FRANKFORT | That is the view from Berlin: the biggest problem Germany contends with is Europe. And this is so particularly because of this fact, more than 17 million people are unemployed in the euro zone. But while in Austria the unemployment rises to 4.2% and 5.7% in Germany, the Spanish labour market suffers the tragedy of [...]
What the City of London reads is the Telegraph, not the FT!
A shocking fact, from the revolving door here at thecorner.eu via Spain’s business paper Expansión, and a worth-noting point for readers tired of stereotypes: former Financial Times correspondent in Madrid Tom Burns has news for the pink’un-obsessed continental Europeans. What’s the dead-tree media brand of preference in the City of London? Not that one. Burns says [...]
Italian prime minister praises Spanish labour reform
MADRID | Mario Monti explained in an interview to the daily newspaper El Mundo that the Spanish labour reform ‘goes in the direction’ of the one he wishes to implement in his country. The Italian prime minister also comments on the reforms his government has carried out in Italy, such as the pension reform and he [...]
Untimely circumstances for undertaking reform plans
By Juan Pedro MarÃn Arrese, in Madrid | You don’t usually pick up the most suitable moment to undertake a widespread reshuffle of ill-functioning markets. Stiff political and social resistance leads to abandon any plan or hope to do it. As shelving problems don’t settle them, reforms are only accepted under the pressing need to redress [...]
When president Rajoy makes decisions
By Joan Tà pia | At the end of 2011 and after taking office, Mariano Rajoy’s government made its first decision: a €15 billion budget adjustment which implied that increasing taxes, especially personal income taxes, was essential –something he said he would never do. During the election campaign, the PP also assured that it would not lower [...]
Friday’s graphic: let’s compare unit labour costs between us
A working paper by professor José Luis Mechea on possible exit scenarios from the current international economic crisis brings this already known but not fully appreciated picture. Here you are how unit labour costs have evolved since 1999 in a few euro zone countries, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, in comparison to Germany. Obviously, [...]
Spain’s reforms face lacklustre delivery
By Juan Pedro MarÃn Arrese, in Madrid | For all the efforts to revamp a sluggish economy by bold reforms, Spain is failing to impress investors. They have the feeling that cleaning up the massive stock of repossessed property and bad loans in banking balance sheets will amount to a much higher bill than the [...]
Special Labour Reform | Spain will need a lot of social workers
By Juan Pedro MarÃn Arrese, in Madrid |Â The labour reform approved in Spain on Friday, opens the door for massive lay-offs. A drop in sales for three quarters in a row will trigger the possibility of firing workers with a maximum indemnity of one-year salary. It will foster switching to younger/cheaper manpower, at a relatively [...]
Special Labour Reform | The US, UK media (almost) muted response
NEW YORK, LONDON | If one of the intentions of the Spanish labour reform announced this Friday was to create headlines –like Mario Monti’s Salva Italia plan did– and calm the international money markets assuring that Spain was on the right track to make labour market more flexible, it miserably failed. Last Friday, when the [...]
Special Labour Reform | Low-cost dismissal and new single contract
MADRID | The minister of Economy Luis De Guindos had already warned that the labour reform was going to be extremely aggressive. He also commented that the reform would do away with collective labour agreements that he considered to be influenced by the Franco regime. The cabinet meeting in which new labour framework for all [...]
