VILLA VALENCIA SPAIN
In these troubled times, it is a bore to feel the necessity to ‘harp on’ about Spain’s problems. However, they are an unavoidable topic here in Spain – with the ‘crisis’ (the word is the same in Spanish) on everyone’s lips wherever you go. This is hardly surprising given the horrendous rate of unemployment in Spain (somewhere well in excess of 20%!) with every town brutalised by a heart rending profusion of shop and business closures. Se Vende (For Sale) and Se Alquiller ( For Rent) boards are everywhere you look.
Certainly, my heart bleeds for my beloved Gandia, which is suffering badly. Meanwhile, our village is hurting as well, with many Spanish and expatriate friends now jobless. It all seems so unfair, given the gross negligence of the Spanish banks – who (like in the UK) were ‘supervised’ by a bunch of politicians so pulsillanimous and inept that they could not have run a chiringuito (beach bar) without going bankrupt in the first week.
I was struck by a frightening article (see paragraphs 9-12) that was passed to me today, which indicates the deep trouble that the Spanish banks – particularly the Cajas (savings banks) are in. This has been an open secret over here for a long time and has been waiting to explode at any moment.
I am far from surprised and I have written about the weakness of the Spanish economy for years and the bizarre sense of unrealism that I have encountered in dealing with Spanish banks. This has rather saddened me, as I have always enjoyed a great relationship with their invariably charming tellers who reside in lovely and friendly (in North European terms) ‘open office’ branches.
The trouble is that many Spanish banks have been terribly badly run and are now about to catch a monstrous cold. A good demonstration of their desperation was experienced by a friend of mine recently who was trying to remove his money from a Spanish bank to send it abroard. Every possible obstacle was placed in his way over several days, before he eventually succeeded in extracting his money – which, whilst a substantial sum, was certainly not millions.
Meanwhile, and for me more worrying, was a conversation about the Spanish economy that I overheard between two friends of mine a few days ago. The one speaking was the single most astute person I know (a brilliant financial analyst who retired at 40). I heard him saying to our mutual friend: ‘I do hope you’ve been a good boy – and moved all your money out of Spain’.
Frightening – I just hope that he is wrong…
