You can stop crowing about Spain now

[JustRalph]

http://news.yahoo.com/spains-lost-generation-threatens-social-fabric-141726963.html

Some here have posted in the past about how Spain was going to be fine.

Read it and weep..........

Lorente is stuck among Spain's "Lost Generation" of 20-somethings, with no work and no real prospects in sight: Roughly half of all Spaniards between 16 and 24 are jobless, the highest level among the 17 nations that use the euro. It's a devastating picture of blighted youth that threatens to distort Spain's social fabric for years to come, dooming dreams, straining family structures and eroding the well-being of a rapidly aging population.
"This puts the whole welfare state at risk," said Gayle Allard, a labor market specialist at Madrid's IE Business School. "The young people who are coming on the market now are the lost generation. They are losing the advantage of their youth and energy and that does not come back."

The staggering jobless figures — 48.6 percent for Spaniards between 16 and 24; 39 percent for those ages 20-29 — hold dire consequences for a country that grew accustomed to prosperity on the back of a property boom that collapsed in 2008.

The 1.6 million unemployed teens and young adults in the nation of 47 million risk never having a decent start to a career. They probably won't accumulate assets like their own homes or savings until they are in their 40s. And they then will likely face much higher taxes to maintain Spain's costly social welfare system.

[DJofSD]

Generalissimo Francisco Franco has left the building.

[lsbets]

Ralph, we know the reason for this. No tourists! :lol:

[badcompany]

Attention all PA Liberals, report to this thread immediately and bring all your ridiculous excuses for why Socialism isn't to blame for Spain's problems.

[Robert Goren]

Ralph, we know the reason for this. No tourists! :lol:Foreign tourism accounts for about 5% of Spain's GDP. The number of foreign tourists dropped almost 20% from 2008 to 2011. In 2007 Spain had over 60 million foreign tourists, second in the world to France. These numbers come from several sites. I could not find one site that had all of them. If you questioned them, google them.

[DJofSD]

Agent Smith (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IM1-DQ2Wo_w) nailed it. Socialism is a disease, a cancer of the planet.

[badcompany]

Foreign tourism accounts for about 5% of Spain's GDP. The number of foreign tourists dropped almost 20% from 2008 to 2011. In 2007 Spain had over 60 million foreign tourists, second in the world to France. These numbers come from several sites. I could not find one site that had all of them. If you questioned them, google them.


Wrongway Feldman was a fictional World War I fighter pilot who appeared on the TV sitcom Gilligan's Island played by actor Hans Conried. He got his nickname for always flying the wrong way, and during the war, bombed his own airbase.

[Robert Goren]

Agent Smith (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IM1-DQ2Wo_w) nailed it. Socialism is a disease, a cancer of the planet.Thats not what Agent Smith said. He said human being are the disease. Agent Smith is a villian in a Sci Fi movie. Not exactly a good source of comments on humanity even if he is quoted correctly.

[DJofSD]

Don't be so literal.

Just because he was the antagonist, the point still remains.

[boxcar]

Pelosi needs to go over to Spain to remind the Spaniards that Unemployment Checks are a fantastic stimulus for the economy and, therefore, the great sovereign nation of Spain should feel good about herself and her citizens should stop complaining.

Boxcar

[Tom]

Spain is just a few thousand food stamps away from greatness!

[Dave Schwartz]

Wrongway Feldman was a fictional World War I fighter pilot who appeared on the TV sitcom Gilligan's Island played by actor Hans Conried. He got his nickname for always flying the wrong way, and during the war, bombed his own airbase.

While Feldman was fictitious, Wrong Way Corrigan was not:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan


Douglas Corrigan (January 22, 1907 – December 9, 1995) was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. He was nicknamed "Wrong Way" in 1938. After a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, though his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach. He claimed his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass. However, he was a skilled aircraft mechanic (he was one of the builders of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis) and had made several modifications to his own plane, preparing it for his transatlantic flight. He had been denied permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and his "navigational error" was seen as deliberate. Nevertheless, he never publicly admitted to having flown to Ireland intentionally.

[Steve 'StatMan']

As Basil Fawlty would say, "You'll have to forgive Manuel. He's from Barcelona."

[Robert Goren]

Wrongway Feldman was a fictional World War I fighter pilot who appeared on the TV sitcom Gilligan's Island played by actor Hans Conried. He got his nickname for always flying the wrong way, and during the war, bombed his own airbase. I take it, Feldman is a hero of yours.

[Tom]

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/corrigan/EX16.htm

This "Wrong Way" later founded Southwest Airlines.

[badcompany]

Here's Paul Krugman's take:


"So what does ail Europe? The truth is that the story is mostly monetary. By introducing a single currency without the institutions needed to make that currency work, Europe effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression."

So, in his sick liberal mind, it's not that the countries of Europe are spending beyond their means, it's that they can't print money and mask the reality.

What a freak.

[JustRalph]

Here's Paul Krugman's take:


"So what does ail Europe? The truth is that the story is mostly monetary. By introducing a single currency without the institutions needed to make that currency work, Europe effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression."

So, in his sick liberal mind, it's not that the countries of Europe are spending beyond their means, it's that they can't print money and mask the reality.

What a freak.

