Thursday Thought And Open Thread !

    Good morning ! As we wait for details on the Second Rescue Deal that the greek parties , PM L-Pap and the Troika have struck ( while we also wait to see whether the greek Parliament and the greek street will tolerate the latest assaults ) , let's look at other items coming down the line.  As austerity has struck , unemployment has continued to ramp up faster than the lies out of politician's mouth - looking at the numbers from November , unemployment has now hit 20.9 percent , up from 18.2 a month earlier!  Correspondingly , manufacturing output contracted by 15.5 percent in December ( year over year ) , Industrial output fell by 11.3 percent , compared to - 7.83 percent in November ! Does anyone realistically believe further harsh austerity measures will improve one bloody thing for Greece ? As Greece copes with depression , spain , Portugal and Italy have recession looming or underway - with further austerity coming down the line , we already hear cries for debt renegotiation coming from the Unions in Portugal ,as well as the Finance Minister of Ireland. spain and Italy have been silent for now , how long do we expect that to continue ? In light of the already fragile economic conditions in Greece , Italy and Spain - factor in the impact of the EU boycott on oil from Iran - how can this not totally scotch whatever carefully considered budgetary plans drawn up for these nations ? One that note , consider the following !

Spain pain: ‘Iran oil embargo to backfire on Madrid’

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Published: 09 February, 2012, 00:46

Madrid is becoming concerned at how it is going to compensate for the half of its oil imports which will be lost due to the EU embargo on Iranian oil. The economic crisis is only adding to Spain’s woes.

“Spain is suffering the greatest damage from the embargoes against Iran and has always expressed support for the resumption of talks,” said Pedro Antonio Villena Perez, Spain’s new ambassador to Iran on Tuesday in Tehran, as quoted by Iran’s Press TV.

Perez pointed out that Madrid is not among the countries supporting the ban on Iran’s oil and banking sector.

Spain, like Greece and Italy, is among the EU's biggest importers of Iranian oil. Under the embargo agreed on January 23, they only have until July 1st to find alternative crude supplies.

Madrid imports almost all the oil it consumes for its energy and manufacturing sectors. Before the Libyan political crisis, Iranian oil accounted for some 20 per cent of Spain’s supplies. But this last year this figure has grown to 50 per cent. Sanctions on Iran pose an explicit threat to Spain’s energy, 80 per cent of which comes from oil.

“Spain never wanted this embargo. This decision comes externally, through US pressure on the EU. It is not just a question of economy. It calls into question Spain’s autonomy in making foreign policy decisions,” Miguel-Anxo Murado, a Spanish journalist and writer, told RT.