Analysis: Central Europe walks austerity tightrope

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - When Romania's government cut salaries by a quarter in 1931, it collapsed and the country ran through 22 different cabinets in a decade and slid into dictatorship and war. Eight decades later, another government introduced a similar austerity measure under an International Monetary Fund-led bailout. It fell and parliament threw out its successor after just two months. Voters in eastern Europe can tolerate a lot after the hardships of communism. But those politicians who pushed austerity to keep markets at bay are now feeling their wrath. ...

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