SPANISH PROTEST AT LACK OF POLITICAL DEBATE - Thousands of people still occupy Madrid's main square, Puerto del Sol, after several days of protest about the government's poor political engagement with the electorate. The protest is being referred to as the beginnings of a movement in a country that has a youth unemployment rate of up to 45%. Spain holds regional and municipal elections this Sunday, and campaigners want to be part of the political debate, saying their voices are not being heard.
Joe Haslam, Professor at the IE Business School in Madrid, says the campaigners feel like they should be part of the system, but are not being treated as such. He says it is unclear what effect the movement will have on this weekend's elections. The campaign is recommending an 'en blanco' vote - spoiling votes, so as not to vote for any one political party.
'Nobody really knows if the movement will translate into the ballot box. It could be very interesting if there is a high spoiled vote level. It's one thing to get the highest amount of votes, but it's very hard to have true legitimacy to govern if your streets are full of demonstrating people,' Professor Haslam says.
***
MORNING BRIEFS - Irish Nationwide Building Society's results for 2010, published yesterday, show an after-tax loss of €3.3 billion for the year, mainly due to provisions for bad debts. That is up from a €2.5 billion loss reported for 2009. Its chief executive Gerry McGinn called the results 'catastrophic'. Last year was its last full year as Irish Nationwide, as the building society is in the process of being merged with Anglo Irish Bank. Its deposits have already been transferred to Irish Life and Permanent. The building society says there is arrears of 27% on the society's mortgage book. That is more than four times the industry average. Arrears on buy-to-let mortgages - a quarter of the book - were 42% and, on home loans, 22%. Irish Nationwide's chief executive said mortgages were neglected by the former management, which focused on development lending, and he said he is not holding his breath for the return of the former chief executive, Michael Fingleton's, €1m bonus.
*** Business networking site LinkedIn floated on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday - at one point its shares were up by 170%, from an initial offer price of $45 dollars, up to $122, but analysts say the successful start has little to do with the value of the company, more to do with the market's appetite for social networking stocks. It is the first US social network site to get a share listing. There are concerns that social networking sites are creating a new stock market bubble. Shares in one of China's biggest social networking sites - Renren - rose sharply on their debut in New York earlier this month, going from $14 to $21.93 on their first day. Facebook and Twitter are both expected to seek stock market listings in the next few years.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is trading at $1.4323 cents and 88.19 pence sterling.
