Spain's Rajoy Yields To Merkel, Agrees That EU Countries Must Cede Sovereignty

German is about to the second language in Spain.  EU countries will slowly cede their sovereignty to their banking overlords.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-23/spains-rajoy-yields-merkel-agrees-eu-countries-must-cede-sovereignty

Ex-HSBC man accused of stealing Swiss bank data says US advised him to head for Spain

This story seems James Bond-like.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/ex-hsbc-worker-accused-of-stealing-swiss-bank-account-data-says-us-told-him-to-head-for-spain-203984771.html

Presenting The Fund-tastic Four: Ireland, Greece, Spain And... The U.S.

The race to debase:  the currency war is on like donkey kong.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-10/presenting-fund-tastic-four-ireland-greece-spain-and-us

Is the IMF now recommending capital controls…?

http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/is-the-imf-now-recommending-capital-controls-8975/

Spain Police Beating Everyone: A Warning To America

The narration of this video by Judge Andrew Napolitano is precisely why his TV program was canceled.  It's provocative--only because all the scenarios in his rhetorical questions have already transpired.


http://youtu.be/hzP8znpQI9I

Spanish Authorities Are Locking Up Trash Cans To Prevent People From Foraging For Food

http://www.businessinsider.com/spanish-authorities-are-locking-up-trash-cans-2012-9#ixzz27wniPlJX

1.5 million take to streets of Barcelona in support of independence

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9537181/1.5-million-take-to-streets-of-Barcelona-in-support-of-independence.html

Debt crisis: Spain and Italy to be bailed out in £600bn deal

Only 600 billion Euro?  And pundits are advising people to sell their gold?  lol

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9343049/Debt-crisis-Spain-and-Italy-to-be-bailed-out-in-600bn-deal.html

Money flies out of Spain, regions pressured

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/us-spain-economy-idUSBRE84U08N20120531

Spain Delays And Prays That Zombies Repay Debt: Mortgages

That's an interesting title for a Bloomberg article.  But it's also descriptive.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-28/spain-delays-and-prays-that-zombies-repay-debt-mortgages.html

Ronaldo’s new position – bank collateral

You can't make up this tragic comedy.  Things are getting so desperate in Europe, that nothing is off the table.

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/796481-ronaldo-s-new-position-bank-collateral

Fears of Bank Runs Mount in Southern Europe

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/fears-of-bank-runs-increase-in-europe-a-833879.html

Iran halts Spain oil export, mulls supply cut to Germany, Italy

Wait a minute--I thought the US was banning other countries from buying oil from Iran.  Iran is playing along by cutting off oil exports to already strapped European countries.  Great, right?  Not so fast.

This raises two disturbing questions:
1) why is Iran announcing this halt of crude oil exports?  Because it infers European countries were non-compliant (i.e. ignoring US threats on the oil ban, while continuing to import oil).
2) which countries are damaged more by the ban?  The oil importers (Euro countries)--or the exporter (Iran)?

In the developed world's desire to punish Iran via economic sanctions, why is Iran more than happy to comply by jumping the gun and cutting off their customers?  And if they do indeed cut off Europe, who is buying from Iran?  The Chinese? Indian?  Russians?  Japanese?  All of the above?


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/235523.html

Spain: The Ultimate Doomsday Presentation

Doomsday predictions are usually not accurate, but Pollyannish economic propaganda from governments are NEVER prescient. Having said that, Spain is next up on the Euro default chopping block.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/spain-ultimate-doomsday-presentation

Euro Plunges On Fitch Double Tap, Comments From Merkel

In another theater of the absurd example, there are analysts out there who are actually claiming they didn't see this coming:  the downgrading of Spanish and Italian sovereign debt by the credit ratings agencies.  Really? 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/euro-plunges-fitch-double-tap-comments-merkel

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/and-spain-fitch-downgrades-spain-aa-aa-two-notch-cut-outlook-negative 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/fitch-downgrades-italy-outlook-negative

Spain ghost airports: symbols of boom turned bust

We could learn from infrastructure investments gone bad in Spain.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/06/22/spain-ghost-airports-symbols-boom-turned-bust-1741234570/

The glittering buildings rise up from Spain's arid central plain.

