Spain Economy Watch: March 2006

About

Edward 'the bonobo' is a Catalan economist of British extraction based in Barcelona. By inclination he is a macro economist, but his obsession with trying to understand the economic impact of demographic changes has often taken him far from home, off and away from the more tranquil and placid pastures of the dismal science, into the bracken and thicket of demography, anthropology, biology, sociology and systems theory. All of which has lead him to ask himself whether Thomas Wolfe was not in fact right when he asserted that the fact of the matter is "you can never go home again". He is currently working on a book with the provisional working title "Population, the Ultimate Non-renewable Resource". Apart from his participation in A Fistful of Euros, Edward also writes regularly for the demography blog Demography Matters. He also contributes to the Indian Economy blog . His personal weblog is Bonobo Land . Edward's website can be found at EdwardHugh.net.

What Is Spain Economy Watch?

Spain Economy Watch is a weblog - run by Edward Hugh - which is dedicated to following the day to day progress of the Spanish economy as part of the eurozone system. The Weblog arose out of my curiosity concerning how the system operated in connection with the evident demographic patterns which are to be found among the various member states of the zone. The roots of the particular mix of economic problems which some of these economies now seem to be facing, in particular in association with the ending of the construction boom, about what can be done to address these problems, and about what might be learnt from studying the situation as it evolves.

Spanish society shares in common with the other Southern European zone members a historically unprecedented combination of structural problems stemming from a very rapid decline in fertility and increase in life expectancy - both of which tend towards a situation of rapid population ageing. One consequence of the fertility decline is that there is often now insufficient insufficient domestic labour supply to meet the growth needs of these societies, needs which are only reinforced by the weight of the pensions liabilities which are now imminently pending. The impact of this has been a considerable migration inflow which has both been fueled by and in turn has fueled a construction boom.

Needless to say none of these problems were ever really contemplated when the present generation of economic textbooks was written. Dealing with this whole problem set has become a most pressing concern, both theoretically and practically.

A great deal more background and information about the theoretical perspective which informs this blog may be found over at the Demography Matters blog.

Spain Economy Watch

Spain Real Time Data Charts

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Spain Building Permits

Spain Retail Sales

EU Commission Confidence Index

Spain Consumer Confidence Index

Spain Bank Lending to Households

Spain's Economic Recovery

¿Adiós A La Crisis?

Is The Euro Crisis Really Over

Edward Hugh's Facebook Page

Some Key Posts

Cedulas Hipotecarias

Our Blogs

Edward's Catalan Blog

RSS Feed

Blog Home Page

Global

Eurozone

Eastern Europe

Emerging Economies

Asia

Latin America

Edward's Website

About

Demography

Ageing Related Posts

Eurozone Related Posts

Spanish Economic Data

Spanish Property Buff

IBEX Salad

Global Post

What Is Spain Economy Watch?

Special Mention

Economics Blogs

Eurozone Statistics Offices

Economics Links

Central Banks Etc

Think Tanks

demography.matters.blog

Wall Street Blips

Site Stats

Blog Archive