A little austerity works well.

Taking office in 2009, Mr Dombrovskis was charged with making harsh budget cuts and tax increases as well as tough structural reforms to tackle the country's economic crisis.

Wonder if this included cutting things for like say, building design and permits?

Authorities also are looking at procedures undertaken during a second phase of construction that had been taking place before the collapse on Thursday. This included the installation of a roof garden and children's playground that involved placing large amounts of sand, soil and cobblestones on the roof. According to local media, it was to have opened soon.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303653004579213200159484692

It was clear from the outset that the problem occurred as a result of work on the roof.

It's obvious what they were doing was a safety hazard (whether it was against the law I don't know as it would be hard to tell what their laws are).

As I said in a post about this in another thread this reminds me of the Sangpoon Department Store collapse in 1995. Although there were several causes, two of the major ones were putting a restaurant on the top floor with ondol (floor heading) which was not planned originally and an air conditioner that was slid across the roof causing major damage. The building was suppose to be residential (though I remember hearing somewhere else it was suppose to be offices) and was changed to a department store. When they did that they had to cut out portions of the building's support columns making the structure weaker.

Austerity has not been as good to Latvia as some tout.

Sounds like he is okay. What a tragedy.

to resign after Katrina.

Although, in a way, "President Cheney" makes me shiver in anger and fear.

what is reported so far is tragic but doesn't add up to a resignation of the leader of a nation. This must either be tied to him in ways that aren't public yet, or he must want out for some unrelated reason and is using this as an excuse.

is this:

(and since I am Latvian and have seen it for myself when visiting, it is more than just an opinion)...

Latvia is now 50/50 Latvians/Russians since the occupation/war years. These two nationalities get along roughly like our two party congress: they Loathe each other and do whatever they can to sabotage the efforts of one, the other. I have absolutely NO doubt that this is what happened here. I believe the animosity between the two nationalities is equal to Israel/Palestine.

What do you think the Russians did? Maxima is Lithuanian. The austerity measures were Dombrovskis' who is Latvian/Polish and his party is on the Latvian side of the feud.