Jew World Order

Shares in the Bankia plummeted 30 per cent at one stage in trading on
Thursday, following a report that customers had withdrawn €1bn in deposits
since the Madrid government was forced to part-nationalise the bank.

Bankia released a statement in the afternoon saying that the deposit fall was
simply a seasonal effect rather than a bank run. This served to stabilise
the share price, but the lender still ended up losing 14 per cent of its
value.

It rallied on Friday, but the bad news kept on coming.

The central bank announced late that evening that the level of bad loans on
the books of Spanish banks was at an 18-year high, fuelling concerns about
the financial sector in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy.

Then the finance ministry said late on Friday that the deficit could reach 8.9
percent of GDP after four of its 17 regions overshot their expected budgets.

And with Greece looking ever more likely to drop off the cliff and exit the
eurozone, it is now Spain which has the unwelcome distinction of being in
the centre of the euro firestorm.

As world leaders met at Camp David in the United States this weekend, Greece
was officially on the agenda. But Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister,
was well aware that he too was in the spotlight.

“Sentiment towards Spain is deteriorating with each passing day, mainly
because of a loss of confidence in the Rajoy government’s approach to
tackling the problems in the banking sector,” said Nicholas Spiro of
Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

Credit ratings agency Moody’s carried out a sweeping downgrade of 16 Spanish
banks on Thursday, including Banco Santander, the eurozone’s largest bank.

Outside one branch of Bankia, on Madrid’s main street, Gran Via, there was a
mixture of anxiety and resignation.

“It’s quite scary,” said a 25-year-old television producer, who
didn’t want to give her name. “Some of my friends are moving their
money to other banks, or even other countries where they feel safer, like
Germany. But I haven’t really got any savings, so I’m not worried,” she
added with a shrug.

“I don’t understand any of it,” said another elderly customer
exiting the bank, flinging his hands up in the air in despair.

Others were more philosophical.

“My money is even safer in here than before, now that it is backed by the
government,” said Eduardo, a 45-year-old advertising executive. “My
wife said we should think about moving our money, but it’s all irrational
fears. The government won’t let it all collapse.” Certainly Madrid is
yet to show the outward signs of economic turmoil which blight the streets
of Athens. Businesses are still open, the infrastructure is not crumbling,
and the “indignados” protests against austerity measures were,
last week, decidedly feeble.

What is new over the past year is the number of hawkers clad in fluorescent
yellow tabards prowling the street offering to buy gold. As Spanish
unemployment rises to 25 per cent – a eurozone high – with half of all young
people out of work, many families are resorting to selling the family jewels
to keep afloat.

At Bankia’s headquarters – a huge glass skyscraper in Plaza Castilla, north of
the centre, there were few people in the office on Friday afternoon.

“Many of them leave at 3pm on Fridays,” the security guard said. A
few besuited bankers with shiny shoes strode past, anxiously checking their
Blackberries, but the black marble lobby with its bronze bust of the King
was eerily quiet.

Around the corner, Arandio bar was doing a roaring trade – the discarded paper
napkins and bread crumbs on the floor testimony to a thriving evening’s
trade.

“The bankers still come here, despite the crisis,” said one
waitress. “Our Friday happy hour beers are only a euro. So even they
can afford that.”

Most were unwilling to discuss the situation, preferring to sit outside in the
sun and talk about anything but the crisis. Yet others were deep in
conversation, huddled around their tables with furrowed brows, some biting
their nails.

“I think there is a lot of worry about,” said one financier,
standing at the bar. “It’s like a dark cloud hovering over us and no
one knows what is coming next.”

Fears about contagion from Greece have pushed Madrid’s stock market to 2003
levels.

Behind the bar loomed a second huge Bankia building, designed by Norman Foster
and bought by Caja Madrid – one of the banks now part of Bankia – for €815
million in 2009. At 250 metres tall it’s the highest building in Spain.

And it is empty. Security guards sitting inside the vast lobby said that a few
people worked in the building, but it is a powerful symbol of how Spain’s
property boom (construction on the tower started in 2004) has led to its
current economic crisis.

Further down the Paseo de la Castellana, inside Spain’s stock market – housed
in a neoclassical palace – five or six traders leant against the pillars,
looking at screens. The trading is done online now, but some of the more old
fashioned traders still like to come in and work from there.

The world markets were in turmoil, but the screens kept on flickering in
silence.

The traders just stood with their hands in their pockets and watched.

Outside, a beggar sat with a sign: “I am 54 years out of work and
unemployed. Please help. Don’t laugh – it could be you.”