Not unrelated is the touchy subject of the so-called PIGS, a derogatory term Bond traders certainly use to contrast the profligate southern European economies with those more prudent to the north. As an Irishman living in Spain, the distinction leaves me conflicted. Very quickly after I came to live here six years ago, I realised the benefits of asserting a southern European identity. The idea of the Irish as the "Mediterraneans of the North" was an usually a winning intro and one I readily made use of despite my own doubts that there very much to it. One of the benefits it gave me, was an acceptance in both camps. The Spanish as well as the Italians, Greeks, Portuguese were comfortable to criticize Anglo-Saxon directness in my presence while those from the UK, Germany and even the Americans were sure I shared their frustrations at those work-shy Med Sea pedestrians.
In recent months, this once spirited debate has lost much of its good humour. To quote Blackadder, "This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you got a moment, it's a twelve-story crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying 'This Is a Large Crisis'. In a nutshell, the northern Europeans have lent too much and the Southern Europeans have borrowed too much.
The northerners want the southern europeans to become more productive and grow their way out of debt. and the southern europeans want debt forgiveness and to reschedule. Neither side is happy with the situation but instead of leadership and a search for common ground all we seem to get is "whataboutery"
Certainly viewed from my perch in central Madrid, the argument that southern europe is profligate, pedestrian or unproductive is weak. What about our world leading football teams, our fast trains and our well capitalised banks? Zara dress the Duchess of Cambridge the UK Prime Ministers wife. We run your airports, we train your chefs. Why that's ridiculous! Spain had a housing boom just like the UK and the US. It is global factors that not local ones that affect the price of money. We are not like the ungovernable Italians, those tax dodging Greeks or that place I've never actually been to (Portugal).
So what is Spain, what was Spain and most importantly of all what will be Spain? I said I'd better ask some people. First up, from the generation who came after "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named", someone very much representative of The New Spain. An MIT graduate, has lived in many countries and as comfortable talking about Wall Street as a life in a pueblo. He made two interesting points. First Spain, he said, was until recently a nation of renters and small business owners "We have overshot now to become a owner occupiers and employees" but argued that this is not how you should see the Spanish character.
Spain, he reminded me, once had an empire. Emigrants went to the Americas and made their fortune in difficult circumstances. There are Spaniards who are successful all over the world including at the highest levels of business. In the right circumstances, the Spanish can be competitive, risk taking and innovative. Maybe we have lost it but there is an entrepreneur gene in there somewhere.
Particularly among the young, English speaking, outward looking people in the tech community where I spend a lot of my time, there was a lot of attention was paid to a recent article in The Economist on France. It referred to "two Frances" but not in terms of left v right but in terms on insiders v outsiders. Increasingly, this true also for Spain. The insiders are made up of assorted hangers on and bureaucrats whose motto is "what we have, we hold". While the outsiders are dynamic, confident, global village types whose motto "just let me alone to get on with things"
The next parliamentary elections are due in March 2012 and the current Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has said that he will not stand. As yet, it is not certain who will be the candidates of the leading two political parties, but if those names are Mariano Rajoy and Carme Chacón, then you are dealing with two classic "insiders". Both are lawyers with no life experience outside politics and limited experience overseas.
There is very little evidence that either of them will prioritise the problem of "crowding out" where the state suffocates entrepreneurial initiative. Worse still is the optics. How come these two are all that a country of passion, of expertise of global relevance can come with? It would seem therefore that we are in for a sclerosis of sorts. Reforms in the area of labour law, competition law and education are unlikely to take place with the necessary force. In terms of both human and natural resources, Spain does have the wealth but it is the waste of talent that is the most frustrating part, the lack of a commitment to high standards.
There are however glimmers of hope. Mostly the young are off and with an attitude perfectly captured by an interview in the El Pais newspaper "Si España no quiere saber nada de mí, yo tampoco quiero saber nada de España" (If Spain does not care about from me, I don't care about Spain"). But when they return it will be to a country with a large market, good infrastructure and a great love for life.
It is also these three things that attract so many foreigners to live Spain. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency to think that if you leave your own country there must be something wrong with you. I know many people with the skills in area where the Spanish are poor (e.g. International Marketing, foreign languages) whose skills are not being harnessed.
This will change and will benefit all. Executives in Spain are mainly male, middle aged and Spanish. And as yet there has not been a Tidjane Thiam or an Indra Nooyi moment.
There is no doubt that the short term will not be pretty but for me, medium to long term I'm betting on Spain. I didn't come here for the ham, the sun and nightlife. I came here to work in the capital city of the worlds eight biggest economy. The potential is there and that for me is the crucial point. That is why I continue to live
