The high cost of austerity

This week, the IMF said that Spain had made “important progress” in reforming its financial sector, meeting all deadlines under its deal for support from the European Union. “All deadlines established in the Memorandum of Understanding, agreed between the Spanish and European authorities, have been met. It will be important to maintain the momentum as challenging steps lie ahead,” the IMF added.

The 5.78 million people who are out of work and the members of the 1.74 million households in which every member is out of work climbed, that is one in ten of Spanish homes must have been cracking open the cava in celebration.

While the Spanish government fiddles about with the markets and bonds, it is just pushing more and more people on to the unemployment scrap heap and surely, that is not conducive to trying to move a country forward and out of recession. Spain's mess has even made Obama shudder now.