Scary Grexit Stuns Spain

The Spanish crisis –like its European and American counterparts– showcases the confused mentality of a civilization that has replaced philosophical and spiritual principles with harsh material needs.

With Grexit ominously near and as news become spine-chilling by the hour –many Greeks now unable to get cash from ATMs–, Spain crops up by comparison as a country that has done its economic homework and is on its way out of the crisis. Unsuspectingly, Tsipras and Varoufakis are now Spain’s best –unpaid– marketing managers.

Spanish public debt exceeds the one-trillion-euro mark. In other words, Spain owes one million-million Euros (with 12 zeros). This is tantamount to over 100% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Or to put it another way, Spaniards automatically owe the equivalent of what they produce in a year. The bulk of this debt is held by a central government that seems chronically unable to stay uncorrupt, whichever party is in power.

The Spanish crisis –like its European and American counterparts– showcases the confused mentality of a civilization that has replaced philosophical and spiritual principles with harsh material needs. Western lifestyle is based on a conspicuous, comparative and defensive consumption that has become increasingly grotesque. And if our media continues holding Economy responsible for the Western crash, these national crises –like Spain’s or Greece’s– are likely to be cyclical. Economy is not the problem, but the evidence of the problem.

Today has been dubbed by the European press as “Greek Black Monday”. Greece owes more than 175% of its GDP (almost doubling the percentage of Spanish debt) and included in that huge sum due is the 28 billion-euro loan that Spain granted Greece between 2010 and 2012. As the Hellenic drama unfolds, the probability of ever getting that money back is almost zero. On Sunday US President Obama and German Chancellor Merkel agreed that it is “critically important” to find ways to keep Greece in the Eurozone. Suspense is served.