Just imagine the nationwide panic as prices for milk, eggs and flour rise as no time in recent memory. Everyone here who patrons a fruit stand or supermarket is pretty much on a pension one way or another (government pensions for the elderly typically run about 600 Euro a month while the median take-home pay for all but the toniest of workers, as discussed in a previous post, hovers around 1,000 Euro monthly), and so even the most modest increase in the price of daily staples can quickly send a household budget into the red.
Inflation for October here came in at a disconcerting 3.6% annualized rate, although officials say they don't expect that to continue into 2008.
Just when the year on year increase in the price of onions (+22%), chicken (+18%) and sardines (+15%) were making headlines, it turns out that October is turning out to be the worst month of all, with the price of just about every household staple jumping 3.5% in just 30 days' time. Everything, that is, except for that liquid gold of the so-called Mediterranean diet, olive oil, whose price has actually fallen, September '06 to September '07, by a surprising 18.8%
Coffee too, rumored to have been joining the price run, seems to be staying relatively stable, with an increase year over year of a mere 0.3%. And while the official stats from the Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo report that the prices of oranges have climbed 3.5%, I have found that a 3 kilo bag of juice oranges cost significantly less than it did just a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it is now high season.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
El gran desastre
La previsió amb què treballa el govern és que diumenge quedin apuntalats els fonaments de l'estació de Bellvitge. Paral·lelament se seguirà treballant, previsiblement fins a finals de la setmana que ve, per reforçar la plataforma dels 300 metres de via sobre el túnel de FGC per poder restablir el servei "com a molt tard el 5 de novembre".
Notícia publicada al diari AVUI, p 27. Dissabte, 27 d'octubre
Notícia publicada al diari AVUI, p 27. Dissabte, 27 d'octubre
Manifestació a BCN per un transport digne
El lector informa: "Dilluns 29 (19h) a la plaça de Sant Jaume, manifestació per demanar un transport digne".
Don't Blame Maggie (Ella No Tiene La Culpa!)
¿Quién es el responsable?
"Para encontrar a los verdaderos culpables hay que remontarse a varios años atrás, a la Barcelona postolímpica. En la segunda mitad de los noventa, asistimos a una inacabable disputa acerca de por dónde de tenía que pasar el AVE en la ciudad de Barcelona... Al final, se decidió que por el centro de la ciudad, con paradas en Sants, en Passeig de Gràcia y en la Sagrera, muchas estaciones, ciertamente, para un tren de alta velocidad. Y en esta decisión están las causas de los males..."
¿Quien tomo esta decisión?
"Yo recuerdo una famosa foto en la que están todos los responsables de tal decisión: el ministro (PP), el conseller de la Generalitat (CiU), el alcalde de Barcelona (Joan Clos) y los alcaldes del Baix Llobregat afectados, entre ellos Montilla y Corbacho (PSC). Satisfechos y sonrientes habían tomado la mejor decisión para el pueblo. Ninguno estaba contento del todo pero habían llegado, finalmente, a un acuerdo..."
"En la foto no estaba Magdalena Álvarez, entonces consejera en la Junta de Andalucía. Los culpables de lo que hoy sucede son aquellos que no encontraron inconveniente alguno en que el AVE y el resto de la red ferroviaria, incluido cercanías, se interfierieran a su paso por Barcelona. En aquella foto están los verdaderos responsables."
Francesc de Carreras
LA VANGUARDIA (27.oct.07)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Barcelona As 'Whoville'
The longer I live here, the more I am struck by the parallels between daily life in Barcelona (well, for the vast majority that makes up what constitutes a middle class here—but what we would think of as borderline poverty back home) and that of the denizens of Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Suess)'s fictional 'Whoville' of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.While surely no one would attribute the qualities "merry and warm-hearted" (said to be characteristic of the 'Whos') to more than an outlying Catalan, the satisfaction they seem to derive from the most mean and mundane quotidian ritual still puzzles and fascinates me. Maybe there is something to be learned here.
