Lost property

AUSTERITY isn’t working. And Spaniards – soon there will be 6 million – aren’t working, either. But Spain’s factory chimneys cooled long before the crisis hit.

Agriculture supported only large growers and closed family shops in back streets already indicated that only big, cheap supermarkets did business.

Tourism apart, now that the wheels are off the construction bus, neither driver nor passengers know where to head for.

The blame game

BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve Bank chairman, has once again pointed the finger of blame at Spain and Italy for slowing down global recovery.

Spain and Italy might be making a bad situation worse but there is a modicum of satisfaction and justification in mentioning that the present economic disaster originated in the United States. Now Spain, Italy and everyone else has to pick up the pieces.

Promises, promises, promises

GIVING only three hours’ notice, Bolivia last week expropriated Spanish shares in the energy firm REE-MC. Spain’s government, which intends to sell the State’s REE holdings, does not regard the move on the power-grid operator as an attack, said early reports.

But how safe are Spanish holdings in Latin America? Repsol in Argentina. REE in Bolivia. Who next?