neoliberalism archives — Page 33 of 55

Man commits suicide after stocks plunge

Posted on 13/10/200809/02/2021 By 3arabawy

An Egyptian man committed suicide on Monday after losing his savings which he had invested in the plummeting stock market, a security official said.
The 56-year-old man was found hanging by a rope in his Cairo home by his children, the official said.
He had saved money working in Kuwait before returning to Egypt and investing in Egyptian stocks, whose key values have more than halved in recent months amid the global financial crisis.
His children reported he had threatened to kill himself because of his financial troubles, the official said.
The World Health Organization warned last week that the global economic crisis is likely to cause an upsurge in suicides and mental illness as people struggle to cope with losing their homes or livelihoods.
The warning came after a 45-year-old business school graduate in Los Angeles shot dead five members of his family before killing himself, blaming the economic situation in a suicide letter addressed to the police.

The crunch hits Cairo

Posted on 24/09/200809/01/2021 By 3arabawy

How will chaos on Wall Street shape political and economic developments in the Arab world’s largest country? The Guardian’s Jack Shenker spoke to figures from across the Egyptian political divide and asked them how they thought the financial meltdown would impact them and the country.

The Egyptian stock market, meanwhile, is slowly taking a nose dive.

Press Syndicate discusses ‘historic verdict’ on health sector privatization

Posted on 19/09/200803/01/2021 By 3arabawy

From the Daily News Egypt:

Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif’s plans to privatize Egypt’s health insurance system would have been “a complete waste of public money,” said Khaled Ali, chairman of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.
Ali was speaking at a press conference held by the Journalists’ Syndicate to discuss the Administrative Court’s decision to halt initial plans of privatization.
The government’s claims that it wants to privatize the health insurance system to improve the quality of services are invalid, Ali argued, because privatizing it would only make it unavailable to the public.
“The constitution doesn’t give the prime minister the authority to issue such a decree. The president and the People’s Assembly are the only entities who can issue those kinds of decrees,” Ali added.
Earlier this month, the Administrative Court halted government plans to place Egypt’s health insurance system under the control of a profit-making company, in what a rights advocate called a “historic” verdict.
The Administrative Court ruled that “the money allocated for health insurance is public money, and the government is not at liberty to handle it.”
The case was raised by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) in April 2007 and the verdict forces the government to suspend implementation of its plans until a final verdict is issued.
The current non-profitable health insurance system covers 40 hospitals, 600 polyclinics, 3,000 institute clinics, and 500 pharmacies.