The Economy of Spain: World's Greatest Bubble?

The Spanish Economy is one of extremes. At one point a focus of the Eurozone Crisis, at another the largest contributor of growth, and more recently, suffering the greatest economic hit of any Advanced Economy in 2020.

Spain’s Economic problems are often confused. In the years leading up to the Great Recession it posted consistent budget surpluses.
However, a huge real estate bubble was lying in wait.

The question... is why?
Why did Spain go from a seemingly safe level of debt to one larger than its Economy?
How was the housing bubble encouraged?
And since then, has Spain’s Economy ever truly recovered? Or in what ways?

--REFERENCES--

#Spain #SpanishEconomy #Economics

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[ackchyually]

"I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success." ~ Otto von Bismarck

[vsingh]

Been living in Spain for over 4 years and I would like to add that starting a business, small or big is not easy. The taxes, social security, permits, fines are really high. It got even worse in COVID-19 times where existing businesses had to close because they could not afford to pay their share of monthly salary to their employees while being out of business. Yes, the government did pay the benefits to the employees, but it's impossible for most small businesses to contribute their share for the employee benefit for such a long period of time with absolutely no income source.

[jamesprimavesi]

It is far too hard to start a small business in Spain which is preventing the economy from becoming more dynamic.

[ImNotADeeJay]

In some countries, succeeding is building a company from the ground up, in Spain, succeeding is getting a lifetime job as a civil servant.

[quoth_raven]

The video misses how the bubble was greatly fueled by legislation which allowed local politicians to profit economically from the construction industry.

[enricrodriguezmateu]

As a Spaniard, I think one of our biggest mid-term problems is going to be our public debt. It keeps growing and growimg and the government keeps making policies which make it even worse

[AktienMitKopf]

very nice video. I live in Mallorca, which is like 80% dependent on tourism and people are hurting :(

[paulisaaksohn]

I am not a Spaniard, but I absolutely am madly in love with this beautiful nation-its people, its nature, its language and culture, food and traditions and so much more. I was there 5 yrs ago and there is nothing I didn't like as someone, who comes from a much smaller and a lot more crowded and stressful place in the Eastern Mediterranean. I think Spain's faring a lot better than Greece, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltic States and I am positive the future is definitely much brighter for Spain than many other European nations in the long run. Wish you all the best, oh, gorgeous beauty and may you prosper and thrive!

[svtinker]

Having lived through the Texas oil bust of the 80s the lesson’s learned are; spread your risk and position yourself to transition to new markets quickly.

[JoaquinRubioSabin]

I’m from Barcelona (Spain) and I’m sure that one of the biggest Spanish problems are our hospitality and tourism-based economy instead of a technology-based one which are more resilients. We have not changed our Real Estate problems where the high demand from tourists push higher the prices making it dangerous for the local economy with lower salaries than this European, American or Asian tourists.

[j.f.e.]

As a Spaniard I must say that though the video is great in general, there is a mistake regarding banks bailouts; national banks weren't really bailed out, it was the regional ones, called "Cajas", which were controlled by politicians and theoretically non-profitable structures, the ones who needed and actually took the bailout. Anyway, very good content overall

[redding]

You talk about literally everything but forget Spain's main problem: we don't have a strong industry. That's why France recovered easily btw, because they do. We basically rely most of our economy on tourism and services, which only create low quality jobs. This creates a never-ending economic loop which we will never be able to go out unless our government starts to promote creating industry (like software, for example) and R&D

[everydaydose]

I just dont understand how you can pump out this quality videos in such a short span

[GeorgiaMoore.]

At the very least, I now grasp the concept of leverage.
Creating wealth and financial freedom isn't as tough as many people believe. Building wealth and remaining financially stable indefinitely is a lot easier with the appropriate information. Participating in financial programs and products is the only true approach to make a high income and remain affluent indefinitely.

[alexandresantos]

I wish all the best to our neighbors Spain! A great and historic nation thats for sure! Greetings from Portugal!

