Socialists cut Spain’s welfare state, riling Spaniards May 20, 2011 MADRID — When Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took power seven years ago, he and his Socialist Workers’ Party set out to perfect the welfare state in Spain. The goal was to equal— or even surpass — lavish social protections that have long been the rule for Spain’s Western European neighbors. True to his Socialist principles and riding an economic boom, Zapatero raised the minimum wage and extended health insurance to cover everything from sniffles to sex changes. He made scholarships available to all. Young adults got rent subsidies called “emancipation” money. Mothers got $3,500 for the birth of a child, toddlers attended free nurseries and the elderly got stipends for nursing care. How times have changed. With a U.S.-style real estate bubble having burst and the 2008 global economic crisis having unfurled like a tsunami from Wall Street to Plaza de Espana, Zapatero’s main concern in his second term has become hacking away at government spending to preserve Spain’s credit rating. The icon of socialism recently concluded a pact with labor unions and business leaders to freeze pensions, push back the retirement age from 65 to 67, trim union bargaining rights, cut civil servants’ pay by 5 percent (including his own) and suspend the childbirth bonus. The alternative, he warned, was bankruptcy. “We are going to have to do this whatever it costs,” he declared, “and whatever it costs me.” Cost him it did. Faced with a dramatic decline in opinion polls, Zapatero announced last month that he will not seek a third term, hoping his party can find another candidate less contaminated by the rightward shift he was forced to impose on a nominally Socialist government. But in protests ahead of local elections Sunday, demonstrators have expressed their continuing frustration with the Socialists and the austerity measures. Tens of thousands turned out Saturday despite a ban on political activity before the vote. Spain has not been alone in making such agonizing choices. Across Western Europe, long-cherished social welfare programs have come under the scalpel in recent months as the continent’s governments seek to dig out from under deficits and debts pushed to dangerously high levels by the 2008-09 financial meltdown. For conservative governments, the squeeze has come naturally. After heavy government outlays to rescue banks and keep economies percolating in 2008 and 2009, President Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain and Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany have made fiscal discipline their political battle cry, faithfully echoed by the European Union bureaucracy in Brussels. But in Spain, the trimming has been especially painful, because it is being carried out by a Socialist government whose ideology, leadership and support base all cry out for unbridled welfare spending and condemn the financial markets as a lair of capitalist gnomes. Although Zapatero and his lieutenants have defended the switch as unavoidable if Madrid is to remain solvent, many who voted Socialist in 2004 and in 2008 have detected the smell of treason. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...ling-spaniards/2011/05/19/AFr6go7G_story.html
Spain goes from boom to bailout in a decade June 9, 2012 MADRID (AP) — Spain's economic fortunes have gone from boom to deep financial crisis over the past decade. Here are the main developments: BIRTH OF THE EURO —Spain is one of 12 countries that joined the single European currency in 1999. Following the euro's launch in 2002, the euro is now shared by 17 countries. Spain's membership in this powerful bloc gave it access to lower interest rate loans than it would have got on its own. PROPERTY GOLDRUSH —Cheap money triggered a real estate boom as property developers and families borrowed heavily. This fueled an unprecedented economic expansion known as the "Spanish fiesta". The country's then-muscular economy, the fourth-largest in the eurozone, rode out the 2008 financial crisis as its main lenders — and savings banks called cajas — were widely viewed by investors as sound. FROM BOOM TO BUST —Unemployment started rising. The jobless rate, which stood at 8.3 percent in 2007, jumped to 18 percent in 2009. It is now almost 25 percent. The huge numbers of unsold properties in Spain caused prices to plummet. CAUGHT UP IN EUROZONE'S DEBT CRISIS —As the eurozone's debt crisis worsened with problems in Greece, Ireland and Portugal, so Spain's problems became more acute. By 2009, the financial sector was sitting on €445 billion ($553.49 billion) worth of property-related loans. Regional governments also turned out to be deep in debt as income linked to new construction licenses and taxes dried up. ZAPATERO ACTS —In 2010, Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero introduced controversial hikes in the retirement age, from 65 to 67, and in sales taxes to get a handle on the size of government debt and appease markets. Zapatero's measures failed to halt the country's slide into recession and he was forced to call early elections in 2011. CHANGE AT THE TOP —The conservative Popular Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, took office in December 2011. Rajoy moved quickly on reforms and austerity measures, triggering massive demonstrations by people worried about their future. Many protesters were young — the jobless rate for those between 16 and 24 has reached 52 percent. DRAGGED ALONG BY THE TIDE —Rajoy has had