Where is Spain headed? part 2 of 2

Even city governments have had the national taxing agency (Hacienda) remove money from their bank account.  In one incident this past summer, a large government agency (the government of the Junta de Andalucía) sent a large payment to the city of Jerez so that the city could pay city workers to whom it owed several months´ back pay.  Before the city could use the money, Hacienda found it and removed it -- and used it to pay off some of the taxes that the city owed the central government.
One response to the continuing crisis has been increasingly large demonstrations, such as one last week in which between 5,000 (say the police) and 60,000 (say the unions who organized it) took to the streets to protest job cuts, wage freezes, tax rises and the like.  In addition to Madrid, there were significant demonstrations in 50 other cities in Spain.  There may also be another general strike on November 14.

"No more unemployment."

Here are links to a couple of those stories:  LINK #1 and LINK #2.

There´s a lot of dis-function in Spain.  Lots of looking at the relatively few big guys and ignoring the needs of the many small guys.  (Kind of like here in the United States....)

So when push comes to shove, why should you be interested in a middle-aged family man in Spain, like our hero in Domino, who has financial problems?

Well, he´s an awful lot like your next-door neighbor, or your cousin, or that kid who graduated from college with lots of student loan debt who can´t get a job no matter how hard s/he tries.

NOTE:  you might also be interested in the documentary film that recently aired over PBS, As Goes Janesville, about the devastating effects of the financial crisis there, and how it is connected to us all.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the background music created for us by young composer-guitarist Malena Hijo.