Spain was in the news today in the Wall Street Journal for
plans on nationalizing a regional lender Banco CEISS after the bank had a
negative external valuation of 288 million Euros. Spain plans on injecting 604
million Euros into the lender, nationalizing CEISS by taking out all existing
shareholders.
The article also talks about Spain's serious economic slump
and large recession in the housing market as the main culprits of poor bank
performance and in turn, the Spanish government has resorted to bailing out
many lenders. It even asked the EU for a loan of 40 billion Euros to help pay
for the mess.
Spain's banking industry is at a current low and with the
government bailing out several regional and national banks, Spain is struggling
to gain capital. This means that there is less money in other governmental
sectors. It will be interesting to see how Spain will support future NATO
projects and programs in the following years. Spain is a supporter of many NATO
programs, like the current involvement in Afghanistan, but its ability to
contribute financially is something to keep in mind. Although there are many other ways a government can help support a NATO mission abroad, the biggest indicator that the fellow NATO members look at is the percentage of military spending on GDP. We shall see if these percentages will change in the coming years.
On a side note: Good luck to everyone attending the NATO
conference!
No comments:
Post a Comment