[cekan]

As an Spaniard, I can confirm. I am surprised by how well informed you are about this issue.
Your words reminded me of all the years my childhood spanned... Which were all characterized by the constant crisis, a word that has a very dark, and constant meaning for every Spaniard. It was painfully dramatic to see how the economy shrunk. At the very beginning, in 2008, and during the first months of 2009, the elderly used to say that we would complain too much for the situation, and that crises which took place during the last centuries were way worse. But soon, they all shut up. Everyone shut up. The president of the Government (or the Prime Minister for you Anglophones), who began by saying his famous phrase: "Trust me, there is no crisis", was forced to renounce and dissolve the parliament one year before his tenure was finished, because of how dramatic a situation turned out to be so he could not longer face it.
Even taking a walk through the city was sad: you would see almost every non-essential shop closed. I remember how my friends and I used to go all the way up to the next town just to eat a burguer, because there was not even such a thing in ours. I know, it sounds silly that I complain about it... It's just difficult to describe how fucked up everything was. People who used to have a good job and a family were suddenly evicted and being left out at the streets. That was a national drama, seeing how, day after day, the police would show up and evict a family who would resist as much as they could.
Education turned out to be horrible, too. Because of the austerity measures, costs had to be cut in schools. I remember how I was with 41 other people in a single room which was designed for around 25.
I know, I know, there are worse things like this in the world. And there are also many other, worse things I remember about those times, but I just wanted to write some impressions down.

At the end, the economy recovery was fragile. At the beginning of 2020, everyone could see that: underpaid and temporary jobs were widespread, and tourism, a low add value industry, was one of the drivers of the economic recovery. We would laugh and say that we were not at all prepared, should another crisis hit the economy. The worst case scenario up until that point was the US-China trade war, which did not affect us that much... And then came covid, and everything began, once again, to crumble.
Man, I just have one year more of college, and I know very well that as soon as I finish it, I'll go abroad to look for a job, and a life. Seriously, the job prospects here are trash, you may well end up working underpaid for more hours for those of you were officially hired for. Fuck this, I'm going out. Wish me luck, YouTube.

[Al-ummj]

I am Spanish and love Spain but left to other country years ago to work and have a proper career. I cannot support the incompetence of the politicians over the years (left and right) and the archaic companies mentality.

[howarddonaldson]

I am a self-employed person in Spain. You comented on the culture of black market working. I think this is a huge part of the problem. If you choose to be legitamatley self employed in Spain you are absolutley punished with tax and beurocracy. If they lived in Spain Bill Gates and Steve Jobs still have a black market business out the garage! If they cant fix this

[welshtoro]

I've been visiting Spain since 1982. My wife is Spanish and we are based in Britain but have family in the Basque Country and Castile. We also have a small property in Andalusia. I remember driving through Valladolid and the north of the country around 2006/7 and there were crappy rushed buildings going up everywhere. I asked my father in law if there was a housing shortage like in Britain and he said no, it was just that property was a solid investment. That idea that property could be an investment without any demand seemed ridiculous to me but it was happening everywhere. It was providing a massive amount of well paid employment and nobody was asking questions. The whole country jumped on the bandwagon and when the crash happened there were thousands of ridiculously overvalued properties without any chance of a sale or occupancy. Moving forward and Spain has huge problems including a rapidly ageing population and pension crisis, rural drift to the cities and the emptying of the interior (a problem Spain has always had to contend with), foreign brain drain of their best talent, stubbornly high unemployment, particularly in certain areas, a nationalist problem that makes Scotland look like nursery school and a seemingly poor level of political competence and courage to address any of these issues.

[JoseMariSoto]

I am 29 years old and from Spain and I have been earing that Spain has been in crysis all its life. After finishing my electrical engineering degree I had to emigrate to the UK because I couldn't find a stable job there...so I think that the whole government needs a internal reform. They don't stop stealing.