Word: yigal
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Begin was caught in a collision between two headstrong members of his government. On one side was Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz, a tough administrator who has repeatedly threatened to resign and now stood adamantly opposed to any concession to the teachers. He argued that the proposed pay hikes would cost the government $2 billion over a period of 16 months and aggravate Israel's colossal annual inflation rate. That rate now stands at 140%, the highest in the world...
...stolid, jowly man whose face seems lugubriously appropriate to Israel's dire economic straits, Yigal Hurvitz, 62, who resigned as Finance Minister on Sunday, seems to thrive on political notoriety. Month after month, he had focused attention on himself in the Israeli Cabinet by challenging virtually every discretionary item of the government's planned 1981 budget. His goal: to pare public spending, hold unemployment to a tolerable 41/2% to 5% and, somehow, simultaneously bring the annual 140% inflation rate down to double digits by the end of the year. Understandably, he was not always thanked for his tightfistedness...
...fact, he failed either to lower inflation or to cut the budget. Nevertheless, he topped political polls in the country as the best choice for Finance Minister. Often less appreciatively, his Cabinet colleagues jocularly referred to him as "Yigal the Printer" because of his policy of increasing the money supply as a means of keeping the economy moving...
...investment. He bought into a farm cooperative, moved on to one small dairy products company after another and demonstrated an unusual knack for turning unprofitable ventures into money earners. Says his brother Amos, a Knesset member of the opposition Labor Party: "I really don't know how Yigal came to this kind of thing. His major mistake as Finance Minister was to take the job in the first place...
...government, some 8,000 members of Histadrut, the large labor federation, demonstrated outside the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem. Said Yeruham Meshel, the organization's secretary-general: "This government is indifferent to the public's mood." Other critics demanded the resignation of Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz, often called Yigal the Printer for his willingness to issue new currency to keep up with inflation. Seeing the Begin government thrown on the defensive, the opposition decided to strike...