Pubblicato il 4 Agosto 2008 da Veronica Baker
Si è spento il sole
[…]A swinging series of energy-saving measures announced by the Spanish government may be a foretaste of the kind of policies which will be forced upon an energy-hungry industrial world in the coming decades.
To protests from motorists and mockery in parts of the press, the government plans to cut motorway speed limits to 50mph and town speeds to 25mph. New austerity rules will be imposed on the air conditioning and heating of all public buildings.
Street-lighting will be cut by half.
[…]The speed limit on dual carriageways would be cut from 100kph to 80kph (50 mph).
The urban speed limit would fall to 40kph (25mph).Despite Spain’s baking summers, air conditioning systems in public buildings would be set no lower than 26C. In winter, the heating would be limited to 21C.[…]
Fonte : Telegraph
Come ho più volte segnalato in passato, l’anello debole europeo (molto più di noi, il che è tutto dire) dal punto di vista economico sta saltando per aria a causa di una politica folle economica, basata prevalentemente sullo sviluppo immobiliare ; e non appena la bolla immobiliare è scoppiata, subito il paese ha fatto crack.
[…] By a statistic from the ECB that shows Spain losing competitiveness relative to Germany, even now.
We knew this happened during the years of high economic growth in Spain and low growth in Germany.But the trend continued even when the relative positions of the two countries were reversing.
One explanation is that Spanish wages are directly linked to inflation, while German real wages are still declining.
Worse, Spain’s slippage comes amid the prospect of a serious downturn in its economy.
Last week’s collapse of Martinsa-Fadesa, a large property developer, has been a reminder, if any were needed, of the massive scale of the Spanish property crash.
Serious financial and economic distress is almost inevitable. Do not be fooled by the fact that Spanish banks had virtually no exposure to US subprime mortgages.
Being exposed to Spanish mortgages is probably worse.
Spain is in a more delicate position than the US or the UK because, as a member of a monetary union, the country has fewer macroeconomic adjustment tools at its disposal.
The dollar and the pound have devalued in real effective terms, while Spain has one of the hardest currencies in the world. Spanish interest rates have gone up while US rates have gone down.
Spain is thus in danger of entering a decade of misery, with falling real wages.[…]
Rischio di crisi di una decade e di calo dei salari reali.
In effetti, perchè io continuo ad insistere dall’inizio dell’anno sull’andare pesantemente short sulla Spagna ?
Perchè sembra anzi , a mio parere è) la fotocopia del Japan dal 1990 : bolla immobiliare alle stelle, sviluppo economico cresciuto troppo in fretta perchè drogato, assenza totale di materie prime, crollo delle proprietà immobiliari, deflazione permanente per i tre lustri successivi.
Vedremo se il tempo mi continuerà a dare ragione.
Fra l’altro per molti versi la misura della riduzione della velocità mi pare solo altamente demagogica e non risolva affatto alla radice il problema : a 80 km/h o a 110 km/h si consuma più o meno la stessa quantità di carburante, perchè il motore lavora in condizioni di maggior efficienza alla velocità maggiore con la marcia più alta.
Almeno così raccontavano i miei testi universitari.
