Spain has prosecuted more bankers, imposed more restrictions on their “golden parachutes” and seems to have hit failing institutions with higher fines for misleading investors than the United States since the outset of the financial crisis. Although Miguel Blesa, the former president of Caja Madrid, which was later merged into Bankia, was released from prison without charge last week, 89 of his colleagues were awaiting sentence for alleged wrongdoing during their tenures at the helms of nine savings banks. Meanwhile, in the United States the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has filed fewer than 50 lawsuits against officers and directors of failed institutions since 2010 and none … [Read more...] about Spain ahead of the US in bankers’ prosecution
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Tales for Tapas: Trouble in the air
Striking Iberia workers this week held up banners saying their airline is not for sale – they believe the restructuring plan put forward by parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) is not really about restructuring at all but about letting British Airways, Iberia’s partner under the IAG umbrella, acquire the Spanish airline’s assets at knock-down prices. The prices, though, would not in fact be knock-down, because Iberia has continued to haemorrhage money since its merger with BA at the start of 2011. It lost a cool €262 million in the first nine months of last year. In their campaign against the 3,800 redundancies, 15-percent route reduction and across-the-board pay cuts … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Trouble in the air
Spain’s evictions push the defenceless over the edge
On November 9, as the police and bailiffs opened the door of a flat in Barakaldo, Gipuzkoa, to execute a mortgage repossession, 53-year-old Amaia Egaña climbed up onto a chair on her fourth-floor balcony and leapt to her death. Hers was the third suicide in as many weeks shortly before the moment of eviction, and it has apparently triggered a dramatic response on the part of Mariano Rajoy’s government, which announced its intention to suspend all evictions of “vulnerable families”, pending a reform of the mortgage law. It may surprise the more than 300 households evicted every day in Spain that their constitutional rights are being violated, but among the many promises of social justice … [Read more...] about Spain’s evictions push the defenceless over the edge
US dollar triumphs as Eurozone bank recapitalisation agreement unravels
Welcome to the Pure FX account of changes in the euro exchange rate, covering the 5th to 12th of October 2012. This is intended as a brief guide to movements in the euro this week, to put you in the best position for when you exchange currencies. Latest exchange rate changes Pound to euro: 1.2439 to 1.2398 (-0.33%) Pound to US dollar: 1.6181 to 1.6038 (-0.884%) Euro to US dollar: 1.301 to 1.2936 (-0.569%) The US dollar has triumphed against the pound and euro this week, as a Eurozone agreement dating back to June to break the link between indebted banks and governments unravels. If you’re in the US and intend to emigrate to Spain or Portugal then, this means you can receive a … [Read more...] about US dollar triumphs as Eurozone bank recapitalisation agreement unravels
Spain’s “technically impossible” euro exit
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, his Economy Minister Luis de Guindos, and Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro, have all been asked to respond to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman’s recent comments regarding what he called eurodämmerung: the end of the single currency. Unsurprisingly, they all repeated their commitment to the single currency, saying that Spain would not require a bailout, and that the spending cuts would continue. But like guilty men giving away what is really on their minds, all three went further, insisting that Spain would remain in the eurozone, and that a corralito was a “technical impossibility.” Corralito is a dreaded word in Spain, associated with the chaos that … [Read more...] about Spain’s “technically impossible” euro exit
Squatting wave pushes for improved Spanish housing policy
“If they throw us out, I don't know what we're going to do. Now we have nothing,” says Trini, who lives with her partner and son in a squatted building in central Madrid. The €500 she earns taking care of seniors is the only income her family has. Trini wants to buy or rent a house, but at a price that her family can afford. Trini is part of a massive squatting wave that is sweeping across Spain as a response to the failure of public housing policy. Once, squatting was seen as an act of defiance, done mainly by young people. Now it is more commonly done out of necessity, by families who feel they have no other option. Since 2007, there have been more than 350,000 evictions as a result … [Read more...] about Squatting wave pushes for improved Spanish housing policy
Spain: Too big to fail?
The European Union’s three victims-so-far of the global financial meltdown have, not incorrectly, been described as the economic bloc’s periphery. Their economies are relatively small and, though at times worries about their debts have undermined the euro currency, their problems – even taken in combination – are hardly likely to bring the bloc to its knees. Individually, they were sick from a debilitating cocktail of similar problems: bed-ridden with debt and weak from a bad diet of profligate government spending and loan-happy banks. Nothing, it seemed, that a dose of bailout money from the EU and IMF could not cure with a trip to the emergency ward. Spain is showing similar symptoms. … [Read more...] about Spain: Too big to fail?
Spain held hostage by its banks
When the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, the Bank of Spain was one of few regulators lauded for having had the forethought to enact measures aimed at protecting the banking industry. It had prevented Spanish banks and savings banks from handing out the junk loans that brought down several American lenders, and, uniquely, it created a €40-billion “anti-crisis” fund at a time when many shorter-sighted bankers, economists and analysts thought the credit boom, on the back of low interest rates and rising property prices, would continue indefinitely. Four years later, Spain’s economy is now being held hostage by its banking industry as fears about the ability of banks and, in … [Read more...] about Spain held hostage by its banks
Only the lonely: bank robbery with a political conscience
Despite the fact he was Spain's most-wanted man for 13 years, there has been relatively little media coverage of the recently published autobiography of Jaime Giménez Arce, aka El Solitario (the loner). The 54-year-old former bank robber is serving a 47-year sentence for the murder of two civil guards in 2000, so he won't be doing the rounds of the chat shows any time soon to promote Me llaman El Solitario: autobiografía de un expropriador de bancos (They call me the Loner: autobiography of an expropriator of banks). So what does El Solitario, who was arrested in Portugal in 2007 as he plotted his next heist, tell us about those 13 years of bank jobs, what motivated him to take up a life … [Read more...] about Only the lonely: bank robbery with a political conscience