Tag Archives: Spain

Come on, Europe: wir schaffen das

There are moments in politics and policy that change the course of history; when they can be summarised in three words, they are the best.

Mario Draghi’s statement back in 2012 that the European Central Bank will do “whatever it takes” to save the euro was such a moment: from then on, the speculators’ attack on weaker eurozone members’ sovereign debt stopped.

Another such moment came three years later, when in 2015 German chancellor Angela Merkel allowed one million refugees to enter Germany. “Wir schaffen das” (we can manage this), she said.

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Spain’s Catalonia issue turns into a test for the EU

The scenes in Catalonia, where local authorities say more than 400 people were hurt by police, are reminiscent of violent scenes in Eastern Europe that have tested, time and again, the European Union.

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The next European crisis: the real estate sector

If you’re curious to see where the seeds of the next financial crisis are in Europe, take a look at what’s happening in the real estate sector.

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Spanish banks on the mend as bad loans subside

The financial crisis of 2007-2009 has left a lot of collapsed Spanish castles in its wake, hitting Spanish banks hard.

Pictures of Spain’s ghost towns were splashed across the world’s newspapers at the beginning of the eurozone debt crisis. True, they weren’t as impressive as the Chinese ghost cities, but they show what excess debt and an inflated real estate sector can do to a country – and to its banks.

However, more than five years on since the crisis, the story is slowly changing.

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Dress like a zombie bank this Halloween, says analyst

If you’re still struggling to put together a Halloween costume, RBS strategist Alberto Gallo suggests trying to dress like a zombie bank.

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