Regimented schedules (betraying a discipline that would make a female prison guard blush: everyone pretty much eats, sleeps, commutes, coffee breaks, farts and fucks* according to some ancient instinctual & internalized clock); perfunctorily prepared cuisine that evokes memories of post-WWII rationing; record levels of chain smoking and coke blowing; near total (often belligerent) isolation from the outside world; unforgivably inflexible work schedules that garner some of the lowest salaries† in the industrialized world; and still they sit down together at some dingy bar/cafe§ and dive into their uninspiring cortados and lunchmeat laden flautas or cardboard croissants as if they were partaking in a virginal and exquisite treat.
Later, at 2:15 or 2:25, as they gobble down their iceberg lettuce salads, day old bread and hearty Arroz a la Cubana (which has nothing at all to do with any dish one would find in Cuba; well, when Cuba had food...), you can almost hear the swelling song in the distance: "Fah who for-aze! Dah who for-aze!"
* Saturday evenings are reserved for the once weekly Catalan coitus, although newer couples are rumored to jump the proverbial gun and linger together in bed on the occasional weekend alba.
† Because Spanish employees are paid once a month (or because quoting an annual sum would shock them into grim reality), salaries are quoted as a monthly figure rather than a yearly sum. Official sources place the median monthly income at 1,600 Euros (19,200 Euros annually). Of that 1,600, a hair over 1,000 appears in one's monthly paycheck after taxes.
§ There are nearly no cafés, as we would think of them, in Barcelona, only bars and bread shops that serve coffee (and beer) at the appointed hours. Even fifteen years after Barcelona's self-conscious launch onto the world tourist stage, most restaurant-bars away from the Passeig de Graçia or Diagonal still sport brightly flashing video games burping Atlantic City style under jaundiced fluorescent lights, the air thick with Fortuna or Ducado fumes.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Spain Feels Pinch As Housing Boom Slows
By JOELLEN PERRY in Frankfurt and KEITH JOHNSON in Madrid
October 22, 2007; WSJ, Page A3
The real-estate slowdown that hit the U.S. is spreading to Europe.
Home prices in some of Europe's hottest markets are falling after a decade of double-digit-percentage increases. The reasons resemble those across the Atlantic: higher interest rates, faltering confidence and tighter lending standards.
"A year ago it was all, 'no problem,' but now they're making us jump through hoops," said Iciar Caro, a 29-year-old school psychologist in Spain who can't find a bank to give her a mortgage on a €236,000 ($337,000) house in a northern suburb of Madrid.
Home prices in Spain more than doubled over the past 10 years, but the average price of an existing home has fallen slightly since July, according to real-estate agent facilisimo.com.
The weakening home market could hit European economies. An expanding construction industry has fueled growth in Europe. Now, construction in Spain and elsewhere is easing. Also, some people said higher payments on their mortgages are cutting into their ability to spend.
Low interest rates were a potent stimulant in Spain, which experienced one of the biggest housing booms in Europe. The European Central Bank, mindful of slowly expanding, big economies on the Continent, kept interest rates low for much of the first part of the decade -- often lower than the rate of inflation in Spain. That encouraged Spaniards to borrow money.
Last year, Spanish families on average paid six times their annual salary to buy a home, compared with 3½ times salary in the late 1990s, according to the Bank of Spain, the central bank. Immigration and an influx of wealthy tourists scooping up coastal property fueled skyrocketing prices.
Construction accounts for about 10% of Spain's annual output, compared with about 7% in the U.S. Last year, 726,000 new homes were built in Spain -- more than France, Germany and Britain combined, even though those three countries together have more than five times as many people. Housing helped push Spain's economic growth to 3.9% last year, its fastest rate since 2000.
But the energy is fading. The Bank of Spain said new-housing permits fell 38% in July from the year-earlier period, the latest figures available, after falling more than 20% in May and June. Spanish central bank Gov. Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez warned this month that the credit crunch and the housing slowdown would affect consumer spending next year. Car sales and consumer confidence already are turning south.
Rising interest rates headline the front pages of Spanish dailies, which update monthly mortgage-payment increases. Some 95% of Spanish mortgage holders have variable-rate loans.
The orange-and-black Se Vende, or for sale, signs that used to appear briefly on balconies of apartments for sale in Madrid now linger for weeks and months. At the same time, as the resale market softens, more Se Alquila, or for rent, signs are popping up in a country where renting has traditionally been a last resort.
