Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Spain's PM babbles something to excuse the billions for Bankia

Gate of Europe or KIO towers,
formerly Kuwait Investment Office (a fiasco),
then final scenario for a fictional 'Satan's coming',
now Bankia (another fiasco)
For a President of the Government (the official title equivalent to Prime Minister or Chancellor) who has been just a few months in charge Mariano Rajoy looks like he could resign at any moment. He won't but his position is so weak, not in Parliament but in terms of real economic viability and public credibility, that he could well be about to resign. 

But in my opinion the worst is that Rajoy does not seem to have any clear ideas, babbling rather than exposing and doubting rather than directing with firm hand. And he's about the less horrible cadre that the ruling party has in stock (it's full of people who can't do anything straight, not even pretend they do). 

After claiming that one plus one is not two or, more precisely, that the current lack of credibility of the Spanish state in the debt markets is not caused by the crisis of Bankia, he appealed to "Europe" in vague terms and fantasized that the debt goals will be met, what mean that the €23.5 billions will be extracted from the budget. 

After controversially cutting already €27 billions there is few room to operate. More so when most of those cuts directly affect not just the well being of citizens (social services) but the very economical engine (public investment, internal demand).

However, even if its common sense, the chief manager of Spain did not even consider dropping Bankia, as has been demanded by many already. In an exercise of hypocrisy he equated the collapse of the bank (which could be managed so small customers don't suffer at all, as is normal) with the bankruptcy of Spain, when in fact it is obvious that the opposite is the truth: that saving Bankia is going to cost dearly to the Spanish state. 

And most will be taken from the people: education, health care, pensions... not from the pathetic king nor the hated police nor the useless military nor the salaries of sus señorías...

Rajoy did not consider either to persecute those guilty of this scam, declaring with that action full accomplice. Let's not forget that Mariano Rajoy and Rodrigo Rato are party buddies and used to be vice-presidents in the Aznar government, so bootlicking of George Bush Jr. and his hateful invasion of Iraq. 

The precise evidence may never come but the clear message is: we PP buddies have plundered Bankia and now you stupid common Spanish citizens will pay for it, haw haw. I'm not playing the blame game here: it was the first PP government who organized this disaster of the brick bubble in the time when their partners in the USA (Bush Jr.) and Britain (Blair) did exactly the same. Just that in Spain it's always a tad more extreme when it comes to farce.

Among the most implicated are Rodrigo Rato (former Economic Vice-President along Rajoy, former IMF Director) and Esperanza Aguirre (President of Madrid Economic Community), some of whose closest associates are deep in the mud, several marquises, the whole Government of the Valencian Community (knowingly corrupt but re-elected by a brainless citizenry), etc. 

Aguirre, who was Minister of Culture with Aznar, became back in the day the laughing stock of the whole country after comitting several public gaffes that evidenced her utmost ignorance in matters of culture. However she has strong support in the most fascist-mafioso sectors of the Spanish Right and became President of the Region of Madrid. Now we can only imagine that the capital of the state is full of finance holes and what the Spaniards call chanchullos: petty corruption - or maybe not so petty.

Rajoy seems to be announcing that other saving banks will follow suit. He mentioned Catalunya Caixa and Nova Caixa Galicia. It is not clear however if he says so we get ready for the worst or just to deflect the political impact, as the culprits in these two cases may be not so directly related with his own party.

Nobody knows why precisely €23.465 billion. The figure seems to have been agreed between the new administrator and the government but no details have been provided. Worse: there is an announcement of a stockholders' assembly in a month that hopes to issue stock for value of €60 billion. Does that mean that the bank has a hole for the value of almost 30% the Spanish budget? Many wonder

Foreseeing? What is now the see of Bankia was once the scenario of a film on the Apocalypse: El Día de la Bestia

If so, how many Spanish budgets are needed to bail out all the Spanish banking system? 

Naturally we can't but understand at this point why Raxoi cries desperately to Brussels for some sort of help, whatever, but what I do not understand is why the system is not cleaned as it deserves: bankruptcy for all, guaranteeing just the current accounts and the savings up to a ceiling. 

Sure, this could trigger a domino of bankruptcies all around the world, but better that than wasting not just some public money but a lot of it. 

I even doubt that Spain can assume such massive payments without dissolving itself as state and becoming a new Somalia of sorts. A state can't guarantee the financial system, no way: it should not, it must not and it cannot. 

This is Ireland to the Nth power. It could be Iceland but Spain has the wrong government, the wrong opposition and the wrong everything.

Ref.: Gara[es], Spanish budget project 2012[es].

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