No pressure all pleasure
Spain is in a complete economic crisis. Its unemployment rate of 24.4 percent is higher than the U.S. unemployment rate during the worst of the Great Depression. And there’s no Spanish New Deal waiting around the corner to turn things around. The prolonged spell of mass unemployment is going to degrade workers’ abilities and prevent young people from gaining skills. The most capable and daring Spaniards will emigrate abroad, and Spanish firms will (rationally) fail to invest in improving the productivity of their workers. This bleak outlook will make investors more reluctant to loan euros to the Spanish government, which will then force more rounds of tax hikes and budget cuts, which will further crush the Spanish economy. A country that was booming a few years ago now looks doomed.
But perhaps there is a way out, one suggested by the recent experience of Argentina, a nation that’s currently enjoying full employment.
