“The Eurogroup supports the recently adopted Commission recommendation to extend the deadline for the correction of the excessive deficit in Spain by one year to 2014,” ministers said in a statement. There really was no choice in the matter. Spain’s banks are near collapse, in part due to trouble in the country’s real estate market. Spain’s economy is in recession. Unemployment sits at more than 25%. But Spain’s most recent major problem is its most acute one. The nation’s tax receipts have been eroded severely by employment attrition and a disintegration of its business sector.
The term “kicking the can down the road” is often used to describe European leaders’ inability to address sovereign debt problems resulting from recession and a lack of economic stimulus. It the case of Spain, the analogy is not apt. Spain’s problems are so severe and entrenched that the road is too long for kicking to work.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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