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Spain's bond auction on April 3, 2012 for 2.59 billion euros showed yields up by one percentage point to 5.7% on its 10 year bonds. Spain's banks are using funds borrowed from the ECB under its Long Term Financing Operation to buy Spain's government bonds. Spanish banks bought 39 billion of government bonds in Jan and Feb 2012. Spain has raised so far 47% of the planned funding for 2012.

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Spain heads back to elections after the Socialist party fails to come to an agreement with the centre right Ciudadanos party or the centre left Podemos party. 

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The ECB's monetary policy is making its way through the financial system to help homeowners in the eurozone with their mortgages. A large majority of Spain's home mortgages have rates that increase or decrease according to the level of 12 month Euribor, according to Spain's mortgage association. The mortgage rate is normally set by adding about 0.3% to the Euribor 12 month rate. In Italy about half the mortgages have variable rates, most linked to Euribor, according to mortgage broker Mutuionline. The decline in 12 month Euribor rate to 0.187% by April 2015, as a result of the ECB's monetary policy, provides significant relief to mortgage holders during the eurozone economic crisis. This is especially true for Spain with its housing crisis and high unemployment. In Portugal the interest rate on most mortgages is determined by using the monthly average of the 3 month and 6 month Euribor, which are close to zero. Some mortgage holders in Portugal are seeing their mortgage payments cut by about half as a result, providing much needed relief to homeowners with mortgages. This is one way in which the ECB's monetary policy is helping the eruozone recovery in 2015-2016. Spain and Portugal suffer from high unemployment which has led to many homeowners unable to afford their mortgage payments, affecting everything from housing prices to consumer spending and demand in the economy, with severe effect in the period 2011-2014....

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The Economist calls for more attention to efforts to promote growth in Europe and the U.S. in 2011. It describes as nonsense the policy of the European Central Bank to increase interest rates at a time when most European economies are struggling to increase growth. And more so when the ECB is busy buying Spanish and Italian bonds to support Spain and Italy.

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As the U.S. economy continues to recover Europe is seeing the impact of the second wave of the pandemic on the economy. Economists say the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 28% in the third quarter of 2020 after a drop of 31% in the second quarter. WIth a surge of cases to over 1 million in Spain and curfews in France and Italy, the economy in the European Union is slowing again.

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ECB president, Mario Draghi, is interviewed at his office in Frankfurt by the Wall Street Journal's Blackstone, Karnitschnig, and Thomson. Draghi quotes economist Rudi Dornbusch, who told him in the old days that the Europeans were rich enough to afford paying for it if everybody didn't work. Draghi, was head of the Bank of Italy, before becoming president of the ECB. He is acutely aware of the problems faced by Italy and other countries like Spain which have let labor markets become rigid, with extensive job protections and generous benefits for the unemployed. The result is that employers are reluctant to hire and young people face high unemployment rates- as high as 50% in Spain. For this reason Draghi sees the old social model in Europe as obsolete and already out. Draghi's sees austerity measures and spending cuts with the structural changes underway in Spain, Italy and other countries as the only way to generate economic renewal. On the Long Term Financing Operation launched by the ECB in Dec. 2011, Draghi says there was agreement within the ECB and the decision was unanimous. He makes it one of his objectives to achieve as much consensus as he can, to do what is right for Europe and to do it together with his colleagues in the ECB and the EU. That financing operation, and the binding deficit controls achieved at a recent summit of European leaders, he sees as all part of the pathway to fiscal union. ...

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Stress test performed by the consulting firms of Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger used data as of Dec 31, 2011, and a scenario of a 6.5% decline in GDP and a 26.4% fall in housing prices by 2014. An international panel of experts from the Bank of Spain, the Spanish government, the ECB, the IMF, the European Banking Authority and the EC was formed to oversee the consultancies report. A separate more detailed audit of 14 individual banks will be made by Deloitte Touche, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG International with results by the end of July. The four banks that need capital injections are Bankia, CatalunyaCaixa, NovaCaixaGalicia and Banco de Valencia. The consultancies estimate was for 51-62 billion euros needed according to Oliver Wyman, and 51.8 billion euros needed according to Roland Berger, for recapitalization of Spanish banks by 2014. The issue now is about any remaining questions about additional losses, and whether rescue funds from the EU fund the EFSF should go directly to the banks as favored by the IMF and the government of Spain. This is because of the stress on yields of Spain's 10 year bonds with rescue money going to the Spanish government at the insistence of German chancellor Merkel....