Tomas Gonzalez, a 33-year-old translator, bought a spacious, three-bedroom apartment in downtown Madrid last fall, with help from his in-laws. He and his wife, a free-lance audiovisual producer, felt monthly payments of €800 on a 35-year, €200,000 loan were manageable. Now, the payments have risen €200 a month after the European Central Bank's gradual lifting of interest rates, which it began in 2005. Plus, the Gonzalezes fear their home is worth less than they paid for it. One set of neighbors have repeatedly cut the price of their home in a yearlong effort to sell.
Mr. Gonzalez has stopped eating out and curtailed his purchases of books and music. "We are trying to save something for the lean times ahead," he said.
On the consumer front, the euro zone has one difference from the U.S. that may soften the effects of flattening home prices. American consumers have used home-equity loans to turn the rising value of their homes into cash that can be spent on big-ticket items. In the 13 countries that share the euro, home-equity loans are rare. And Europe doesn't have a subprime sector comparable with the one in the U.S.
Ms. Caro, the psychologist, has signed a contract for a 600-square-foot house under construction in a northern Madrid suburb, where she hopes to live with her boyfriend. In Spain, buyers sometimes make a down payment gradually by putting in a little money each month. Ms. Caro has been doing so for 18 months, and she had hoped to pick up the keys in November.
Now, that hope may be dashed if she can't find a mortgage, or if the interest rate on a mortgage is too high. Ms. Caro has cut back her spending on vacations and clothes, and recently she began teaching private classes in the evenings to earn extra cash. She said she has stopped following interest rates "or I will go crazy."
In the third quarter, 22% of banks surveyed by the European Central Bank reported that they were tightening standards for mortgages, with 10% easing and the rest unchanged. Banks that raised the bar cited deteriorating bank balance sheets and weaker housing-market prospects.
"The ECB had already been raising rates to cool things down, and it was having an effect," said Ken Wattret, an economist with BNP Paribas SA in London. "Now, you've got this credit crunch on top of it, which could not only restrict households' access to funding but also slow the housing market more sharply."
In Ireland -- where economic growth, an influx of immigrants and low interest rates helped quadruple house prices over the last decade -- the boom also may be ending. Falling house prices will push construction of new units down to 60,000 in 2008 from last year's record 88,219, according to a recent study commissioned by Ireland's environment ministry.
Construction accounts for some 13% of Irish jobs, and the slowdown prompted the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin to reduce its forecast of Irish gross-domestic-product growth next year to 2.7% from 3.7%. David Duffy, a senior researcher at the institute, said: "It would still be a good growth outturn in a European context."
Some European countries experienced less of a housing boom and are feeling less of a hangover now. In Germany, the largest economy in Europe, a preference for renting has kept house-price growth limited. In an interview last week, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück listed cities, including London and New York, where he believes there might be a property bubble, and then added pointedly: "Not in Berlin."
In France, government regulation has limited construction, so French houses still are in short supply, unlike in Spain and Ireland. Also, the majority of French mortgages carry a fixed interest rate, meaning homeowners are less sensitive to rate increases. That is why economists expect any slowdown in French home prices to be gradual.
The variations across Europe complicate the ECB's rate-setting decisions. Earlier in the decade, its low interest rates were suitable for slowly expanding countries but helped foment the housing boom in high-inflation, high-growth countries. Now it is keeping rates higher, which may not be ideal for all 13 countries that use the euro. ECB officials have stressed that inflationary threats are likely to prevent them from cutting the bank's benchmark 4% rate soon.
During the boom, Spain and Ireland "needed higher interest rates, but the ECB was setting policy for France and Germany," said Desmond Lachman, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Now, when these countries need lower rates to offset the bust, they're not going to get them."
By JOELLEN PERRY in Frankfurt and KEITH JOHNSON in Madrid
October 22, 2007; WSJ, Page A3
The real-estate slowdown that hit the U.S. is spreading to Europe.
Home prices in some of Europe's hottest markets are falling after a decade of double-digit-percentage increases. The reasons resemble those across the Atlantic: higher interest rates, faltering confidence and tighter lending standards.
"A year ago it was all, 'no problem,' but now they're making us jump through hoops," said Iciar Caro, a 29-year-old school psychologist in Spain who can't find a bank to give her a mortgage on a €236,000 ($337,000) house in a northern suburb of Madrid.
