Der Spiegel on Spain

[DRumsfeld2000]

A thoughtful article:-

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-847513.html

[BadJuju]

Re: Der Spiegel on Spain

"Panlador takes a few steps back. Personal bankruptcy doesn't exist in Spain. His debt of €242,000 will stay with him his whole life. "I'm tired," he says."

The only people that get breaks are the rich.

"There is, however, a rule stating that the borrower cannot simply return a property to the lender to settle his debt. In the worse case, he stands to lose the property and still owe the bank the full purchase price"

What the heck? The whole system seems to exist to churn up the less affluent until every last bit of wealth is extracted from them and given to the upper crust.

One thing that bothers me about the article is his accusation that the bank employees are criminals. My mom is a teller at a bank. She works her ass off and barely makes more than minimum wage despite being there for years. If anyone like Panlador messed with her, he would get his head stomped into the ground.

[Alvaro Spain]

Re: Der Spiegel on Spain

A thoughtful article:-

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-847513.html

Thanks for the article. I have read it and basically I agree with the author's opinions.

Just one clarification: the author reports several sad cases that, while true, are more the exception than the rue. Spain is not a Mad Max country. At least for now.

I am 49 years old and, like the author, also miss the Spain of the seventies. Perhaps it is because of my childhood memory but I remember people working in jobs with real content and being helpful to the society.

[Alvaro Spain]

Re: Der Spiegel on Spain

One thing that bothers me about the article is his accusation that the bank employees are criminals. My mom is a teller at a bank. She works her ass off and barely makes more than minimum wage despite being there for years. If anyone like Panlador messed with her, he would get his head stomped into the ground.

Bank employees are not criminals. They are mostly people like everybody else.

But banks were giving huge credits to people that could never repay them. Some of the directors of the bankrupt banks that must be bailed out are perhaps criminals.

[jk]

Re: Der Spiegel on Spain

"But who is to blame? Bankia, because it gave a quarter-million-euro loan to a man [a now-unemployed chauffeur] who was making €940 a month after taxes? Or Panlador, because he took out the loan? No one forced him to do it. Perhaps both are to blame."

let's see... was one of the parties to this transaction expected to be more financially knowledgeable and sophisticated? is the ability to properly assess risk a key component of the identity of a chauffeur or of a bank? let me think.... clearly the chauffeur is fully to blame, and should be made to bear the full cost for the rest of his life. the bankers should get bonuses, except for the ones who become gov't minister of finance.