83m in personal loans. This week anti-fraud police raided the bank to investigate alleged breaches of company law.

政府已经分别对该国最大的两家银行注资35亿欧元（约45亿美元），但市场却没有多大反应。爱尔兰联合银行和爱尔兰银行的股票仍然大幅度下跌。经历了资产泡沫的破灭之后，至少需要70亿欧元给投资者填充坏账。一月份，在其原主席肖恩.菲次帕特里克无法说明8300万欧元个人贷款的去处之后，政府已经对盎格鲁-爱尔兰银行（常被视为建筑商的银行）实行国有化。本周，爱尔兰警察反欺诈部门突袭该银行，声称是调查违反公司法行为。

The prime minister, Brian Cowen, faces two crunches: the banks and the public finances. So far, he has had little success in tackling either. His government’s popularity ratings, and his own, have dived. He is struggling to avoid nationalising the two biggest banks. And his fiscal plan is in trouble. It aims to keep the budget deficit below 10% of GDP this year (the highest in the European Union), and to achieve balance by 2013, via spending cuts and tax rises worth 8% of GDP. Tough, yet most economists doubt it is enough. The European Commission is sceptical. The government’s proposals, it has said, lack detail and its growth assumptions are too optimistic.

爱尔兰总理布莱恩.科恩面临两大难题：银行和公共财政。迄今为止，他在处理其中任一问题上都几乎毫无成果。因而他及他政府的民众支持率也直线下降。他极力避免对该国的最大两家银行也施行国有化。而他的财政计划也遇到了麻烦：其目标是将预算赤字保持在今年DGP的10%（这已是欧盟中最高的数值了）以下，并通过减少开支及增加8%的GDP的税收，在2013年实现财政收支平衡。虽然经济学家们还在怀疑这些举措是否足够，但光这些施行起来就很困难了。欧洲委员会对此也表示怀疑。他们认为爱尔兰政府的提议缺乏细节说明，而对经济增长的假设显然是过于乐观。

This may force the government to try to trim the deficit sooner, this year and next, not later in its five-year plan. That would mean raising taxes earlier than expected. Mr Cowen had been hoping to delay that unpalatable medicine. He faces European and local elections in June and, in the autumn, a second referendum on the EU’s Lisbon treaty, which recent polls suggest should be winnable. The state now pays higher rates on its bonds than Greece. With increasing talk of potential default on its sovereign debt, Ireland has become the weakest link in the euro. Mr Cowen has little time left to turn things round.

这促使爱尔兰政府试图将赤字计划提前到今明两年，而不是五年计划中所说的稍迟时间。这意味着增税政策可能比预计的提前，虽然科恩总理之前一直希望这剂苦味的药能够迟点放。他面临着六月份欧洲议会和本国议会的选举，而今年秋天，根据最近的民意调查可能通过的欧盟里斯本条约的第二次公民投票也将举行。爱尔兰今年的债券利率比希腊还高。但关于政府可能拖欠国债的传言越来越多，这些使得爱尔兰成为欧盟经济中最薄弱的一个环节。科恩总理已经没有时间去扭转局势了。

stonechow

为什么不管怎么编辑都只能显示前面部分的内容呢？？ 达人指教！！

原来不能显示欧元符号的啊 ，谢谢meiyongchun