Home prices in Spain more than doubled over the past 10 years, but the average price of an existing home has fallen slightly since July, according to real-estate agent facilisimo.com.
The weakening home market could hit European economies. An expanding construction industry has fueled growth in Europe. Now, construction in Spain and elsewhere is easing. Also, some people said higher payments on their mortgages are cutting into their ability to spend.
Low interest rates were a potent stimulant in Spain, which experienced one of the biggest housing booms in Europe. The European Central Bank, mindful of slowly expanding, big economies on the Continent, kept interest rates low for much of the first part of the decade -- often lower than the rate of inflation in Spain. That encouraged Spaniards to borrow money.
Last year, Spanish families on average paid six times their annual salary to buy a home, compared with 3½ times salary in the late 1990s, according to the Bank of Spain, the central bank. Immigration and an influx of wealthy tourists scooping up coastal property fueled skyrocketing prices.
Construction accounts for about 10% of Spain's annual output, compared with about 7% in the U.S. Last year, 726,000 new homes were built in Spain -- more than France, Germany and Britain combined, even though those three countries together have more than five times as many people. Housing helped push Spain's economic growth to 3.9% last year, its fastest rate since 2000.
But the energy is fading. The Bank of Spain said new-housing permits fell 38% in July from the year-earlier period, the latest figures available, after falling more than 20% in May and June. Spanish central bank Gov. Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez warned this month that the credit crunch and the housing slowdown would affect consumer spending next year. Car sales and consumer confidence already are turning south.
Rising interest rates headline the front pages of Spanish dailies, which update monthly mortgage-payment increases. Some 95% of Spanish mortgage holders have variable-rate loans.
The orange-and-black Se Vende, or for sale, signs that used to appear briefly on balconies of apartments for sale in Madrid now linger for weeks and months. At the same time, as the resale market softens, more Se Alquila, or for rent, signs are popping up in a country where renting has traditionally been a last resort.
Tomas Gonzalez, a 33-year-old translator, bought a spacious, three-bedroom apartment in downtown Madrid last fall, with help from his in-laws. He and his wife, a free-lance audiovisual producer, felt monthly payments of €800 on a 35-year, €200,000 loan were manageable. Now, the payments have risen €200 a month after the European Central Bank's gradual lifting of interest rates, which it began in 2005. Plus, the Gonzalezes fear their home is worth less than they paid for it. One set of neighbors have repeatedly cut the price of their home in a yearlong effort to sell.
Mr. Gonzalez has stopped eating out and curtailed his purchases of books and music. "We are trying to save something for the lean times ahead," he said.
On the consumer front, the euro zone has one difference from the U.S. that may soften the effects of flattening home prices. American consumers have used home-equity loans to turn the rising value of their homes into cash that can be spent on big-ticket items. In the 13 countries that share the euro, home-equity loans are rare. And Europe doesn't have a subprime sector comparable with the one in the U.S.
Ms. Caro, the psychologist, has signed a contract for a 600-square-foot house under construction in a northern Madrid suburb, where she hopes to live with her boyfriend. In Spain, buyers sometimes make a down payment gradually by putting in a little money each month. Ms. Caro has been doing so for 18 months, and she had hoped to pick up the keys in November.
Now, that hope may be dashed if she can't find a mortgage, or if the interest rate on a mortgage is too high. Ms. Caro has cut back her spending on vacations and clothes, and recently she began teaching private classes in the evenings to earn extra cash. She said she has stopped following interest rates "or I will go crazy."
In the third quarter, 22% of banks surveyed by the European Central Bank reported that they were tightening standards for mortgages, with 10% easing and the rest unchanged. Banks that raised the bar cited deteriorating bank balance sheets and weaker housing-market prospects.
"The ECB had already been raising rates to cool things down, and it was having an effect," said Ken Wattret, an economist with BNP Paribas SA in London. "Now, you've got this credit crunch on top of it, which could not only restrict households' access to funding but also slow the housing market more sharply."
In Ireland -- where economic growth, an influx of immigrants and low interest rates helped quadruple house prices over the last decade -- the boom also may be ending. Falling house prices will push construction of new units down to 60,000 in 2008 from last year's record 88,219, according to a recent study commissioned by Ireland's environment ministry.