Don't forget the regulations imposed that forced them into a green energy based economy. For every green job, 2 jobs were lost. There's lots of things that happened that we're just bad timing. A confluence of bad governing and more put them in this situation.

[ArlJim78]

Also Germany has smartened up and abandoned their massive solar energy programs. why? too expensive and not practical they say. what a shocker.

[BlueShoe]

Attention all PA Liberals, report to this thread immediately and bring all your ridiculous excuses for why Socialism isn't to blame for Spain's problems.
'Cappy will prepare another of his endless charts that only he can read, and Mosty will proclaim that it is all just Bush's and the Republican's fault. :rolleyes:

[GameTheory]

Here's Paul Krugman's take:


"So what does ail Europe? The truth is that the story is mostly monetary. By introducing a single currency without the institutions needed to make that currency work, Europe effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression."

So, in his sick liberal mind, it's not that the countries of Europe are spending beyond their means, it's that they can't print money and mask the reality.

What a freak.I don't think I've ever agreed with Krugman before, but he is correct on the first point -- they have in fact introduced a single currency without the proper mechanisms to make it work. The way the Euro system is set-up it can't possibly work. What the right way to do it would be I probably would not agree with Krugman.

[Native Texan III]

I don't think I've ever agreed with Krugman before, but he is correct on the first point -- they have in fact introduced a single currency without the proper mechanisms to make it work. The way the Euro system is set-up it can't possibly work. What the right way to do it would be I probably would not agree with Krugman.

The Euro is and remains a political device to move countries further together into a trading block. It was not done for purely economic reasons.
They had to start somewhere (which seems to be overlooked) and some countries were ahead of the curve and some behind. There was a mechanism of national debt reduction year on year and a cap of 3% debt on GDP. In the good times pre 2007 they got away with it and a little off balance accounting - same as in USA. Countries have had 10 years to adjust and some like Greece and Portugal never bothered. Spain and Ireland were doing well until hit by housing busts that drained the banks and State coffers. Italy has huge state corruption and black market services and labor. Germany and Holland have done very well out of the Euro.

The thing is now the crisis has occurred they are all totally aware of not ever getting into the same state again and the Euro having remained strong throughout the crisis will grow ever stronger in time. Not being able to devalue and having transparent and open books will make it a haven for sound currency.

[badcompany]

I don't think I've ever agreed with Krugman before, but he is correct on the first point -- they have in fact introduced a single currency without the proper mechanisms to make it work. The way the Euro system is set-up it can't possibly work. What the right way to do it would be I probably would not agree with Krugman.

Krugman is most adept at intellectual sleight of hand. He starts by stating, by far, the most common criticism of the Euro: that a monetary union won't fly without a corresponding political union. Like you, I happen to agree.

However, his argument then morphs into an attack on sound money viz. the Gold Standard, and he casually blames it for causing the Great Depression.

By doing this, he avoids the crux of matter which is that European countries can't support their current government contracts and entitlement programs, given their current tax bases.

Throw in the excellent point Ralph made about Regulation, and you have countries that are for all intents unable to acheive economic growth. The result is the classic Socialist end game of an ever-growing number of hands reaching for a piece of an ever-shrinking pie.

The real monetary issue Krugman has with the Euro is that it doesn't allow countries to "Extend and Pretend."

[sandpit]

Also Germany has smartened up and abandoned their massive solar energy programs. why? too expensive and not practical they say. what a shocker.

They have sunshine in Germany?

[boxcar]

They have sunshine in Germany?

:lol: For the tiime being.

Boxcar

[badcompany]

Actually, to make Green Energy more viable the Obama administration will be enacting regulations which make it illegal for the sun to set and for the wind to blow at less than 20mph.;)

[JustRalph]

Tourism will save them. And now that they are aware of the crisis, they will be stable and the currency will be also...........according to those in this thread from 4 months ago. Hate to say, "I told you so"

http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/09/investing/imf-spain/index.htm?hpt=hp_t1

[NJ Stinks]

Attention all PA Liberals, report to this thread immediately and bring all your ridiculous excuses for why Socialism isn't to blame for Spain's problems.

Refresh my memory, BC. Who caused the real estate bubble? Spain or the USA?

[Tom]

Refresh my memory, BC. Who caused the real estate bubble? Spain or the USA?


Democrats.....mostly Barney Frank.
Not Americans.

[JustRalph]

Don't worry, Tourism is going to save them..............

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48889555

Fears Rising, Spaniards Pull Out Their Cash and Get Out of Spain

[JustRalph]

Now we move toward civil war as the strongest portion of the economy tries to break free from the leeches. Catalonia is facing a crushing government military force

*re reading this thread gave me a little fun..........

[woodtoo]

Interesting thread.:ThmbUp:

[therussmeister]

Now we move toward civil war as the strongest portion of the economy tries to break free from the leeches. Catalonia is facing a crushing government military force

*re reading this thread gave me a little fun..........

The only thing I got out of this thread was the opportunity to give Robert Goren a positive reputation rating.

[JustRalph]

The only thing I got out of this thread was the opportunity to give Robert Goren a positive reputation rating.

It was worth it!!

[incoming]

Thanks for the revisit.. very relevant for the times.:ThmbUp: