Maria Dolores Cospedal buys a 2.3 million € home in Toledo

The President of the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha, María Dolores Cospedal, has purchased a 2.3 million € villa with 12,000 square metres of land in Toledo, which has upset six policemen who have been given the job of guarding the estate 24 hours a day. In addition to the six policemen, there are another five who give her personal protection. The previous president of Castilla-La Mancha, José María Barreda, lived in a flat in Ciudad Real....

Mosquitoes are out in full force right now because warm weather allows a mosquito egg to become an adult in less than a week

Reach for the calamine lotion, it's mosquito season.Mosquitoes are out in full force right now because warm weather allows a mosquito egg to become an adult in less than a week. Mosquitoes can infect millions of people every year and this year may especially be a doozy due to the mild winter we had. And with over 150 species...

Spain's banks may need yet more money to secure their future

Spain's borrowing costs have only risen since the European Union announced a €100 billion bailout of the country's banks ten days ago. On Monday the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds closed above 7% for the first time in the euro era. That's compared to a yield of less than 6% on 10-years before Spain was "rescued."By Tuesday, the market's neuralgic reaction to...

Spain's banking crisis did not come out of the blue.

 In the 1990s, the Spanish suffered a bout of collective madness. Interest rates fell from 14 per cent (with the peseta) to 4 per cent (with the euro) in a matter of weeks. In 1998, the centre-right government passed a law that increased the amount of land for development. Developers got rich, selling the idea that property would always go up in value. You could buy a flat on the Mediterranean for $156,000 and sell it the next day...

The Text Of Rajoy's Text Message To Guindos

According to El Mundo, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy sent a stunning text message to FinMin Guindos prior to the bailout negotiations. He said, according to El Muno editor Pablo Rodriguez: "Resist, we are the 4th power of the EZ. Spain is not Uganda." Translation: We're a major power, not some random IMF-case banana Republic. The followup message (according to Google translate) "if you want to force the redemption of Spain will prepare 500,000...

Spanish town hall workers has not been paid for almost nine months, because the local mayor told said the funds had simply run out.

 "We are living a nightmare," said Mrs Rivadulla, 50. "I never believed this could happen." But in Spain, it is happening. And on a frightening scale: 434 local administrations are having their taxes retained, to pay off debts. Mrs Rivadulla, an administrator, is among 800 people employed by the local government in La Linea de la Concepcion, a windswept coastal town in the Andalucia region of southern Spain. Many, like her, have not...

Spain is in trouble

Spain is in trouble, on the face of it, because its small banks - known as cajas - fuelled an insane property boom that went bust. They didn't do complex structured finance deals like Lehman Brothers; indeed they were the opposite of "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism - being small and locally owned. But behind the pure economic story is a more complex political-economic...