Another 65 billion euros of austerity from the Spanish today — the price for its bank bailout.
Spain was never a model government or model of efficiency but when they signed up for the euro project, the marching orders were simple: keep deficits below 3% of GDP and enjoy the low inflation and easier trade of euro-topia.
Instead, the crisis hit and the European speculative money that fueled a housing bubble dried up. Unemployment shot to 25% and the deficit exploded.
Since then, Spain’s government has essentially been a ward of the Troika — doing exactly what Dr. Germany has prescribed, which is something akin to fighting cancer with starvation.
Italy and Greece have railed against austerity at times but Spain has essentially done what it has been told. Yet here we are after another program and borrowing costs are still way beyond anything sustainable.
If Spain sinks like the armada, the economic big-thinkers in Brussels must accept that they’re the admirals. The sailors and boats might not be the finest but if the fleet goes down, the admirals should go down with it, or be forced to walk the plank.
