The rescue plan of the financial system in Spain has been discussed today on the Spanish Congress. The Spanish Prime Minister has indicated the measures that will be taked in place to control the 15% of the Spanish GDP that the Spanish government has decided to release to support the Spanish financial system. And the measures are very funny: a secondary figure on the Spanish Administration, the Secretary of State of Economy (that in Spain depends directly of the Minister of Economy Mr. Solbes, will be the person who will inform, bimonthly, about the actions and decisions taken.

The need to put this 15% of the Spanish GDP to solve the bank problems, basicaly justified by the Spanish government as a measure that will put liquidity on the financial system, is something that requires a specific and high level of control. This is not something paltry. It will come from the Spanish treasury and this from the Spanish people (collected as taxes). And there is a clear suspicion under all of this: the quantity released is similar to the debt of the financial banking system of this year, and of the next year. So the issue here is if this Spanish government bank guarantee will be to allow the banks to pay their debts or it will allow to increase the access to financing of the families and SMEs on Spain. This is the key.

And there is another suspicion. The Spanish banking system is composed by banks and the so called cajas de ahorro, financing entities that are regionally focused or regionally organized, and this entities are clearly depending on the regional politicians. That is, the presidents of the regional administrations are controlling them and sometimes (I say sometimes) this cajas de ahorro are financing political adventures or political needs - for instance, La Caixa, one of Catalonians cajas de ahorro condoned the debt of the PSOE in Catalonia. Mr. Solbes said, regarding the governmet decision, that “the government will not say to the banks how to manage their portfolio”

Taking this into consideration, and the history of utilization of the socialists governments of the Spanish budget, the measures announced by Mr. Zapatero are just making laugh. This is something similar to a gambling den, a house where the different actors of the Spanish financial systems are going there to bet for their future, with Mr. Zapatero as the croupier, the man who distributes, who shuffles the cards.

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