[...]Spain’s Unemployment Continues Its Sharp Upward Surge | afoe | A Fistful of Euros | European Opinion[...]…

I would first like to thank you for your honest assessment of the Spainish economy. It is hard to find realistic opinions about the grave problems this country has.

I have been living in Madrid for the last 4 years and have been unable to understand how things work here. For example, sky high prices for pisos, low wages and relatively high prices for everything else.

This country seems like a ticking timebomb.

My question to you is what is the difference between Ireland and Spain? They had unsustainable housing bubbles but Spain has come out of this relatively unscathed.

What will be the trigger for the coming collapse of the housing market and confidence in the Spanish government?

Do you think housing prices will fall 40/50%?

Thanks for any feedbank!

There is a lot that needs to change, especially in regards to the labor laws and rigid salaries, but unfortunately Zapatero, being a good utopian Socialist in bed with the unions, appears unable to be willing to make the kinds of painful labor, salary and market reforms that would put Spain in the right track to recovery.

I think that we might have years of Spain´s economy limping along until Zapatero changes his mind or we get a new reformist government.

My hunch is that the uptick in consumer confidence reflects the change in Spanish weather from unseasonably cold to unseasonably warm; nothing to do with economic conditions.