JLFS

Is there no good news in Spain....or....is Steviedeluxe just having a break?

It could be either one, but I was beginning to wonder if Spain is totally doomed, no good news on the horizon, no business opportunities, less than zero jobs, because Stevie can alway google up "optimism" always found the silver lining in Spains clouds.

rugbymatt

I don't see the economic struggles Spain is going through as doom and gloom. Its no secret that I wanted this recession to hurt people in such a way that it stops back all the crap we have been obsessed with for so long, the mass consumerism that sees us value shit like Primark clothes and no end of Chinese filth that rolls off the production line, designed to last 6 months before we are forced to return and buy yet more. We had become weapons of massive consumption, killing the small and quality in return for the big and throw away. It didn't work, we will come out of this recession with an even greater hunger and we will feed our fat desires until the next recession and it will all begin again, over and over, never learning....... cheered up yet? No? Stick with me.
It would be nice to think that the Spanish, traditionally much more politicised than us here in the UK will emerge from this with a bit more fire in their bellies. It certainly looks that way, the protests are much more committed than the limp wristed crap we had over students having to pay their own way and stop spunking money in the student bars than we had here in London and who knows what will emerge from a slimmer, trimmer Spain? Who knows what political fire is building in someones belly, maybe Spain will focus more on its infrastructure rather than simply building houses to make money, maybe they will force more of their wealthy to pay their way, chase up hidden taxes and eradicate corruption. Maybe Spain will lead the way in Europe, if it can take hold of its banks, maybe nationalising all of them they can show the rest of Europe how an economy can be run because away from the filthy mess of the Banking industry in Spain it can actually run a healthy, "in the black" economy, much better than almost all the other countries in Europe........ Or maybe it will do like the rest of us and just carry on regardless.... who knows?

JLFS

You must be joking, speaking yesterday with a friend of the maridas who works in the tax office, dealing with the "medium" sized fraud cases, she said that even when things come to light, it is all down to negociation how much the individual has to pay back....if any at all.

Meetings are held, offers are made and rejected, level of fines discussed between officals and dodgers.

With the result usually being a "bigger" fine and less repayment, which looks good to the general public, when for the public coffers the opposite would make more economic sense, but........we all know how it works.

Of course all the palms involved have to be greased.

rugbymatt

I did say maybe......

Its sad, like here in the UK I think the opportunity has passed, although it looks like Ireland is doing something, yet more bankers arrested yesterday. Happy days!

agoreira

Give him time, he's busy googling at the moment, good news is harder to find nowadays, but don't despair, he'll find some for you. Given all the good news he gave us in the past, business booming, jobs galore, I'm at a loss to understand how Spain is on the bones of it's ar$e and so many are unemployed. Perhaps Spain will win the Olmpic's football.
Just reading Montoro, says 2013 will be a difficult year but it will be the last year of the recession!

Domino

I think the good news is there JL, just it never gets printed.
Bad news sells newpapers etc, sends people into a spin and they don't see all the other news on the way past.
There are more pundits for bad news than good news, all trying to put a personal slant on it. With good news you don't need pundits, no need for a personal slant.
I remember saying some time ago, Rajoy should have a dept of media people who announce 2 or even 3 items of good news for every bad item, using larger headlines.

but thats people for you, even BE seems to have more bad news than good news

steviedeluxe

Of course there is no problem in the UK (agro's constant message UK good Spain bad), no youth unemployment, no double dip recession, no bank libor or laundering corruption, everything superb - allows Agro to come here to gloat over what he sees as an inferior country and people..

As for good news, I'm afraid you won't get much from me for a while, because I have a family funeral to see to.

