is going the way of a libertarian shit hole. Hopefully France's new Socialist President can change the tide.

The first planks in a dramatic bailout for Spain will be bolted together this weekend, with a final figure on the size of the rescue package to be ready within a week, according to sources in Brussels and Madrid.

The moves towards bailing out the finance sector of the eurozone's fourth biggest economy reflect a growing consensus that a Spanish collapse must be averted to prevent a devastating chain reaction that could bring down Italy and destroy the single currency. There were fears that this would spark a global downturn extending to the US and China, and both countries urged Europe to move swiftly to fix its long-running debt crisis.

President Barack Obama called on European leaders on Friday to strengthen their banks and urged Greece to remain in the eurozone. "There is a path out of this challenge," Obama told reporters at the White House. "These decisions are in the hands of Europe's leaders; they understand the urgent need to act. There are specific steps they can take right now to prevent the situation from getting worse. One of those steps is taking clear action as soon as possible to inject capital into weak banks."

With fears that Greek voters may add further fuel to the fire by electing a government that will lead them out of the euro on 17 June, Spain hopes to have a final figure ready by next Friday, sources in Madrid said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/08/spain-bailout-agreed-week

....there's 200 plus trillion in outstanding derivatives out there, 90% of which are on the books of our five largest banks? Europe is a side-show, the crooked capitalist system is the problem....

....the sooner we ditch the crony-capitalists and crony-capitalism the sooner the worlds economy will recover....

Spain is to get loans to help shore up its struggling banks, its economy minister has confirmed.

He was speaking following an emergency meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

Luis de Guindos said Spain had agreed to officially request assistance from eurozone rescue funds.

He did not say how much the financial system would get, but he said it would be "significantly" more than the 40bn euros ($50bn; £32bn) recommended by the International Monetary Fund.

Spain had been reluctant to ask for a full bailout, like the one given to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which come with demands for tax rises and spending cuts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18382659