Economy

Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that I have no idea what is happening in the government or economy here or in the US.  I know the big things - Spain has an economic crisis, US is preparing for the election of a new president, NC just voted to amend the constitution,... You know, the big things.  Scot tries to talk to me about some of these issues, but I get that glazed look in my eyes and he usually just gives up.

But, in several recent conversations with friends/family from the states I have been asked how the economic crisis is going to affect us and our assignment.  The glazed look just doesn't go over too well, so decided to do a little research.  Before I know how it is going to affect us, I guess I should understand exactly what the crisis is.  I did a lot of reading this evening and came across this list of "22 Signs That The Collapsing Spanish Economy Is Heading Into A Great Depression." ( I even understood most of them) 

What does this mean for us?  We are waiting to see.  We are being wise with our money - both what we keep in our Spanish account and our American account.  We are being wise with our spending as there is no predictability as to what will happen with the exchange rate.  But more than that, we are praying that this crisis may open doors for relationships and conversations that would have never occurred before.

I figure I cannot be the only one out there who gets the "glazed look" so I thought I would share the list with you.

#1 The unemployment rate in Spain has reached 24.4 percent - a new all-time record high. Back in April 2007, the unemployment rate in Spain was only 7.9 percent.

#2 The unemployment rate in Spain is now higher than the U.S. unemployment rate was during any point during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

#3 According to CNBC, some analysts are projecting that the unemployment rate in Spain is going to go above 30 percent.

#4 The unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 in Spain is now a whopping 52 percent.

#5 There are more than 47 million people living in Spain today. Only about 17 million of them have jobs.

#6 Retail sales in Spain have declined for 21 months in a row.

#7 The Bank of Spain has officially confirmed that Spain has already entered another recession.

#8 Last week, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services slashed Spain's credit rating from A to BBB+.

#9 The yield on 10-year Spanish bonds is up around 6 percent again. That is considered to be very dangerous territory.

#10 Two of Spain's biggest banks have announced that they are going to stop increasing their holdings of Spanish government debt.

#11 Of all the loans held by Spanish banks, 8.15 percent are considered to be "bad loans".

#12 The total value of all bad loans in Spain is equivalent to approximately 13 percent of Spanish GDP.

#13 Of all real estate assets held by Spanish banks, more than 50 percent of them are considered to be "troubled" by the Spanish government.

#14 That total amount of money loaned out by Spanish banks is equivalent to approximately 170 percent of Spanish GDP.

#15 Home prices in Spain fell by 11.2 percent last year, and the number of property repossessions in Spain rose by a staggering 32 percent during 2011.

#16 Spanish housing prices are now down 25 percent from the peak of the housing market and Citibank's Willem Buiter expects the eventual decline to be somewhere around 60 percent.

#17 It is being projected the the economy of Spain will shrink by 1.7 percent this year, although there are some analysts that feel that projection is way too optimistic.

#18 The Spanish government has announced a ban on all cash transactions larger than 2,500 euros.

#19 One key Spanish stock index has already fallen by more than 19 percent so far this year.

#20 The Spanish government recently admitted that its 2011 budget deficit was much larger than originally projected and that it probably will not meet its budget targets for 2012 either.

#21 Spain's debt to GDP ratio is projected to rise by more than 11 percent during 2012.

#22 Worldwide exposure to Spanish debt is estimated to be well over a trillion euros.

(source:  http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/04/30/22-signs-collapsing-spanish-economy-heading-great-depression-127491/)