The Spanish finance sector is a shambles. Spain has the Greek malady of welfare-state poverty, multiplied by poor investments and weak protections from private sector entrepreneurship.
Bankia, the largest national bank in the country, was partially nationalized in part to stem the tide of deposits leaving the banking sector and fleeing the country. The interest rate on the bond has doubled, now costing the state as well as the taxpayers.
Investors are seeing red, red ink that is, and like hapless tourists running from the bulls of Pamplona, they are fleeing the impending disaster borne from a housing crisis much like the one brought down the financil ssecotr in the United States in 2008.
The banking crises in Southern Europe cannot be solved with more government intervention. It's time for the stronger partners in Europe, Germany, France, to consider pushing these nations out of the Euro currency altogether. A common currency was never possible with common political and culture comity, as well. The disparate cultures, not just based on history but also rooted in social policy, signalled at length that the lax and lackadaisical culture of Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy would never take the much needed cuts and reductions in the public sector as demanded by necessary reforms. Nation states may have to declare bankruptcy, or resort to their previous currencies and play fast and loose with inflation.
When will this Euro-nightmare end? Financial crises are spreading like wild-fire. Toxic debt is crushing banks, who have lended out cash stock beyond the wise thresh-hold required in order to remain solvent.
This nightmare will only come to an end when financiers accept that the cradle-to-grave mentality of socialism must be put to rest once and for all. The shock of states sinking into red ink will be a painful shock whose tremors may reverberate for years, but the scandal of bailouts and payouts is only prolonging the agony. Italy could not shoulder through the two trillion short-fall that pushed Berlusconi from power. The Spanish government in size and investment so rivals the economic troubles of Italy and Greece, that any sudden subsidies are simply out of the question.
The Spanish Economy is tanking. There is no hope for a government which cannot institute the much-needed sound policies which will force the mind and vote of collectivized individuals who are acccustomed to a hand-out from womb to tomb.
The fiestas are over. The Falangists cannot turn this political turmoil into a cry for stability. Dinner at ten will be a sank of meager lamb at best, and tilting at windmills of increased lines of credit will do nothing, absolutely nothing, to end the culture of lax and tax in Spain.