Germany has just placed Public Debt practically at 0 percent (Zero), that is, for free. It is the first time in history that Germany has been able to finance itself without paying any interest. Specifically, it managed to obtain ...
Germany has just placed Public Debt practically at 0 percent (Zero), that is, for free. It is the first time in history that Germany has been able to finance itself without paying any interest.
Specifically, it managed to obtain some 4,555 million euros in the international financial market, which demonstrates investors' confidence in the German State and, on the other hand, the great distrust in other countries. Spain, on the other hand, is paying around 6 percent interest on its Public Debt. Putting things this way, one could come to the conclusion that Germany is Germany, everything goes well for it, while in Spain, quite the opposite and it's time to resign oneself.
But the other possible conclusion is that we are facing a tremendously unequal economic space, which has a single currency and, surprisingly, lacks common regulatory mechanisms and instruments. What has become evident is that the euro area does not have an economic government, the European Commission has proven to be an absolute failure in that aspect.
This lack of economic-monetary direction is being filled by Germany, which is imposing recipes that are very possibly valid for its national economic structure, but which are placing other countries, such as ours, on the verge of collapse and economic asphyxiation.
The German economy is export-oriented and does not have a very consumerist domestic market. The most focused and reference macroeconomic data is that of inflation. The fear of inflation, based on historical facts, is what, in some way, marks and conditions German economic policy.
In the German labor market, not all that glitters is gold. Unemployment rates in Germany seem very acceptable, but they are based on what all of Europe already knows as the "minijob" formula, which, to put it in some way, is an invention based on precarious multi-employment that is viable thanks to the broad and varied supplementary mechanisms of the German Welfare State.
Pretending to apply the German recipes of reduction and dry cuts cannot be viable in Spain or in other countries with the same or similar socio-economic structures unless, of course, it matters very little to drastically worsen the living conditions of the population and one is willing to endanger social peace. You cannot pretend to create a precarious labor market, resorting to the German model, without complementing it with the aid of the German State's social protection network.
The business class does not stop asking for the application of business criteria in public management. And we could resort to the example of a supermarket, which is doing badly. If you want to save expenses, you fire the cashiers, the stockers, the cleaning staff, you don't spend anything on decoration, you turn off the lights, you don't advertise.
In the end you will have a dirty, dark supermarket, where you will not find anything, and you will have to close it. The alternative is to give the business a boost, promote sales by improving the offer, with trained and motivated staff, a pleasant and attractive place for customers.
In Spain we are tightening our belts so much that we are in danger of cutting off our breath. It is evident that we have to eliminate superfluous and unnecessary expenses, but it is not acceptable that these superfluous and unnecessary expenses always have to be located in health, education and in everything we understand that implies a Welfare State. Because, after all, the ultimate goal of politics must be to seek to preserve and improve the living conditions of citizens.
Anything that condemns entire generations to worsen their standard of living seems illogical and without reason to me. Before that, I prefer that some banks, investment and speculation funds pay their taxes and cut their profits. The tremendous difficulty involved in creating and applying a tax on speculative financial transactions is curious and deeply revealing.
If the States do not have the necessary mechanisms to impose themselves on what we call financial markets, but which are nothing more than the banks themselves to which billions have to be injected to clean up their balance sheets, then we will have to consider something else.
We have to stop feeling guilty about the crisis. The real culprits of the situation are those who now want to convince us that in order to overcome the financial crisis it is absolutely essential to impose employment contracts with 12 months of probation and dismissal at bargain prices.
If we do not want to perpetuate the economic recession in Spain, we will have to listen to the increasingly frequent voices, including that of the new French president Hollandé, who are calling for impulses to reactivate the economy and promote growth.
Damián Peña, spokesperson for Opción por Lanzarote
