Spanish austerity misguided policy

The government of Spain despite its horrible 24 % plus unemployment rate continues to implement further austerity policies . This guarantees a deeper and profound recession that damages the life chances of  a quarter or more of the Spanish population. Spain is a country that has suffered plenty in the last century.When I first visited it in 1968 I was struck by the warmth of its people, the deep authoritarian character of the Franco regime, the scars of the civil war, the promise of its beautiful  urban centres, the extent of poverty in parts of the countryside. Once Franco was gone and democracy restored I expected great progressive strides from this proud and troubled land.  It had become for a period of time a country of considerable promise. But the out of control property bubble , the Spanish banking crisis and the precisely wrong policies implemented in an effort to escape the crisis have guaranteed a lost decade in Spain . The European policy making  elite illusion that austerity will sufficiently lower wages to revive the slumping economy is demonstrably wrong headed but still not yet abandoned. It needs to be for the sake of Spain and for all of Europe.

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About haroldchorneyeconomist

I am Professor of political economy at Concordia university in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I received my B.A.Hons (econ.&poli sci) from the University of Manitoba. I also completed my M.A. degree in economics there. Went on to spend two years at the London School of Economics as a Ph.D. student in economics and then completed my Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Toronto. Was named a John W.Dafoe fellow, a CMHC fellow and a Canada Council fellow. I also was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1968 after completing my first class honours undergraduate degree. Worked as an economist in the area of education, labour economics and as the senior economist with the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation for the Government of Manitoba from 1972 to 1978. I also have worked as an economic consultant for MDT socio-economic consultants and have been consulted on urban planning, health policy, linguistic duality and public sector finance questions by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan,the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Ontario and the Federal government of Canada. I have also been consulted by senior leaders of the British Labour party, MPs from the Progressive Conservative party, the Liberal party and the New Democrats on economic policy questions. Members of the Government of France under the Presidency of Francois Mitterand discussed my work on public sector deficits. I have also run for elected office at the municipal level. I first began to write about quantitative easing as a useful policy option during the early 1980s.
This entry was posted in austerity, classical economics, deficit hysteria, European debt crisis, European unemployment, Spain, treasury view, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Spanish austerity misguided policy

  1. romain cansaran says:

    Hi Professor, I don’t know why i haven’t been able to contact you by email so i wanted to thank you here for helping me apply to the London School of Business and Finance

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