"Spanish revolt brews as national economic rearmament begins in Europe," says Daily Telegraph

Recent protest in Valencia

SPAIN (Daily Telegraph) Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the Telegraph's International Business Editor, has written a riveting article about what might be next for Spain. We heard him being interviewed this afternoon on the BBC's PM programme, speaking excellent Spanish. The article's sub-heading reads: Spain's new prime minister has looked into the abyss and recoiled. To quote the first couple of paragraphs: "Though he swept into office as an apostle of orthodoxy, Mariano Rajoy has since delved into Madrid’s ghastly accounts and concluded that it would be "suicidal" to try to slash the budget deficit from 8% of GDP to 4.4p% of GDP this year, as demanded by Europe's fiscal Calvinists. Such a policy would require a further €40bn or €50bn of cuts and accelerate the downward spiral already underway, beyond the 1.7pc contraction expected this year by the International Monetary Fund. The unemployment rate would rise to well over 25pc with six million out of work by the end of the year, equivalent to 30pc under the old definition used in the last jobless crisis in the early 1990s." (Read the whole article here.)