Peter Radford — Spanish Triumph?

It’s all a bit annoying. Really. I have just read the Economist’s article about Spain. The article is titled “Back on its feet”.

Such a title might lead you to imagine that the article is about a triumphant return to prosperity. But no.

Instead we are told that unemployment is down to 22.5%. This is down from a peak of 26.3% back in 2013. Growth, we are told, has ‘sparkled': it rose to an annualized rate of 3.8% in the first quarter and rose again a little further in the second.

Wow.

These are the fruits of severe austerity. They are ‘the vindication of reforms’ the right of center government put in place in 2011.

Double wow.…

The new propaganda is how well austerity is working. Elite chutzpah never ceases to amaze.

Sorry Economist: the story is one of disaster not triumph. It is of lost lives, lost hopes and lost dreams. And those ‘reforms’ are like the leeches of yesteryear: they are the product of economic theories that lack an understanding and empathy for real people.

Let’s all hope that our Spanish friends are tough enough to withstand the damage inflicted by the cure being thrust upon them. And let’s all hope that one day these reckless and violent cures are seen for what they are: inhuman evil.

Yes, Spain is going great — in comparison with Greece. The Radford Free Press