Tech problems, clothes, laziness and apologies

We have been offline for about a week and only now, on Saturday evening of Jimena's Mushroom Days  (more on that tomorrow...) has out Internet connection been re-established. Also, had to attend yesterday's Black Friday sales at the Primark store in Algeciras - a whole afternoon's shopping  that nearly killed me, but am delighted and grateful to have been able to buy some new clothing for the first time in eight years (!).  And we've been lazy -- okay, I've been lazy. So apologies to all my readers on all counts. We'll be back in form by next Friday, trying to catch up with everything.

Fabian Picardo: Gibraltar vindicated over border queues

"Gibraltar’s cause in Europe was a marathon, not a sprint"

(gbc.gi)

GIBRALTAR -- In an interview on GBC, the Chief Minister said that the Gibraltar and UK Governments are absolutely vindicated in their approach to dealing with Spain’s border harassment. Reacting to the European Commission’s letter to Spain, which was sent last July but came to light on Monday, Fabian Picardo says he always maintained that fighting Gibraltar’s cause in Europe was a marathon, not a sprint, and believes they are now seeing results. Speaking to GBC, Mr Picardo said he now realises why Spain didn't want to publish the letter sent to it. He said the Commission hasn't let Gibraltar down, nor has it let Spain off the hook. Mr Picardo says it’s obvious that following that letter, sent to Spain last July, Spain is now clearly acting in a way designed to comply with the Commission’s recommendations, and we are now seeing works at the frontier to that effect. He also believes that, barring one or two incidents, we haven’t seen huge queues forming at the frontier compared to pre-July queues. (Source: GBC)

New York Times publishes article on La Almoraima sale

• "The government has learned nothing from the property bubble"
• La Almoraima stands in contrast to Marbella and the Costa del Sol

CASTELLAR -- The New York Times has been running a Sunday series on public lands all over the world. Last Sunday, the 16th, it published a whole page on the sale of La Almoraima titled 'In Public Land Sale, Not All of Spain Is Buying', the first couple of paragraphs say, "La Almoraima, a farming estate at the edge of a nature reserve, is prized by environmentalists. Home to one of Europe’s largest cork forests, it is a rare place where deer and boar roam wild within sight of the Rock of Gibraltar. The Spanish government, which owns the land, wants to sell it for as much as 300 million euros, or about $376 million, pitching it as a perfect spot for a luxury resort, including a five-star hotel, a small airport, two golf courses and a polo grounds." It's a very interesting article with a few factual errors (to be expected, alas), all of which you can read HERE. It's always a good idea to hear other opinions ... I might change mine, though probably not about this. 

Banks prepare 'Euribor Plus', the new reference rate for mortgages

• Estimated rates to be substituted by real ones
• Problems with setting rates into the future

EUROPE -- The scandals involving manipulation of several monetary rate indexes, in which some of the continent's largest banks were implicated, such as Société Générale, Deutsche Bank and RBS, who were fined some of the largest sums imposed by Brussels, have forced the European Commission to create a new standard rate for mortgages. Thus, the Euribor (Euro Interbank Offered Rate) will be substituted for what is for the time being is called Euribor Plus, which may well end up being the name used in future. Work continues on the new rating system, though it is still at an advanced planning stage. The four Spanish banks that are on the panel that contributes to set the Euribor interbank rate (BBVA, Santander, CaixaBank and CecaBank) have already been informed of how the new rate will be working, as have all the other banks making up the panel. The Euribor is the index that shows the interest rates at which banks lend to one another and is therefore used as the base for other loans, including mortgages.

In Spain, over 80% of the banks use the Euribor indicator, which is calculated at the estimated rates used daily among the 25 entities on the panel. In other words, the rate does not depend on the actual loans the bank makes, but rather on its estimates of what it will be charging that day, and is therefore subject to manipulation, as has been the case.

The Euribor Plus, however, will be based on the real lending rates used by the banks on the panel. It is supposed that this will make them less subject to manipulation. However, sources at financial entities say that one of the problems in calculating the new Euribor Plus is that operations are rarely set at any more than three months ahead, in the present inter-bank market, whereas mortgage rates are established for at least a year.

European Commission rebukes Spain over border queues

Deadline for finishing work by summer of 2015 'at the latest'

(www.telegraph.co.uk)

GIBRALTAR (from The Gibraltar Chronicle by Dominique Searle) In a stinging letter the European Commission has criticised Spain and given it the deadline of summer 2015 for the completion of its works at the frontier that are supposed to respond to the “unjustified” delays witnessed by a team of EU experts in September 2013. The move comes in a letter recently sent to the Madrid Government which also sets out new steps its expects to be taken to ease flow. It states that checks by the Spanish authorities on travellers should be “significantly reduced” and that Spain should work with the Gibraltar border authorities in relation to frontier reforms. The letter also details that the Commission last July offered to act as a conduit for two way information exchanges between Spain and Gibraltar on the basis of each side approving what information can be passed on.

