The Great Spanish Crash

[peteroldracer]

at one stage, they tried to spend their way out of trouble ( the same route that Ed Balls ) wants the UK to take !!!! ), before realising they were throwing good money after bad.

That's the trouble with socialists - heart is in the right place, but they just haven't a real clue!

[markwilding]

at one stage, they tried to spend their way out of trouble ( the same route that Ed Balls ) wants the UK to take !!!! ), before realising they were throwing good money after bad.

That's the trouble with socialists - heart is in the right place, but they just haven't a real clue!

C'mon The current world crisis was caused by The bankers.Even Spain's property crash was partly caused by deregulation of building controls without proper control of what could be made legal and what couldn't. It was Aznar of the PP who changed the law.

There were other economic policies during the mid to late eighties in the UK, which had similar results in the housing market to Spain's current ones, under the Thatcher government.

Eventually, Spain will need to spend it's way out of the crisis because the current austerity policy is only deepening the problem. The questions as always is how will they do it? More white elephants or investment in Sustainable industries and services?

[peteroldracer]

Sadly history would suggest that the white elephant is not a threatened species in Spain.
The business naivety of mostly socialist governments allowed the bankers to act in such an uncontrolled manner - they couldn't understand it so did not know how to regulate it. As for the Americans, they are always in such awe of money that they would not presume to know better.

[Devils Advocate]

There were other economic policies during the mid to late eighties in the UK, which had similar results in the housing market to Spain's current ones, under the Thatcher government.

Strange how 2 people can have so different a recollection and memory of a certain point in time

That's what makes the world go around I suppose, be boring if we all thought the same

[frank]

There were other economic policies during the mid to late eighties in the UK, which had similar results in the housing market to Spain's current ones, under the Thatcher government.

Strange how 2 people can have so different a recollection and memory of a certain point in time

That's what makes the world go around I suppose, be boring if we all thought the same

Perhaps I have a selective memory, but can't remember us ever having more than a million unsold properties with prices diving. Nor thousands of illegal properties.

[markwilding]

I'm talking about house price deflation caused by ill thought out policies which created a bubble then a crash.

There was a boom in housing sales from the mid to late eighties and deflation of up to 35 per cent from around 1989 to 1993 and many unsold properties during this period caused by the Thatcher government's economic policy.

I said the results were similar not the same.

[peteroldracer]

I have to have sympathy for the politicians: one set of people moan like mad when the apparent value of their homes goes down, whereas another set moan that houses are priced out of their reach!
In an ideal world, a house should be worth what it would cost to build it as it is, plus a cost for the land, both of which would vary according to local labour costs, but too many have for too long regarded housing as an investment, and unlike almost every other possession, do not expect it to go down as time goes by.

[pigs-might-fly]

Here you go - join in & do your bit!

http://www.ukip.org/

[MarkF]

This year I cycled from Bilbao to Malaga, I took my time to have a good look around.....

The North cost Gijon to Bilbao and up to 25 miles inland appears "normal", South of Seville appears "normal" as does the CDS. Large towns like Valladollid, Salamanca and Merida appear to be functioning "normally" although the air of depression is palpable.

However, in between, vast swathes are like scenes from 28 days later, dead industrial parks, dead towns and there are whole families, husband, wife and children roaming the landscape looking for food, work and shelter, seen it with my own eyes and I won't forget it. It took me a couple of days to cotton on to the fact that they were not hikers on pilgrim routes.