Again, a case of an expat businessperson misinterpreting something in Spain, I assume due to their poor Spanish?

The .es service on that page was a campaign from the government to get businesses online with a .es address. I believe they were even giving out the addresses for free which is why you need to give your company info

It is not the only way to get an .es domain, you can get them from any domain supplier operating in Spain. We used 1&1

Spain is a big country, and it's a big and influential member of the EU, but has terrible unemployment problems which the EU, in its current form, can't solve.

Fiscal austerity, throughout the EU, does not seem to be solving the problems, but would a break-up of the Euro solve them? With France, just ahead of Spain in importance, about to turn red, it might precipitate the end of the Euro, because a blue Germany is losing the will to fight for fiscal union, its own people are turning against it.

Yet the whole world seems to fear the break-up of the Euro, it will cause chaos the world over.

The streets of Spain were full of protesters yesterday, protesting against the austerity cuts; I did not see any signs of wanting to return to the Peseta.

STOP PRESS:

1.23 Euros.

Is that the price of an .es domain name, the price of bacon, price of a coffee.. of none of the above..

There is a mass-misunderstanding amongst the general population about the problems of the Eurozone. A lot of misinformation has been spread around, not the least of which, by politicians.

The real root of the problem is that there are 17 completely divergent economies tied to a single currency, whilst fiscal policy is not uniform - each country has control of its own fiscal policy, yet in many cases domestic fiscal policy (or necessity) is contrary to the regulations and market value of the common currency. That isn't likely to change because of the political and cultural divisions between the member states - not one is willing to hand over control to Brussels or Berlin (for obvious reasons). That may happen some day, but not likely in our lifetime.

Not something that's easy to solve but it can be argued that it's simply "less painful" to take the dissolution route. Spain surely would benefit from returning to the Peseta and devaluing it. Other economies around the planet would and have done exactly that, but Eurozone members simply cannot, leaving the only solution of slashing budgets, increasing taxes, chasing money, and further destroying their economies, at the sole expense of their citizens. No wonder people are pissed off; but they're missing the real reasons to be pissed.

There is no defined mechanism for leaving the Euro, so that makes it even more complicated. In fact, that's why Merkozy put their political careers on the line to save Greece - once an exit has been paved, they fear a mass-exodus, leaving Germany, France, and Holland holding the bag.

The matter is much more complex than simply "austerity" or "the bankers" or "value of the Euro". Unfortunately, the general public requires a simple explanation to rally around. The complexity of this crisis is simply too much for most to comprehend.

So, the people rally around those basic things they can grasp: "austerity" or "bankers" or "business" or "the rich" or "corruption" or "politicians", or other "in-vogue" fictions such as "the Americans", or whatever comprehensibly identifiable issue they can rally around to blame for their lot in life (we see a bit of that right here, in fact :-).

But all of the above are merely symptoms, not the cause. Europhorics are actually rather relieved about that, since it deflects public sentiments away from the root cause, which, if the public rallied against it, could cause a breakup of the Euro.

None of the above, it's simply the power of prayer from one million expats in Spain.

none of the above
bacon is about €3.75/kg
a coffee is €1.10 a cup

try £ : €

as HBG says, it is The power of prayer - leaking out into another thread

I cannot see F pulling out of the EU or Euro, they have too much invested in it and would lose much more than they gain.
G has taken on the role of below the line secret millionaire to achieve the unification of Europe without sending in armies - both times they tried it in the last century it failed. This way they get control of the purse strings without actual bloodshed

When there are bigger basket cases - such as Greece, Italy, Portugal - I cannot see how, with the restrictions imposed by Brussels things are going to improve overnight.

One way of saving money in the EU is to shelve the EU army - let the individual nations maintain their armed forces and retain the relationship with NATO.

I don't think the euro ever worked, it's only now reality has caught up. Even a prudent country like the Netherlands is starting to feel the pinch with a stalling property market and possible downgrade on the cards.

Sure made things more expensive from day 1.

I remember the day the Euro went into circulation.. We were in Germany at the time. 1 Deutschmark was worth about 50 Euro cents at the time. The politicians assured us there would be no inflation, and in fact it was illegal for anyone to inflate prices in the process of changing to Euros.

Prior to that you could buy a loaf of bread for about 2-3 marks. The very day the Euro went into circulation, a loaf of bread was suddenly 2-3 Euros. Nobody started screaming until later, but by then it was too late. The government insisted this kind of inflation didn't exist. But it did. Everywhere.

On the other hand, we had a young polish girl staying with us for a time. She was a student in Germany, and we helped her out with a room.

Anyway, she eventually got her own apartment. and years later I ran into her at a supermarket. She told me she'd invested in a flat in Poland, and after Poland switched to the Euro, she sold the flat in Euros for 10 times the equivalent purchase price. Now she owned a flat in Germany. Nice success story for a young girl.

But eventually all those things had to reckon out, and I reckon the time of reckoning is here.

Remembering Harold Wilson 19 Nov 1967
"From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn't mean, of course, that the Pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued. "
we then had Decimalisation Day of 15 Feb 1971
when the prices of everything did or very nearly doubled as retailers "rounded up"

it would create mayhem in international markets for months.

Word of warning - be careful about doing business with Banco Popular! My neighbour has lost her Apartment over a loan of €7000 that she got into arrears with. She had missed 3 payments last year but had resumed repayments, but unknown to her the Banco Popular had passed her Loan Account on to their Legal Department who without getting in touch with her proceeded to auction her property for €21,000. She holds the Escritura/Title Deeds, but is Spain apparently that means nothing. There seems to be a lot of corruption in the Spanish Banking system, be careful, do not trust them - well especially Banco popular!