Draw closer and there's something eerie about Ciudad Real's Central Airport. There's hardly a plane in sight. Nobody's around. Cars can only be heard faintly in the distance.

This is one of Spain's "ghost airports" — huge projects often funded by taxpayer money that helped drive Spain's economic boom and now symbolize the wasteful spending that contributed to its spectacular bust.

But signs abound that Spain has not fully learned the lessons of its profligate spending. Spain recently announced a high-speed rail link to the sparsely populated northwest region of Galicia, a plan many economists see as an extravagance. Bridge and highway projects are plowing forward in the face of criticism that Spain just can't afford them.

"We had great hopes for Central, we believed in it, dreamt about it, we thought it was going to be the region's salvation," said Ciudad Real taxi driver Enrique Buendia, who can hardly remember the last time he got a run to the airport.

"But, when you mix politicians and business it's bad news."

Indeed, it's an unhealthy mix of politics and business that critics blame for white elephants such as the airport in Ciudad Real, a city of 74,000 people. Spain has a history of pouring public money into dodgy projects to fuel the careers of ambitious politicians and local entrepreneurs.

The airports and other projects illustrate how regional governments and government-linked savings banks drove themselves into a debt swamp from which it will take years to emerge.

"We have substituted our obsession with bricks and house building with an obsession for highways, high speed trains and airports, but it's the same rubbish," said Fernando Fernandez, a macroeconomics Professor at IE Business School in Madrid.

"It's like a drug addict trying detox," he said. "The economy has been growing through construction for the last 10 years and that creates all sorts of bad habits."

"This is a country of fiefdoms, like the Middle Ages, you know 'I want my airport ... my convention center and my high-speed train,'" said Stephen Matlin, managing director of the Matlin Associates investment banking firm in Madrid.

But analysts say that unless Spain learns fast and begins investing in a new economic model by pouring billions into education and research and development, it could be headed for disaster.

"What we're doing is maintaining the old economic structure of the country," said Fernandez. "Instead of investing in new skills for people ... we spend money on keeping them busy to give the appearance of bring the unemployment figures down."

Spain's Icelandic Revolt; Protests Spread to Italy

As I said, protests would reach the shores of Spain and Italy.  France, you are next.  What do all these western countries have in common?  Uncontrollable debt.  The UK, Japan and the US are waiting in the wings.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/05/spains-icelandic-revolt-protests-spread.html

Goldman Warns That Spanish Bonds, EUR Poised For Technical Breakdown

I've said for a while Spain was on deck, despite having rotten tomatoes lobbed my way.  The shockers will be when France and Italy are on the EU chopping block.  There, I said it.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldman-warns-spanish-bonds-eur-poised-technical-breakdown

First Egypt...now Spain?

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2011/05/first-egypt-now-spain.html

Irish Rescue Accord Turns Investors' Focus to Spain, Portugal

Sovereign debt crises started in Iceland, Latvia, Hungary, Dubai, and reached the shores of Greece.  Ireland is the latest victim, with Portugal and Spain in the crosshairs of bond vigilantes.  For the forward-thinking, Italy and France will be next to catch the contagion.  Germany must be bewildered at the spreading collapse around them.  German taxpayers will force the break up of the Euro, in my opinion, because they are absorbing the brunt of the bailouts.  With IMF participating in bailouts, so are American taxpayers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-23/irish-rescue-plan-turns-investors-focus-to-southern-europe-euro-credit.html

Even as EU leaders said Ireland’s bailout will stem contagion in the euro region, investors are turning their attention to Portugal, which hasn’t cut government spending and has barely grown for a decade. A rescue of Portugal may increase pressure on its high budget-deficit neighbor Spain, whose gross domestic product is almost twice the size of Portugal, Greece and Ireland combined.


After Portugal “the next question would be Spain and then Italy and then France and then the EU,” said Antonio Garcia Pascual, chief southern European economist at Barclays Capital in London. “Spain is a bit too big to be bailed out, the size of a rescue required would use up all the funds available and then you have Italy with contagion as well,” prompting “a situation where the euro itself is put into question,” he said.