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The Spanish Supreme Court verdict giving jail sentences to 11 Catalan leaders for the part they played in pushing for independence of the Catalan region in 2017, has resulted in clashes of protesters with police. The socialist government of Pedro Sanchez faces elections on November 10, 2019.  The government faces the option of activating Article 155 of the Constitution suspending the state government for central rule from Madrid.  One of the problems Spain now faces is that there is no clear majority for independence with the region divided between people who prefer to remain in a united Spain and people who prefer Catalan independence. In a recent BBC Hardtalk this was brought up in questions put to the Catalan independent movement spokesperson. The support for independence has actually declined in recent years. The Guardian cites a Catalan government poll in July showing 48% of Catalans oppose independence and 44% support it. Independence is not supported by the EU and it is not clear whether Catalan economy would do better outside Spain, as some of the causes of the economic problems stem from the banking and housing crisis in Spain and overborrowing. Mr Sanchez on the Madrid side and the Republican Left on the Catalan side favor negotiations on economic issues raised by Catalan people. As a result there may be less support than previously for outright independence, particularly when it is realized that the economic issues come from mismanagement and corruption and that the new Spanish constitution was designed to give regions special rights after the Franco years.  ...

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523 European banks borrowed 489 billion euros from the European Central Bank on Dec. 21, 2011, under the newly created Long Term Financing Operation of the ECB. This is designed to meet the financing needs of European banks which are shutoff from normal financing of selling unsecured bonds to private investors because of market anxiety. Much of this is for replacing other outstanding ECB loans, with analysts estimating about 190 billion euros of new liquidity being injected into the banking system. This also has the effect of reducing the borrowing rates for government bonds. In Spain the government sold 5.6 billion euros of government bonds at an auction on Dec. 20, 2011, with the interest rates dropping from 5.7% a month earlier to 1.7%. Small and midsize banks in Spain helped surging demand by buying the bonds to use as collateral for three year loans from the ECB at 1%.

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The ECB's Long Term Refinancing Operation is working as planned with the lowering of borrowing costs for Italy and Spain. Spanish government two year bond yields are down to 3.3% in January 2012 from a high of over 6%. Italian government two year bond yields have declined to 3.9% in Jan 2012 from a high of 7.8% in November 2011. Experts say the response is much more positive than the market was expecting. Morgan Stanley anaysts expect the banks to borrow extensively when the ECB makes new loans under this program in February 2012, which they estimate could reach 400 billion euros. Spanish banks are expected to borrow 15-45 billion euros to use for buying Spanish government debt, which would take up about half of the debt Spain needs to issue in 2012. For the banks the 3 year loans at 1% interest with flexible terms for collateral given to the ECB, offers a way to earn higher interest rates on sovereign government debt of their national governments.

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Sixty four years ago president Kennedy accepted the nomination of his party with these words in Los Angeles on July 15, 1960- "But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high--to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.  Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.  Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and more terrible weapons--new and uncertain nations--new pressures of population and deprivation. One-third of the world, it has been said, may be free- -but one-third is the victim of cruel repression--and the other one- third is rocked by the pangs of poverty, hunger and envy. More energy is released by the awakening of these new nations than by the fission of the atom itself."       ...

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Morocco's effort to replace fossil fuel imports from Spain and Algeria with wind and solar energy are shown here in DW.com. Also shown are 10 pictures of unusual locations in which solar panels are used around the world. In one picture machinery in Denmark agriculture that plants beetroot and rapeseed is operated through GPS using the solar energy from panels placed on the roof of the machinery. Click on Original article to see these amazing pictures.

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With the U.S. Federal Reserve pulling back from its monetary easing policy and the ECB holding steady with a low interest rate policy, bond investors are finding attractive buys for government bonds of Italy and Spain. 10 year government bonds of Italy yielded 4.2%, and Spain's government bonds yielded 4.3% on Aug. 22, 2013. By comparison German government bonds yielded 1.88%, narrowing the gap between the bonds of southern European countries and German bonds as the eurozone economies recover in 2013-2014.