to nationalize eight lenders facing bankruptcy as Spain fell into a double-dip recession. But investors and markets have continued to focus on the financial sector's €180 billion in toxic real estate assets and the financial health of the wider eurozone. This has sent Spain's borrowing costs on the international debt markets to worryingly high levels. EATING YOUR WORDS — Rajoy and his team have been adamant that the Spanish banking sector would not need a bailout. On May 28, he said: "There will be no rescue of the Spanish banking sector." On Saturday, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Spain will ask for a bailout after European finance ministers authorized a rescue amount of up to €100 billion ($125 billion). Asked why Rajoy didn't make the announcement, de Guindos replied that he did because he is the representative to the European Union's group of finance ministers. De Guindos dodged a question on whether Rajoy still planned to head to Poland on Sunday to see Spain take on Italy in the Euro 2012 football competition. But Rajoy's Poland trip had been removed from his official agenda on his presidential website. http://news.yahoo.com/spain-goes-boom-bailout-decade-185552674--finance.html
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Spanish: Partido Socialista Obrero Español [parˈtiðo soθjaˈlista oˈβrero espaˈɲol] listen (help·info); PSOE [peˈsoe] listen (help·info) ) is a social-democratic[1] political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in 1833.[citation needed] The PSOE has had strong ties with the General Union of Workers (UGT), a Spanish trade union. For decades, UGT membership was a requirement for PSOE membership. During the 1980s, though, UGT criticised the economic policies of the PSOE, even calling for a general strike on December 14, 1988.[2] The PSOE recently lost the general elections on 20 November 2011. The PSOE is a full member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International.[2] In the European Parliament, the PSOE's 21 MEPs sit in the Socialists and Democrats European parliamentary group. Ideology The PSOE was founded with the purpose of representing the interests of the working class born from the Industrial Revolution with the declared objective of achieving socialism, and inspired by the revolutionary principles of Marxism ... On 9 March 2008 the PSOE won the 2008 Spanish general elections again with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero remaining Prime Minister of Spain. The Socialists increased their share of seats in the Congress of Deputies from 164 to 169 after the latest election. However, after waning popularity throughout their second term, mainly due to their handling of the worsening economic climate in Spain in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the PSOE were defeated in the general elections of November 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Socialist_Workers'_Party
It's always funny when the agenda is to defend the people that caused the problem while pointing the finger at the people that had nothing to do with the problem except that they exist. So again, just like in this country, the banks get greedy and wreckless and then must be bailed out by Socialism while blaming Socialism for the problem. WHY DO SPANISH BANKS NEED A BAILOUT? Spain's financial problems are not due to Greek-style government over-spending. The country's banks got caught up in the collapse of a real estate bubble. Spain's banks, particularly its savings banks or "cajas," have enormous amounts of bad loans. And as the second recession in three years hits Spain, the number of bad loans is expected to surge. Spain's unemployment has risen to nearly 25 percent, making it increasingly difficult for many Spaniards to pay their mortgages. The country's central bank, the Bank of Spain, says banks are still burdened with about ? billion ($220 billion) in "problematic" real estate holdings, including loans and repossessed homes. Spain's government debt stood at a relatively low 68.5 percent of its gross domestic product at the end of 2011. It is predicted to hit 78 percent by the end of the year. But even that higher figure would still be below the 2011 debt-to-GDP ratios of countries like Italy, Belgium, France and even Germany. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57449366/spains-ailing-banks-threaten-countrys-finances/
I repeat: True to his Socialist principles and riding an economic boom, Zapatero raised the minimum wage and extended health insurance to cover everything from sniffles to sex changes. He made scholarships available to all. Young adults got rent subsidies called “emancipation” money. Mothers got $3,500 for the birth of a child, toddlers attended free nurseries and the elderly got stipends for nursing care. Socialism, as anyone can see, is unsustainable: Zapatero’s main concern in his second term has become hacking away at government spending. The icon of socialism recently concluded a pact with labor unions and business leaders to freeze pensions, push back the retirement age from 65 to 67, trim union bargaining rights, cut civil servants’ pay by 5 percent (including his own) and suspend the childbirth bonus. The alternative, he warned, was bankruptcy. Socialism didn't work in the USSR. Socialism didn't work in Greece. Socialism didn't work in Germany. Socialism didn't work in Cuba. Socialism didn't work in Spain. Socialism isn't working in Venezuela. Socialism won't work in France. Socialism is a fool's form of government.