Construction accounts for some 13% of Irish jobs, and the slowdown prompted the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin to reduce its forecast of Irish gross-domestic-product growth next year to 2.7% from 3.7%. David Duffy, a senior researcher at the institute, said: "It would still be a good growth outturn in a European context."
Some European countries experienced less of a housing boom and are feeling less of a hangover now. In Germany, the largest economy in Europe, a preference for renting has kept house-price growth limited. In an interview last week, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück listed cities, including London and New York, where he believes there might be a property bubble, and then added pointedly: "Not in Berlin."
In France, government regulation has limited construction, so French houses still are in short supply, unlike in Spain and Ireland. Also, the majority of French mortgages carry a fixed interest rate, meaning homeowners are less sensitive to rate increases. That is why economists expect any slowdown in French home prices to be gradual.
The variations across Europe complicate the ECB's rate-setting decisions. Earlier in the decade, its low interest rates were suitable for slowly expanding countries but helped foment the housing boom in high-inflation, high-growth countries. Now it is keeping rates higher, which may not be ideal for all 13 countries that use the euro. ECB officials have stressed that inflationary threats are likely to prevent them from cutting the bank's benchmark 4% rate soon.
During the boom, Spain and Ireland "needed higher interest rates, but the ECB was setting policy for France and Germany," said Desmond Lachman, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Now, when these countries need lower rates to offset the bust, they're not going to get them."
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Eso No Puede Pasar Aquí
Disminuye un 19,1% las ventas de casas usadas en EE.UU.
El mes de septiembre registró el nivel más bajo de los últimos ocho años
LA VANGUARDIA
El ritmo de ventas de ventas de casas y apartamentos usados bajó a una previsión de 5,04 millones de unidades en el año, la más baja desde 1999, cuando la Asociación comenzó a guardar los datos.
"Los problemas de las hipotecas estaban en su cima en agosto, lo que se reflejó en la cifra de operaciones que se cerraron en septiembre. Esto frenó notablemente las ventas en las áreas con precios más altos, que están vinculadas con los préstamos más grandes", explicó el economista principal del gremio, Lawrence Yun.
...
En el ámbito nacional, las ventas de viviendas usadas bajaron un 19,1% en septiembre comparado con septiembre de 2006.
El tiempo de espera en el mercado del inventario de casas y apartamentos pendientes de ser vendidas subió hasta los 10,5 meses, el más alto en por lo menos ocho años.
Las ventas de casas unifamiliares bajaron en septiembre un 8,6 % a un ritmo anual de 4,38 millones de unidades, el ritmo de ventas más lento desde enero de 1998.
El tiempo de espera del inventario de casas unifamiliares a la venta es de 10,2 meses, el mayor en 20 años.
El precio medio de venta de casas y apartamentos fue en septiembre de 211.700 dólares, un 4,2 por ciento menos que un año antes.
El mes de septiembre registró el nivel más bajo de los últimos ocho años
LA VANGUARDIA
El ritmo de ventas de ventas de casas y apartamentos usados bajó a una previsión de 5,04 millones de unidades en el año, la más baja desde 1999, cuando la Asociación comenzó a guardar los datos.
"Los problemas de las hipotecas estaban en su cima en agosto, lo que se reflejó en la cifra de operaciones que se cerraron en septiembre. Esto frenó notablemente las ventas en las áreas con precios más altos, que están vinculadas con los préstamos más grandes", explicó el economista principal del gremio, Lawrence Yun.
...
En el ámbito nacional, las ventas de viviendas usadas bajaron un 19,1% en septiembre comparado con septiembre de 2006.
El tiempo de espera en el mercado del inventario de casas y apartamentos pendientes de ser vendidas subió hasta los 10,5 meses, el más alto en por lo menos ocho años.
Las ventas de casas unifamiliares bajaron en septiembre un 8,6 % a un ritmo anual de 4,38 millones de unidades, el ritmo de ventas más lento desde enero de 1998.
El tiempo de espera del inventario de casas unifamiliares a la venta es de 10,2 meses, el mayor en 20 años.
El precio medio de venta de casas y apartamentos fue en septiembre de 211.700 dólares, un 4,2 por ciento menos que un año antes.
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