One more cup of
poison for the road…
The Spanish
government has just announced that it will bail out the tottering financial
behemoth known as Bankia with a stunning 10 billion Euros of public money. The
only condition is that the CEO who presided over the unhinging of the balance
sheet step down. This gentleman happens to be Rodrigo Rato, one of Grand Old
Men of the PP conservative party, which at present governs Spain.
The sourest
irony is surely the number. It so happens that 10 billion Euros is the exact
same sum which the same Spanish government is cutting from education and the
health care system… A necessary little adjustment for the good of the country
and the trust of Brussels and the Financial Markets…
A demagogue
might say that children and the sick are being bled so that our plutocrat
friends may receive a blood transfusion…
The trouble is
that it needs no demagogue for an agonizing populace to arrive at that idea…
How ANYBODY
imagines that you can continue with this sort of heartless, cynical policy
without mayor revolts breaking out, beats an old man like me. How truly
imbecile can our European leadership be? Even Louis XVI understood more of mass
psychology! Even Marie Antoinette was a better economist!
[POSTSCRIPT]
I had barely posted the above, when the below appeared on Facebook:
No translation needed, I suppose...
Alas, the health of the economy and the happiness of 'our plutocrat friends' are now almost indistinguishable. But if the Bankia bailout had strings attached, were it restructured so it became a social bank, that might be the beginning of a different story...
ReplyDeleteDear Storvaxt,
ReplyDeleteI agree. Unfortunately, the grand majority of citizens are barely aware what kind of Armageddon would be ushered in by a failure of the banking system. They perceive this merely in moral term: evil bankers sucking the blood of innocent citizens with the help of pliable politicians. Consequently, if pushed hard enough, they'll be out in the street screaming for revenge and looting shops. You can guess the rest.
Is a more populace-friendly financial system really possible? Ay, I wish I could share your idealism!
All the best to you, meanwhile. Yours, ABM