rugbymatt

So, Rajoy decided that denying a problem in Spain was not enough to make him look a twat, he would also shove his foot in his mouth....


Spain vs Uganda


You are right Rajoy, Spain isn't Uganda, Uganda actually has growth and only 4.2% of its eligible population is unemployed!

Conington

Rajoy may be a twat (lot of Spaniards would tell you that) but wow... demagogy too much? I hope they were joking with those cherry picked pictures. Uganda might have a higher GDP growth but still their total GDP is ridiculous compared to the poorest european nations. Not to mention minor issues like 40 per cent literacy rate, ethnic cleansing, homophobic persecution and huge child mortality rate. I feel like moving there as soon as possible, bye bye Spain!

The famous people section is kind of laughable...:S

Domino

have they got running water yet or is it just when it rains and runs off the tin roof ?

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steviedeluxe

You do wonder at Rajoy's antics. It's almost as though he believes he's in the 4th year of power coming up to an election, and he needs to demonstrate to his electorate that he's in charge and calling all the shots. Perhaps the remark was meant as a diversionary tactic, so that people forgot his denial of the bailout? (to be fair, as in Ireland and Greece, these are loans to banks - the population doesn't get any benefit from them)
The reality is that he's dependent on external countries and banks to keep the credit flowing. He made another blooper early on when he publically and unilaterally announced that Spain was not going to try to keep to the deficit target for next year.
He really should realise that at this stage of the electoral cycle the important thing is to get the economy sorted out, even if measures are unpopular at home. If the measures succeed, then he'll have chance to claw back popularity later. Otherwise he could find it all crash around him sooner than he realises.

amideislas

I don't think any politician anywhere in Europe really knows what to do. The situation is extremely difficult, complex, and ironic.

There is obviously a wide divergence between reality and perception, and that encourages us to disbelieve everything - it's all a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Necessarily.

Reality is that the debt situation isn't going to get better anytime soon - could be decades. Eurozone members (all) have overspent (both public and private) for decades, and it will take decades to fix.

The perception, however, is the political burden.
Reality is not what the markets and the public want to hear. Politicians are therefore forced to prioritise the perception over politicising the reality (if public will ever allow them to politicise the reality). Just one example: How long did it take before the politicians even acknowledged there is a problem? We were in deep shit long before anyone wanted to admit it.

The public (and to a certain extent, our politicians) want to believe that greedy banks are the reason for all of this. But in reality, it's the public who is largely at fault. We wanted our easy credit, our cushy benefits and entitlements, our 35 hour work weeks, our guaranteed employment, our €15 minimum wages, ability to avoid paying tax, free housing, huge payoffs for losing our jobs, yada yada yada...

We forced the politicians to legislate it into law. It was always more than our economies could support, but it was great for a couple of decades.

Now it's time to pay the cuenta, and we all sit here blaming everyone else else but ourselves, again forcing our politicians to ignore the reality, and put cheap band-aids on every gusher that breaks through the dam, so that we don't have to live with the burden of reality.

Now we are protesting that we are being cheated because our taxes are being raised to astronomical levels, our benefits are being cut, and our economies continue going south.

Seems to me that if we never got all this cushy stuff in the first place, a) we'd be in a hell of a lot better shape economically, b) we wouldn't be protesting about losing it, c) we'd be a lot more productive, and d) India and China (and to some extent, USA) wouldn't be running circles around us.

rafikiphoto

The following indicates how ludicrous things have become in Euroland: from Moneycorp's 'Daily Market Brief' discussing the Spanish 'bailout':

"There is also bemusement that Italy will be underwriting up to a fifth of the loan. Investors see something faintly ludicrous about Italy paying the thick end of 6% to borrow money through the debt market only to then lend it to Spain at 3% or 4%."

Lenox

'...Spain is not Uganda' (Until you come to the subject of retroactively illegal viviendas, Land Grab and the arbitrary Ley de Costas that is).

steviedeluxe

I'm starting to worry about his sanity...unless he knows something the rest of us do not..

http://www.eleconomista.es/espana/no...la-crisis.html

jackytoo

The IMF said yesterday that Spain needs to raise IVA and cut public sector pay, Rajoy is in denial.

agoreira

No, but I have heard that Africa starts at the Pyrenees, and have heard some wag say Spain is the most developed country in Africa.

rafikiphoto

It's why we moved here. We lived 13 years in Africa, loved it, and would like to return but, for the moment, Spain is the nearest thing in Europe.

steviedeluxe

It's one thing to claim that your policies will eventually work - and we will see the truth of that as time progresses, although it's not looked good so far.
However it actually unnerves me (and I'm more positive about Spain's prospects than most) to hear him claim that the crisis will soon be over.
He must either have some hidden extraordinary news that we don't know about, or he's developed the bunker mentality and gone mad.
If he does have some hidden news, it would have to be on a massive scale to change things around quickly. There are possible big deals simmering under (eg the casino plan, or train deals with Russia or Brazil) that if they came to fruition would help, but even they are not of a scale to take away the bond funding crisis. So what is this data that makes Rajoy so confident? A huge QE program by the EU after Greece is expelled? A decision to revert to its own currency by Spain?
We shall see..possibly soon!

rugbymatt

Spoke to someone in the know the other day and we got into a bit of a discussion about the whole sorry mess, he was in no doubt that the Euro would endure (He was no fan of it I might add) but he was saying that talk in the city is not of QE1 or QE3, its of QE13!!!!!!!!! Holy crap! We will be buying wheelbarrows just to buy bread!

jackytoo

I doubt that Spain will return to the peseta, Rajoy was calling for "more" Europe this week. Who knows though, he has been lying about a lot of things.

Domino

Rajoy knows he shouldnt have been so eager to win the election, that he also opened a drawer to find a note saying "the money's all gone".
He now has to make the best of the mess he "inherited" as did Cameron, but I'm not so sure he has the stamina or the will to last the course.

One thing no politician wants is to be associated with Spain leaving the Euro, in the same way as Major and Lamont are associated with leaving the EMU