Spain
Spain Invokes Constitutional Order to Retain Control Over Breakaway Catalan State
Today, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his parliament declared independence from Spain, nearly a month after the historic referendum, and in response, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the parliament in his central government voted to enact Article 155 by a vote ...read more
Putin Grins as Catalonia Defies Spain
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont missed a crucial deadline this morning to formally declare independence from Spain. and the future of his government remains in jeopardy as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy plans to meet on Saturday to possibly invoke Article 155 of the ...read more
Russia, Wikileaks and Ed Snowden Are Lying About Upcoming Catalan Independence Vote
As we piece together what Russian media did to manipulate our presidential election, utilizing social media to spread fake news and hacking state voter rolls, it is of the gravest importance that we not let them get away with this again. This past week, Russian media and ...read more
Austerity: Pain for the Sake of Pain
Paul Krugman sums up the German economic policy of austerity that is causing immense misery throughout Europe: Why do it, then? Partly it’s because Europe is still operating on the false theory that this is essentially a fiscal issue; partly it’s to assuage the Germans, who ...read more
Anti-Austerity Protests Turn Violent in Spain
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From Reuters: MADRID (Reuters) - Protesters clashed with police in Spain's capital on Tuesday as the government prepared a new round of unpopular austerity measures for the 2013 budget to be announced on Thursday. Thousands gathered in Neptune ...read more
More Proof Austerity Doesn't Work: IMF Dramatically Cuts UK Growth Forecast
From the Independent: The International Monetary Fund yesterday handed the UK a bigger growth forecast downgrade than any other advanced nation and warned the global economy remains in a "precarious" state. The international lender of last resort said that the British economy ...read more
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More Austerity for Spain
From Bloomberg: European leaders are testing the latest version of their debt crisis strategy in Spain, granting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy more time to reduce the budget deficit in exchange for deeper spending cuts. Rajoy yesterday announced 65 billion euros ($80 billion) ...read more
Spain Bailed Out
Responding to increasingly urgent calls from across Europe and the United States, Spainon Saturday agreed to accept a bailout for its cash-starved banks as European finance ministers offered an aid package of up to $125 billion. European leaders hope the promise of such a ...read more
EU and Germany Urgently Explore Ways to Rescue Spain
Germany and European Union officials are urgently exploring ways to rescue Spain's debt-stricken banks although Madrid has not yet requested assistance and is resisting being placed under international supervision, European sources said on Wednesday. Spain, the euro zone's ...read more
Fears About Europe Cause Stock Market Panic
Traders fearful of a rupture in Europe's financial system retreated Wednesday from risky investments. They punished stocks and fled to the safety of U.S. bonds, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to a record low. Major U.S. stock indexes fell more than 1 ...read more
The Inconvenient Truth: Bond Markets Don't Reward Austerity
By Ben Cohen: The major argument behind implementing austerity measures during an economic crisis is to make sure governments stay credit worthy and are able to borrow from the bond market in the future. Just think of it like you would a personal credit card - if you've been ...read more
Austerity Measures: Stupid Economics
By Ben Cohen: The field of economics is often referred to as a 'junk science', mostly because it tries to explain human behavior in mathematical terms. This is almost impossible - humans are emotional and irrational, thus predicting their behavior accurately is harder than ...read more