Word: reformer
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Like falling leaves in the Luxembourg Gardens and chestnut hawkers on the Champs-Elysées, public sector strikes are an almost inevitable feature of autumn in France. But this season there is an extra crispness to the recurring collision of labor entitlement and government reform. Unlike any of his recent predecessors, President Nicolas Sarkozy is willing to bet his entire mandate on victory in this decisive show-down with unions. He may, in fact, have little choice...
...plans to raise the retirement age for public-sector employees such as rail and utility workers. That's something successive governments have attempted repeatedly since the '80s, only to be thwarted by union-led opposition. Sarkozy's determination to storm the one bastion labor has successfully defended from creeping reform reflects his electoral promise to "rupture" with France's musty status quo. By launching that assault just six months into his five-year term, Sarkozy grasps how vital a victory in reforming public-sector pensions is to enabling the rest of his modernization program. "We were elected to transform France...
...Aside from Brazil's reputation for epic corruption, gaping inequality and baroque bureaucracy--it takes 152 days to start a business there, according to a KPMG consulting study, compared with 32 in Argentina--there are more pressing issues of an overvalued real, high taxation, weak infrastructure and especially pension reform. Incredibly, Brazilian pensioners receive more money as a share of GDP than the rest of the population of 188 million, sucking investment from badly neglected areas like education. Says Renato Fragelli, director of the Graduate School of Economics at the Fundação Getulio Vargas think tank...
...Conservation Security Program. We applaud Grunwald for addressing the negative impacts of current commodity programs, but he does our work and that of our national network of grass-roots family-farm and conservation advocates a disservice. For the past 20 years, SAC has been a leading advocate for commodity reform, and we certainly did not--nor do we ever plan to--back down...
...recent months, Müntefering had been pushing hard to preserve cost-saving measures introduced by the previous government against pressure from his own party to increase government spending. His resignation came shortly after he failed in coalition talks to prevent the government from rolling back a reform that had been credited with reducing unemployment. Despite occasional disagreements and opposing party affiliations, Müntefering generally got along well with Angela Merkel, despite their opposing party affiliations. His replacement as Vice Chancellor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who will retain his current post as foreign minister, has a more arm's-length...