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Pidcock, mountain biking gold, says the biggest thing is to inspire people that's what he loves to do. It is bigger than cycling. Cut off from the rest of the cyclists after a 40 second puncture and being slow to change wheels, Tom Pidcock of England, faced huge odds. At first he wasn't getting any closer, he wasn't making any inroads. He had made too many mistakes he realized. He was suffering and fighting to make a comeback. Only with 3 laps left did things change when he cut 15 seconds off the gap in one lap. At that point Pidcock knew he could come up front. He chose to go for it and found a gap which he took. He was competing with Frenchman Koretsky and the French cheered him on. Pidcock prevailed. He had done this on one of the rides (Stages) in the Tour de France descending down the Alps. Inspiring young people goes beyond cycling. ...

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Lagging growth in GDP per capita, productivity growth, in Italy, with small family business unwilling to take risks for growth, and bureaucratic hurdles for business. To get an idea how Italy has lagged severely behind other countries in Europe, consider that GDP per capita increased by 28% in Spain, and 22% in France, compared to only 8% in Italy during the 20 year period 1993-2013, according to the Conference Board. Productivity growth measured by GDP per hour worked for Italy showed growth of only 13% in that 20 year period, compared to 30% in France and 23% in Spain. Since the 2008 global financial crisis the Italian economy has shrunk by 9% and growth is barely 1% in 2014. During 1993-2003 top performers Germany showed 31% increase in GDP per capita and 32% increase in productivity growth, the UK showed 44% increase in GDP per capita and 38% in productivity growth. Because of slowing population growth GDP growth has to come from productivity increases in Europe. France is the strongest in terms of productivity with $59 of GDP per hour worked, UK $51, and Germany $57. Italy at $45 has fallen behind Spain at $50. Conference Board statistics show GDP per capita in inflation adjusted, purchasing power adjusted 2013 dollars at $35,847 for France, $40,868 for Germany, $30,145 for Spain, $39,904 for Britain, and Italy lagging behind at $31,386. Most of the gains were made before 1993 for Italy, whereas Spain surged in the period after 1993 only slowing after 2008. The struggles in the U.S. auto industry showed how well meaning changes for labor in the early postwar period if not adapted to changes in the global economy decades later can lead to sharp decline before adjustment is made. In Italy well meaning labor laws in the early postwar period not adapted to changes in the global economy decades later, combined with cultural behaviour of entrenched group interests, and a bureaucratic government, have stifled growth and productivity....

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European banks are expecting low returns and a period of low rates and souring loans from the pandemic and many banks may have to merge to survive. Most are just covering costs. CaixaBank is buying Bankia SA in Spain. Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank may reconsider merging. UBS may consider merging with Credit Suisse, though Swiss banks are in better shape.

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This part of the West Indies has so much in common with India, not just the cricket from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. From street vendors to temples there is a constant feel of India in Trinidad. It comes from 150,000 indentured laborers sent by the British from India to work on sugar plantations. Their descendents make up most of the population on Trinidad. Tobago has Afro-Caribbean culture and sounds, in Trinidad temples dot the highways and the music on radio is mostly English songs in Hindi lyrical style. The oil and gas wealth that is seen in the high rise buildings in the capital Port of Spain blend easily with street stalls selling chana masala on flatbread, a staple of Trinidad.

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The rivalry between Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool and Pep Guardiola of Manchester City with only one point separating the two teams in the Premier League. Liverpool was 3-3 with Benefica of Portugal on the second leg, after winning 3-1 in the first. Liverpool now meet Villareal in the Champions League semifinals and will play Manchester City in the Premier League. Villareal, part of the Valencian community in eastern Spain, won aginst Bayern Munich and Juventus to get to the semi-finals.

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The Spanish women's soccer team's Hermoso unauthorized football kiss by a football official leads to this trial in Spain Feb. 2025. It was a point of much disapproval worldwide and in Spain, with Spanish footballers very critical of the official's attitudes to women soccer players.