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by nova 4003 days ago
> Spain is approaching 100% debt, 44% public spending, and it looks like it's getting worse.

It is. Spain is scheduled to elect the local Syriza equivalent in November.

1 comments

Morally bankrupt traditional parties and over 20% unemployment would do that to anybody.

Spain lacks a cultural framework that would make the population want market based reforms, as there is so little trust in institutions, employers and employees. Its labor market is not bad because it's impossible to find productive Spaniards, but because productivity, both at the employee and the firm level, is punished.

Podemos is coming, and it's not going to be good for the country. But the alternatives are pretty bleak. Fortunately for Spaniards, a Greece-like catastrophe in Spain would be the death knell of the Eurozone, so the troika will probably bend to Podemos demands, as far as spending goes, as long as some market reforms are done along with said spending. Spain's one way out of this mess is growth.

>Spain lacks a cultural framework that would make the population want market based reforms

I'm no expert on Spanish matters, but didn't they elect their current government, which advocated market based reforms, right in the middle of the crisis??