Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Spain: Unemployment Rate Jumps To Record 26 Percent

MADRID (AP) — Spain's unemployment rate shot up to a record 26.02 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, leaving almost six million people out of work, the National Statistics Institute said Thursday.

The rate rose from 25.02 percent in the third quarter as the country's recession deepened.

Over the year, 691,700 more people lost their jobs, the institute said, adding that there were now 1.8 million households in which no one was employed.

Spain is in the throes of its second recession in just over three years following the collapse of its once-booming real estate sector in 2008.

Battling to reduce a swollen deficit and avoid a bailout, the year-old conservative government has made major financial and labor reforms and applied severe austerity measures such as cutbacks in wages and spending as well as tax increases.

The austerity measures are aimed at lowering the deficit, but are hurting the economy in the short-term, while the reforms will only help growth in the longer-term. That means the economy will suffer more before it recovers.

The central bank this week estimated that the recession deepened in the fourth quarter of last year, the economy shrinking by 0.6 percent compared with the previous three-month period.

It was the sixth consecutive quarterly contraction. The economy contracted by 0.4 percent in the third quarter.

The bank estimated economic activity was down 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period and down 1.3 percent for the whole of 2012.

The statistics institute will announce official economic growth figures on Jan. 30, while Europe's main statistics office Eurostat unveils its estimate on Feb. 14.

Original Article
Source: huffington post
Author: AP 

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