Is the EC pushing Spain towards a bailout?

[PaddyJoe]

The IT catches up belatedly with the Sanchez Gordillo story:

A Spanish mayor who became a cult hero for staging robberies at supermarkets and giving stolen groceries to the poor sets off this week on a three-week march that could embarrass the government and energise anti-austerity campaigners.

Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, regional lawmaker and mayor of the town of Marinaleda - population 2,645 - in the southern region of Andalusia, said food stolen last week in the robberies went to families hit hardest by Spain's economic crisis.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...14.html?via=mr

[MPB]

The IT catches up belatedly with the Sanchez Gordillo story:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...14.html?via=mr

No fear of that happening here. Our schoolteachers are doing a great job running the country.

It must be great to have the time.

Pity for us, that they do have the time.

As a society we need to find a way of keeping our teachers busy enough to not make politics a nixer.

[Ogiol]

I love the language in that IT article.

''for staging robberies'' (what robberies, there was only once when they expropriated basic foodstuffs from a supermarket chain)

''regional lawmaker'' (you mean spanish td,???)

''said food stolen went to the poor'' (as if its in doubt!! they went straight to the st.vincent de paul equivilant shop with shopping trolley and all)

Anyway, seems like Sr. Gordillo has a bitta history. He's been mayor of that wee town since democracy 1979, being returned with overall majorities every since, why??? because there just happens to be 0% unemployment there due to the town owned cooperative that has operated there since, again, 1979 (obviously nothing of the sorts could exist under the fascist dictatorship). The cooperative employs everyone, they export olive oil and other agricultural products, and do a good job at it too!!.

Sr. Gordillo was also in the news back in the early ninties when the local coop finally won the rights to keep exploiting the expropiated land they work from, from the spanish courts. Indeed there is still a huge problem of latifundismo in andalucia, the owner of the land around Marinaleda was a landlord with huge properties who had basically left the land fallow for years. Naturally, because he/she didnt need it. Sr. Gordillo and associates have shown them that with proper exploitation that land could provide for the whole town.!

Very interesting character and the story is becoming more and more interesting.

[DCon]

Spain will have its own version of NAMA soon.

Cabinet will approve bank bad on Aug 24 or 31 — official cited by BBG

http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2012/0...eate-bad-bank/

[DCon]

Catalonia wants none of those nasty conditions

Catalonia 5,023,000 calls but will not accept the State Policies



The Catalan government today applied to join the Spanish Government Autonomous Liquidity Fund, which will borrow EUR 5.023 million, but has warned he will not accept "political conditions" to provide some resources "that are of the Catalans".



The Catalan government spokesman Francesc Homs, has stated that the Government will use these resources - the fund is endowed with 18,000 million euros to meet the budget deficit that is required (1.5% of GDP by end 2012 ) and to refinance "maturities outstanding" between now and year end.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/spains...ate-conditions

[disability student]

Our media especially mainstream ones are on the side of FG/Lab govt as they aren't reporting with regards to preferential treatments given to Spain. While at the same time, Ireland is treated like shoddy & shabbily nation.

Preferential treatments shouldn't apply to us in the context of EU and the meaning of European unity. Such one law for Spain and one law for Ireland/Greece. It's sickening as we would be better off without the Eurozone. It only greatly benefits the Germans and the French now and in the long term as Ireland have no say or lack of consensus in all of this.

[Ogiol]

And from the other non spanish nationalist perspective, maybe they feel that way cause they've been contributing a net 10% to the central government for the last 30 years of shamocracy. (Just to put that in perspective, Greater London and Paris transfer a mere 4 and bit % to the rest of the regions).

Indeed its probably a strategy to move towards fiscal independence, and madrid knows that if they try to ruin the catalan economy then independence is certainly on the cards.

[PaddyJoe]

No good news out of Spain these days. Catalonia has been downgraded to junk. Rajoy is trying to play cute politically by delaying any request for a bailout until after regional elections in Galicia and the Basque country on the 21st October.
Madrid has promised 18 billion to the regions in bailout aid but most of it is going to come from an advance payment from its National Lottery fund and loans from domestic banks.
Over half of the 18 billion has been earmarked already for just four of the regions

[morticia]

Spain will have its own version of NAMA soon.

May the Lord have mercy, etc. Sigh.

[DCon]

Spain's bailout fund will be a dry well soon. Andalusia are in now. The other Regions will be taking note.

They are the fourth region to be bailed out after Valencia, Catalonia and Murcia.

The tally for fund requests so far is 10.8B euros with 4 of 17 regions accounted for. The total size of the fund is 18B euros.

http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2012/0...-is-andalusia/

[PaddyJoe]

Spanish army colonel threatens military action against Cataluña if there's a push for independence and labels Catalan nationalists as 'carrion eating vultures'
He made the threat in an article published in an ultra right wing magazine.
This kind of stuff gets taken very seriously in Spain given a long tradition of 'pronunciamentos' or army coups.
The last attempted coup was in 1981.
Google Translate:
http://translate.google.com/translat...cia%2F&act=url

[Dr. FIVE]

During the month of June alone $70.90 billion left the Spanish banks and in July it was worse at $92.88 billion which is 4.7% of total bank deposits in Spain. For the first seven months of the year the outflow adds up to $368.80 billion or 17.7% of the total bank deposits of Spain and the trajectory of the outflow is increasing dramatically. Reality is reality and Spain is experiencing a full-fledged run on its banks whether anyone in Europe wants to admit it or not.

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/09/...idence-mounts/

[DCon]

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/09/...idence-mounts/

if Spain was an island there would be none of that

[C. Flower]

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/09/...idence-mounts/

Massive.

Europe is disappearing down a plug hole somewhere south of Zaragoza.

[Dr. FIVE]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48891162

On a three-month rolling basis, portfolio and investment outflows from Spain totaled 52.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), (that's) more than double the outflows from Indonesia, which reached 23 percent of GDP at the time of the Asian crisis,