OECD approves of Gibraltar's fiscal policy

• Madrid Stock Exchanges warns of 'financial beach huts'
• Minister of the Economy says a 'major step' has been taken on this 'vital subject

GIBRALTAR -- The Rock was busy congratulating itself recently about the approval given by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) for its new fiscal policies contained in a multilateral agreement on the automatic exchange of information about financial accounts held there. As might be expected, these policies are aimed at smoothing the image of Gibraltar as an offshore tax haven (or 'financial paradise', as the Spanish media call it) that is very difficult to shake off. While Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was slapping backs in Berlin, the Madrid Stock Exchange (CNMV in its Spanish acronym) was warning about the activities being carried out by what the media called a 'financial beach hut' (chiringuito has other connotations, too) operating on Gibraltar: Nova Nordic Limited, which is supposedly not permitted to offer any services on the Rock.

IUCN Red List: Global appetite for resources pushing new species to the brink

Pacific Bluefin Tuna, Chinese Pufferfish, American Eel, Chinese Cobra and an Australian butterfly are threatened with extinction

WORLD -- Fishing, logging, mining, agriculture and other activities to satisfy our growing appetite for resources are threatening the survival of numerous species, while the destruction of habitat has caused the extinction of a Malaysian mollusc and the world’s largest known earwig. The Red List of Threatened Species™ was released on Monday at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Parks Congress taking place in Sydney, Australia. The IUCN Red List, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, now includes 76,199 assessed species, of which 22,413 are threatened with extinction. As nearly half of the newly assessed species occur within protected areas, IUCN calls for better management of these places to stop further biodiversity decline. “Each update of the IUCN Red List makes us realize that our planet is constantly losing its incredible diversity of life, largely due to our destructive actions to satisfy our growing appetite for resources,” says IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre. “But we have scientific evidence that protected areas can play a central role in reversing this trend. Experts warn that threatened species poorly represented in protected areas are declining twice as fast as those which are well represented. Our responsibility is to increase the number of protected areas and ensure that they are effectively managed so that they can contribute to saving our planet’s biodiversity.” (Photos below)

What will Spain be like in fifty years' time?

Fewer and older inhabitants, less births, more deaths

Population growth
(Huffington Post, España)
CLICK TO ENLARGE

MADRID -- The population of Spain has been falling steadily since 2012 and the future does not look rosy, according to a recent article in El País. Recent forecasts by the Spanish Institute of Statistics (INE in its Spanish acronym) show that the country will lose up to 1 million inhabitants over the next 15 years (total population on January 1, 2014: 46,507,760). If the demographic tendencies continue as they are, some 5,6 million people will have been lost over the next 50 years. That would take us back to the population of 2000, approximately. There are several consequences to that loss.

Fewer inhabitants

This would be the result of fewer births and more deaths. The economic consequences would be close to catastrophic: less tax money collected, so less money to take care of the older population (pensions, hospitalization, medical facilities, etc). This would bring about a significant downturn in purchasing power, which in turn would impact the country's entire economy.

Spaniards work 277 hours longer than Germans

• Number of working hours is not equal to work quality
• Spaniards 'sit around' doing very little

EUROPE -- The myth exists that Germans work harder than their equivalents in the Mediterranean but the numbers don't agree. Spaniards who are still lucky enough to still have a job in the first place, or those who have managed to reinvent themselves by becoming self-employed, work an average of 1,665 hours a year -- compared to the German average, about 300 hours below that. This is according to the OECD (Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation) in its Better Life Index/Work-Life Balance latest report. However, Spain is not at the head of the world ranking for the longest hours. That is headed by such countries as Mexico, Korea and Chile. On the other hand, Germany and Holland have the lowest average annual working hours of all the OECD countries: between 1,350 and 1,450 hours.

Supreme Court to investigate Andalucía ex-Presidents Chaves and Griñán on ERE case

Other former top Junta councillors and many business people also involved

Manuel Chaves (l)
José Antonio Griñán (r)

SEVILLE -- Judge Mercedes Alaya sent documents about the ERE case in Andalucía to the Supreme Court in the belief that there may be a case to answer regarding bribery and malfeasance. Now the Court confirms that it needs to look into the case, that it sees the same indications of irregularities as the judge. Several politicians, former councillors and diverse business people are allegedly involved. While the case has been around for at least a year, the two top men of the PSOE and most of the rest of the impugned have managed to keep under the radar, mainly because they are aforados (with parliamentary protection). Manuel Chaves and others have asked to appear in court voluntarily. Griñán had not yet done so at time of writing. This case is likely to become a cause celèbre for the opposition PP party in Andalucía, as it is being accosted from all sides in large and significant corruption cases all over the country (Click on CORRUPTION in the sidebar cloud of labels to get the idea.). The PSOE party has refused to pay litigation costs for the pair or any of the others involved because 'they are innocent'.