Over 10% of all bank assets in Spain consist of bad loans, a major impediment to economic recovery. The total value of the bad loans, mostly mortgages gone sour, equals 182 billion euros, about 17.4% of total Spanish GDP. This causes banks to resist additional lending until they clean up their books. It’s not clear [...]

Yesterday, protests in Spain led to clashes with police. Today, a general strike in Greece also led to clashes with police. Greek police have fired tear gas to disperse anarchists throwing petrol bombs near Athens’ parliament on a day-long strike against austerity measures. Clashes erupted during the first trade union-led action since a conservative-led coalition [...]

Spain has thus far resisted a formal request for a bailout, and the conditions that the European Union would surely impose. But they may not be able to wait much longer. Now it looks as if their spending program unveiled this week will serve as a prelude to the bailout, with more austerity in the [...]