But if you want positive developments from the private sector (and there are plenty) you can look at the following websites and aggregation sources. A bit more sensible than blindly going through millions of google results

On Twitter @EduGonzalezL (Madrid foreign investment) or @pierrewaters (Anglo-French entrepreneur in Madrid)
Recently bought these snippets:
French Showroomprive to open office in Madrid http://ict.seenews.com/news/french-s...n-madrid-82041
French gas supplier Air Liquide acquires Madrid-based Gasmedi http://www.airliquide.com/en/press/p...-in-spain.html

Or perhaps monitor Spanish rail sales here: http://www.spanishrailwaysnews.com/principal.asp?cs=1 and find stories like these recent ones:
assignia Infrastructures to help with construction of Morrocan high speed line http://www.spanishrailwaysnews.com/n...ot=252&cs=spai
Railway exports up by 26% in 2011 http://www.spanishrailwaysnews.com/n...ot=251&cs=spai
Assignia wins a Railway contract in India http://www.spaintechnology.com/icex/...605161,00.html
-- always worth looking at Spaintechnology.com for stories like this - Spanish 3D conquers movie mecca http://www.spaintechnology.com/icex/...602998,00.html

Of course you could follow positive news from the start-up scene. Although a site like loogic.com (in Spanish) is better for more up-to-date stuff, you can follow the previous month's developments here http://startupspain.com/category/sta...onth-in-spain/ For example in May/June - http://startupspain.com/last-month-or-two-in-spain/
Start-ups that will really succeed on the world stage include Gamisfaction, BrainSins, Zyncro, Tuenti, Favmonster, Akamon and Sezion.

Lastly, keep a look out for various Spanish companies that are doing well and will hopefully continue to hire more people - Inditex, Mango, Mercadonna, Freixenet, Bodegas Torres, Group Restalia (100 Montaditos) etc Don't rule out Telefonica from making a strong surge either. The gloomsters will look at their past performance and current need to sell off non-core parts, but their turn-around in tech areas has been astounding and is getting noticed by savvy commentators. Look up Wayra, M2M, openwebdevice and TefDigital to see where the future belongs.

Of course things would be better if Spain adopted an independent currency and sorted out its over-indebted public sector, but that is down to the politicians. One thing you should note is that exports have performed well in recent years - not bad for the allegedly uncompetitive country! A balanced view of economic matters (you generally get the poor public sector and banking news here, as well as more positive stories from the private sector) http://www.thecorner.eu/

rachelk

I also hoped that this crisis would make us think again about what kind of world we want and what kind of political/economic system we want.

But it hasn't. The politicians are either too scared of the unknown or - more likely - have vested insterests in maintaining the status quo. So while we can find money to rescue the banks, it's the poor that pay.

They talk about finding a solution to the crisis, but their solution won't be my solution - just look at Greece. Their solution will be reducing national debt and budget deficits, even if that means tens or hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty or on the streets with no access to health and welfare.

For them, this crisis is an opportunity.

HBG

I've got some good news for Spain and I haven't googled a thing today (apart from the exchange rate).

The people of Spain are going to take a month's holiday in August.

rachelk

Those that are working, anyway

JLFS

And for the others it is the usual......

garlic and water

AJOder y AGUAntar

jackytoo

Why do you always keep quoting the corner website? A lot of stuff on it is crap and seems to be run by a few spaniards whose aim is to bump up Spain Another one of those sites seems to be run by a Brit

Every country in the world will have start ups happening all the time...even greece

cricketman

I'm a fan of Steviedeluxes optimism. However, a lot of the links and stuff are just spam

A bit like those hundreds of IT jobs advertised in Madrid. How many actually exist? Many are posted by recruitment agencies trying to get people on their books

amideislas

The Greeks are paying for fear of losing the Euro. If the Greeks leave, there would likely be a mass exodus, and that, as stated by so many high ranking officials, will not be allowed to happen, at any cost, even if Greece is to be sentenced to poverty for the next 20 years. There is simply too much invested in it to allow it to fail.

Spain is next. we are already well on our way. The banks know it, the markets know it. The exodus of cash has already begun, and the prospects for recovery are pretty dim.

Even scarier, the prospect that in the likelihood things get a lot worse, historically, harshly burdened populations often revolt and adopt extreme socialist ideologies, which would effectively plunge Spain back into the dark ages for the foreseeable future. In the worst possible case, we could end up a bit like many south american states. Corrupt and impoverished. Only two social classes: Rich and poor.

The money is already leaving:


Spain reveals €100 billion in capital flight

Another scary capital flight chart

Euro banks cut holdings and buy dollars

cricketman

Like the US you mean? Do some reading about the decline of the US middle classes over the past 40 years

Yes this is the consequence of a liberal free market economy. It is currently happening in the UK and in Europe also

You either make stuff and are poor, or invent the money to make stuff, and are rich