Spain is really suffering in that so much of its labour force was tied up in the booming construction industry that unemployment has shot up and it may take as much as five years for all the backlog of unsold property to clear. On a personal note, it is also making it very difficult to sell my house in Spain, so if you know anyone who has a spare half million quid, send them my way!

Interesting article – though a bit out-dated…,

I was wondering if you (or maybe Chris Rose, who lived and worked in Spain for a time) could give an update on the Spanish angle of all this in the light of the collapse of the American banking and real-estate bubbles in the recent past. I may be wrong, but I suspect that the pain has not gone away, and more Aspirins are being consumed….

Your friend from Samaria,
Ruvy