{"id":665637,"date":"2010-02-16T08:23:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/spains-secret-agents-hunt-for-economic-sabourtors-2010-2"},"modified":"2010-02-16T08:23:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T13:23:00","slug":"spanish-secret-service-now-hunting-down-financial-speculators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/665637","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Secret Service Now Hunting Down Financial Speculators"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Spain’s speculator blame game has just gone into high gear.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the Spanish government finds it completely inconceivable how markets could react negatively to the country’s 20% unemployment and budget deficit of 11.4% of GDP.<\/p>\n

Thus they’ve called in the secret service to hunt for an external explanation for markets’ negative impression of the country.<\/p>\n

Der Spiegel:<\/a><\/p>\n

On Sunday the center-left El Pais newspaper reported that the Spanish intelligence agency was looking into “speculative attacks” on Spain following the Greek debt crisis. Citing unnamed sources, El Pais said the National Intelligence Center (CNI) was investigating “whether investors’ attacks and the aggressiveness of some Anglo-Saxon media are driven by market forces and challenges facing the Spanish economy, or whether there is something more behind this campaign.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Last Tuesday the Spanish prime minister urged calm and stressed his country’s “solvency and solidity.” He told a meeting of Socialist lawmakers in Madrid that “there are movements that have brought a great deal of concern on the stock market. It seems there are speculative movements.”<\/p>\n

Infrastructure Minister Jose Blanco raised eyebrows last week when he alluded to shadowy forces ganging up on the country. “Spain is the victim of an international conspiracy to destroy the country’s economic status, and then, the euro,” he said. “Nothing that is happening, including the apocalyptical editorials in foreign media, is just chance.”<\/p>\n

This only makes Spain look even more oblivious to its problems, unfortunately. We recommend agents start digging for clues in the Spanish budget and labor system. They’ll likely find the true evil-doers there.<\/p>\n

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