Divided and Conquered, Catalonia Weighs the Damage

 It might look over, but the Spanish region’s independence bid has long-lasting repercussions.
By Charles Penty , Manuel Baigorri , and Esteban Duarte
Bloomberg

The drama in Catalonia may have reached its epilogue, but the economic and political consequences are still to emerge for a region Spain could never afford to let go.For now, the separatist leadership has been deposed, a would-be European republic snuffed out and a potential bank run avoided.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has gone from lame duck premier dogged by a party corruption scandal to the country's unlikely savior. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont painted himself on Tuesday as a victim of the vengeful state after fleeing to Brussels to avoid arrest.
Yet that winner-and-loser narrative masks a delicate balance. Catalonia's 7.5 million people remain as torn as ever in the stop-start push for their own state since the death of General Francisco Franco four decades ago. A tumultuous month started with an illegal independence referendum on Oct. 1 that police tried to forcibly extinguish. It culminated with a loss of autonomy that’s cherished even by those who want to remain part of Spain.

Unlikely Winners of Greece's Surrender

FEB 26, 2015 2:00 AM EST

By Mark Gilbert

Bloomberg

The Greek government's apparent capitulation in debt negotiations with its euro partners makes it less likely that Athens will be forced out of the common currency. The real winners, though, are the European governments who have stuck with spending cuts in the face of mounting domestic opposition. They don't have to worry about a successful austerity renegade giving ammunition to their opponents.

France With Italy, Spain Seek Flexibility in Euro Budget Talks

By Ian Wishart & James G. Neuger - Nov 22, 2013 10:48 PM GMT+0200.

Bloomberg

France, Italy and Spain sought to maximize the flexibility of European Union budget-deficit rules to boost their economies as northern euro-area countries saw little need for stimulus.

The growth-versus-austerity debate was renewed at a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels today, as euro-area governments attempted to coordinate budget policy for 2014 using powers that were introduced earlier this year as part of their response to a debt crisis now in its fifth year.

“No, no, no,” Italian Finance Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni told reporters when asked whether his government would modify its budget. “Reducing the debt load is also our goal, and we managed that both with fiscal policies by reducing the shortfalls and with additional measures that they have now fully understood.”

China dismisses as absurd Spanish arrest warrants over Tibet

MADRID Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:51am EST

(Reuters) - Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and ex prime minister Li Peng could face arrest when travelling abroad over allegations they committed genocide in Tibet, a Spanish court ruled on Tuesday, in a case Beijing has dismissed as absurd.

Two Tibetan support groups and a monk with Spanish nationality brought the case against the former leaders in 2006 using Spanish law, which allows suspects to be tried for human rights abuses committed abroad when a Spanish victim is involved.

Spain Emerges From Two-Year Recession

The New York Times

By RAPHAEL MINDER

October 23, 2013

MADRID — Spain pulled out of a two-year recession in the third quarter, with its economy growing 0.1 percent from the previous quarter, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Spanish central bank.

European political worries halt risk asset rally

By Richard Hubbard

London | Mon Feb 4, 2013 11:23am GMT

(Reuters) - Stronger U.S. and Chinese economic data supported world equity markets on Monday, while the euro dipped and Spanish bond yields rose as growing political uncertainty in southern Europe worried investors.

Madrid Austerity Plan Boosted to $80 Billion

The Wall Street Journal

MADRID—Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced new austerity measures Wednesday that should help Madrid cut its budget deficit by €65 billion ($80 billion) through to 2015, and warned the euro-zone's fourth-largest economy may not grow at all next year.

U.S. shuttle diplomacy seeks to pull Europe back from brink

…She told Greek parties running in fresh elections on June 17 that Greece faces no choice but to make the difficult economic reforms laid out in its EU/IMF bailout package, or its financing will be cut off…

Yields fall sharply at Spanish, Italian debt sales

… a back-door bailout by the European Central Bank…

… Italy also fared well, paying less than half what it did a month ago…

… Spanish local media attributed the auction's success to tough cost-cutting measures…

Eurobond Plan Would Need a Big Sweetener

The Wall Street Journal

The euro-zone crisis is solved. It took some doing, but the final pieces are in place.

First, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has promised to reform his nation's no-growth economy. Second, the European Central Bank has agreed to buy bonds of troubled countries, including Spain and Italy. Third, euro-zone leaders have agreed to authorize their bailout fund—a.k.a. the European Financial Stability Facility—to buy euro-zone government bonds in the secondary market. I would add a fourth but it takes irony too far: Euro-zone leaders have benefited from advisory phone calls from President Barack Obama, and Treasury SecretaryTimothy Geithner's warning that they are moving too slowly to confront their debt crisis.

Worries over and head for the beaches.

Panic Hits Global Markets

08/05/2011 11:41 AM

German Stocks Fall Sharply

Markets around the world continued to tumble on Friday, responding to concerns of a double-dip recession in the United States and fears that the European debt crisis could worsen. The European Central Bank has begun purchasing government bonds again, and the European Commission is calling for an expansion of the euro rescue fund.

Global financial markets on Friday continued to be rattled over concerns of a double-dip recession in the United States and the continuing European debt crisis. Following heavy losses on Wall Street and Asia on Thursday and Friday, Germany's market opened with stock sales that bordered on panic. Shortly after the opening of trading, the blue chip German DAX index fell by more than 4 percent to 6,152 points, recovering slightly later to a level of 6,220.

EU leaders to hold crisis talks, ECB offers only

6:48am EDT

By Ben Deighton and Andreas Framke

BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The leaders of Germany, France and Spain will hold crisis talks about Europe's spiraling debt crisis on Friday after China and Japan called for global policy cooperation following a market rout.

Merkel, Sarkozy to Discuss Euro-Zone Situation

The Wall Street Journal

By Bernd Radowitz

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will later Friday talk to French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the telephone, with the “current situation in the euro zone” among the issues to be discussed, a spokesman for Ms. Merkel said Friday.

The euro crisis, part 394

Rearranging the deckchairs

The markets once again are calling euro-zone leaders’ bluff. Time to get ahead of things

The Economist

Aug 6th 2011 | from the print edition

WHATEVER plans European leaders had made for their holidays are being disrupted by an adversary that never takes a break: the bond markets. A fortnight after yet another summit in Brussels to resolve the euro zone’s debt saga, the pressure on Greece, Ireland and Portugal—the three minnows to have been bailed out by Europe and the IMF so far—has eased. But the strains on far-bigger Spain and Italy are rapidly worsening. The extra interest that both countries pay to borrow for ten years compared with Germany rose to euro-era records this week. Shares in Italian banks, stuffed with domestic government bonds, are being pounded on a daily basis.