Andrew Pollen is an MBA student at Esade Business School in Barcelona currently based in San Francisco. He writes for The Fair observer and has granted us permission to reproduce this article on why Europe can copy the business models, but not the essence, of Silicon Valley.
The Catalonian regional government has filed a request for help warning Madrid it will not accept any condition linked to such rescue. For a Cabinet in desperate need of cash to keep running its services, the flat refusal to take on board any tip seems a bit reckless. But it has a trump card in its bid to soften Madrid resistance. It is threatening to trigger a full fledged confrontation…
The draft RDL for bank restructuring and resolution is expected to be passed next Friday in Spain. Aimed at preventing new banking catastrophes, the new legislation gives the Bank of Spain and the state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) new powers to intervene before crises erupt. Morgan Stanley believes the new decree law will drive further consolidation in the sector, which together with extensive liability management at weaker entities,…
Now that full rescue seems an unavoidable option, overtly accepted by Madrid, the main opposition party in Spain has found some way to deliver a scathing attack on government. For all its dismal delivery while in power, it managed to avoid such unpalatable scenario. The current cabinet, supposedly better equipped to bring Spain out of trouble, has already being forced into a €100 billion banking salvage package and now it…
The new set of rules on restructuring and liquidation of ailing banking institutions planned to be approved next Friday confers full command to the Spanish government. The Bank of Spain will exclusively identify solvency failures and pit in place an early warning mechanism to redress potential deviations. But once public money is involved the task is conferred to a formally independent body, the FROB, but under tight governmental control. Politicians…
CAPITAL MADRID, José Sánchez Mendoza.– Pay more, almost double, but with a comfortable loan that covers all or most of the amount. It’s a win-win situation, don’t you think? Though it may seem, this is not the lamp seller in a Moroccan bazaar’s talking but the candy that banks put in front of consumers to get rid of the housing stock that hampers their balance sheets. According to a study…
Morning! Today we bring you the last part of our summer series interview with Professor of Economics at Columbia University Martin Uribe. He believes that the Eurozone needs structural changes to tackle the crisis, especially in fiscal matters. The lesson we should learn from this crisis is to avoid high capital inflows into a country as happened to Spain from 2000 to 2008. – Several Nobel laureates have decried budget…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | In Spain, the fall in the housing prices is intensifying and that is a reason to rejoice. Last July, the average housing price fell 11.2%, but the granting of mortgages went down by 21% in the first half of the year. It is obvious that the owners may not feel comfortable with these decreases, but the truth is that as housing prices keep on…
MADRID | A frozen fish processing company from Galicia, in the north of Spain, was recently awarded the Green Card by the US’ Food and Drug Administration. The FDA isn’t exactly easy-going, but the Spanish firm has already access to the US market and extensive presence in Europe, including Russia. The news isn’t a surprise, of course: the Spanish food industry is successfully competitive, its exports have risen by 8.4…
Unless the Spanish government tackles the reform of the State administration, it is bound to follow the fate of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Any positive impact of hints coming from the European Central Bank about lending a hand to maintain the country’s access to the markets will eventually fade away. Indeed, it is happening again. Most analysts in the financial City of Madrid said so in as many words in…