I repeat: You ARE an idiot. OK that was the first time in this thread but you are still an idiot just the same.
Is someone up to their old trick again of throwing out insults instead of addressing the issue? Tsk Tsk...
November 20, 2011 (Reuters) - Spain's center-right opposition stormed to a crushing election victory Sunday as voters punished the outgoing Socialist government for the worst economic crisis in generations. The People's Party, led by former Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy, won an absolute majority in parliament and is expected to push through drastic measures to try to prevent Spain being sucked deeper into a debt storm threatening the whole euro zone. Voters vented their rage on the Socialists, who led the country from boom to bust in seven years in charge. With 5 million people out of work, the European Union's highest jobless rate, Spain is heading into its second recession in four years. Spaniards, who voted in pouring rain Sunday, were the fifth European nation to throw out their leaders because of the spreading euro zone crisis, following Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy. The PP won the biggest majority for any party in three decades, taking 186 seats in the 350-seat lower house, according to official results with 98 percent of the vote counted. The Socialists slumped to 111 seats from 169 in the outgoing parliament, their worst showing in 30 years. Rajoy's bitter medicine for the economy will probably make things worse before they get better. But he has said Spaniards are prepared for the painful austerity that is needed to reduce a swollen public deficit threatening to push the euro zone's fourth economy toward a perilous bail-out. "I ask you all to keep helping me. Difficult times are coming," Rajoy, 56, told ecstatic supporters in his victory speech at PP headquarters. "Spain's voice must be respected again in Brussels and Frankfurt... We will stop being part of the problem and will be part of the solution." RESIGNATION Most Spaniards are resigned to deep spending cuts and see Rajoy as a better steward for the economy than the discredited Socialists, who they blame for failing to act swiftly enough to head off the crisis and then belatedly imposing biting austerity measures that slashed wages, benefits and jobs. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/20/us-spain-election-idUSTRE7AI10E20111120
So the trifecta of stupidity has chimed in once again. How unsurprising, yet once again I, being the opposition to you three clowns, you struggle to not address me directly but end up doing so anyway. Too funny the way you three morons paint yourselves into these corners. Please keep it up. But for people with actual brain cells, I say that Spain is yet another case of capitalism being bailed out by Socialism. Let the banks in Spain go under. This isn't a government problem, it is a banking problem just like it was her under Bush. Was Bush a Socialists too? All the idiots of the Right wing want to pin this on the government of Spain so that they can ignore what the greedy bankers did that brought yet another country to its knees. Capitalism is failing everywhere due to greed. You guys just can't admit it.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...-amid-downgrade-concern-as-italy-s-debt-drops http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303901504577462113778874488.html http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=173938
At least the Marxist/Socialists in Cuba may be starting to wake up and realize that communist theories don't work, but capitalist theories do: Cuba's next step on capitalist road: advertising HAVANA (AP) — For decades there's been no such thing as a commercial radio or TV spot in Cuba. Ditto for billboards, website banner ads, and newspaper classifieds. It can be a refreshing change from the global marketing onslaught, but the lack of traditionaladvertising opportunities creates a problem for the thousands of budding entrepreneurs who have embraced President Raul Castro's push for limited free-market reform. It's one thing to open your own business, but how to let potential customers know you exist? True to Cuba's famous knack for making do, the island's small-business owners have turned to low-cost, unconventional advertising — a flurry of guerrilla marketing in a Marxist society whose founder, Fidel Castro, once denounced advertising as "alienating and noxious." ... "Going forward, we think this is how the competition will work," said Alejandro Perez Alvarez. "The other proprietors are going to see how things are going, come up with their own ideas and raise the bar." Such freewheeling competition seems a far cry from the collectivist society envisioned by that earlier guerrilla, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who once called capitalism "a contest among wolves." http://news.yahoo.com/cubas-next-step-capitalist-road-advertising-130645280--finance.html
