Never say never, that´s my motto! I´m curently in Madrid, and have a couple of potential business opps that may take off. Not counting my chickens yet though.

I´ll post a longer entry next weekend, but a quick summary - bars full, even on a Monday morning, expats here still doing ok in their jobs, certain local bars have closed though, it´s noticeable that some of the street people were employed until this crisis. So, a mixed bag.

Predictions?
2 more high speed line contracts to be won by Spanish companies (to add to the one already signed with Saudi). One in Europe, one in central Asia or south America (I already know which countries)

The deal to build the new Las vegas near Madrid to be signed and work started.

The Spain haters to continue spending their free time on this board, trying to spread their dslike of Spain. Unfortunately, never succeeding.

Real Madrid to beat Barcelona at least once...

More excellent news from "Our Man in Madrid".

I was actually thinking along the lines of "Stevie Glass half Full", or having considered it further, maybe "Stevie thy Glass runneth over", would be much more appropriate.

Anyway, I really don't know what we'd do without you cheering us all up during these dark depressing Autumnal days, Steve.

Great news about the bars anyway, at least there should be lots of happy Landlords about, though whether their clients are celebrating better times ahead or simply drowning their sorrows I have no idea.
Hopefully your predictions will come true and there are better times ahead, though just how far ahead, may be a little more difficult to predict.

As for Barca/Real, it's hard to say. I would have gone for Barca before the season started, but now it seems wide open and at least a little more interesting than in the last two or three seasons.

Indeed, I'm only surprised he missed Repsol's biggest ever oil find off Argentina. I thought the situation in Spain was quite serious, but after reading Supersteve, no, the crisis must be over, everything is honkydory. It's good to have an unbiased report of the actual situation from our "Man in Madrid"
I'll have to ignore the report I was just reading about the likelihood of the EU fining Spain in the region of 1.000 million euros for it's high unemployment level. Still seems it's making to right moves to correct it, it's now got 300,000 more public employees than it had at the start of the crisis. What is it with these club med countries with their ridiculous staffing levels in the public sector?

La UE estudia medidas para sancionar a España por su alta tasa de paro. La multa podría rondar los 1.000 millones de euros
España tiene hoy 300.000 empleados públicos más que al inicio de la crisis

Seems a bit tough, kicking a country when it's down. That money could go in job creation instead of to Brussels

Yes, think how many more civil servants they could take on with that money!

Well if the Spanish can keep smiling thru it all and living it up in the bars, we may just as well join them and our man in Madrid, and sing,... altogether now, ... "Always look on the bright side of life", until of course the inevitable happens and we all eventually disappear from sight beneath a huge ever increasing mountain of debt.

I still think that a world wide agreement to aboish sovereign debt would do a lot of good and might get things moving again.

If you'd said odious debt then I might agree with you, But what happens when they can'y pay next time round?

What does a publican do if a customer can't pay for his drink?

I think you know the answer to that.

The whole point should be, abolish the debts, and put in agreement to alter how and to whom money is leant in the future.

To use the pub analogy, wipe the slates, but do nt extend the facility to everyone in the future. Just the people who in the past, paid up on time.

I agree that if we all merrily dance down the same path the next time......

A noble sentiment, but if those debts wipe out the landlord who was relying on said money to pay wages etc. then not such a good idea for him or his staff.

Snatch it back out of his hand and tell him to bugger off

You have to get a little stirring in dont you, cant help yourself.

Using the same logic as you, I predict the "ram it home" how well people are living in Spain will contiue to do so, even though they are on their travels, doing business deals, living life to the full and enjoying their short stay in Spain, will also sprend their free time on this board.

Few analogies bear intense examination. A 6 week old kitten is analogous to a Bengal tiger.

Let us say that China is the country to whom is owed the most money, ok? So, if all debts are wiped, china ends up out of pocket.

At the moment the chinese businesses are having problems, because europeans etc are no longer buying enough of their cheap tat.

Were the rest of us no longer paying for debt, maybe we would have more money to spend? Just a thought.