Posts tagged 'Catalonia'

On trying to read the coming Catalan coalition

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

Learn more

Subscribe to Masa's posts
| Nov 30 2012 15:01 | Comment |

Last weekend’s Catalan elections returned perhaps the most difficult-to-read result. Judging by the overall support for separatist parties, there was significant support for at least a referendum on independence. Yet the largest separatist party, the centrist Convergència i Unió, saw its majority in the regional parliament slashed, forcing it to seek a coalition. Read more

Catalans maybe like this independence idea

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Nov 26 2012 08:51 | Comment |

Catalonia’s regional election on Sunday delivered a big victory for the separatist movement — but a more fragmented one than had been expected. Four separatist parties won 87 of the regional parliament’s 135 seats. The ruling CiU party didn’t do so well, losing 12 seats to hold 50. This was much lower than polls had suggested, and follows a battle between supporters and opponents of independence that has become increasingly bitter, as the allegations against Artur Mas last week illustrated.

As the FT’s Miles Johnson reports, the vote brings the prospect of a stronger push for Catalan independence. Regardless of the CiU’s own performance, the surge in support for smaller separatist parties raises the big question of what this means for heavily-indebted Catalonia, and for Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy. Read more

Rising tensions before Catalan vote

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

Learn more

Subscribe to Masa's posts
| Nov 23 2012 17:42 | Comment |

The Catalan elections are on Sunday, and perhaps unsurprisingly there’s been an escalation of tensions ahead of the vote. The question is how this might benefit the CiU, the main separatist party. Read more

Is Catalonia backing away from independence?

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

Learn more

Subscribe to Masa's posts
| Nov 20 2012 11:23 | Comment |

The people of Catalonia go to the polls on Sunday. Although it’s just a regional election, the vote is seen as a key gauge of the Catalan independence movement’s strength. And the latest indications are that Catalans are less keen on going it alone as the election day draws nearer. Read more

‘Why should Germans support poorer Spanish regions if Catalans object?’

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

Learn more

Subscribe to Masa's posts
| Oct 26 2012 15:23 | Comment |

Most commentary on Catalonian nationalism dwells on whether this is something that’s going to have implications outside of Spain. How worried should we really be if the Catalans get a bit more fiscal autonomy or even independence? But the Catalan debate actually raises a much bigger question that goes right down to the essence of the eurozone as it stands, namely if Catalonia is unprepared to subsidize Spain’s poorer regions, why should northern Europe do so? Read more

A week of Spain-related excitement is not over just yet

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

Learn more

Subscribe to Masa's posts
| Sep 28 2012 14:53 | Comment |

Spain has been grabbing the headlines all this week and while it may be Friday afternoon, the excitement isn’t over just yet. Moody’s is widely expected to announce whether it’s going to downgrade Spain’s Baa3 credit rating (possibly to junk) Friday after the European markets close. Oliver Wyman’s second audit of the country’s banking system should come out around the same time.

Ahead of all that we wanted to talk you through a quick recap of the latest developments because, as UBS strategist Justin Knight rightly points out, “the areas of concern are now becoming numerous” and it’s making the question of when Spain might request aid increasingly complex. Read more

Catalonia cuts lossmaking Spanair loose

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Izzy's posts
| Jan 30 2012 10:32 | Comment |

Catalonia’s dreams of running its own airline crashed over the weekend after the indebted Spanish region was forced to cut loose Spanair, its loss making domestic carrier, leaving thousands stranded in airports across the country, the FT reports. Spanair, Spain’s fifth-largest carrier by passengers, will this week file for bankruptcy protection after grounding flights on Friday as a last-ditch attempt by the Catalan government to secure investment from Qatar failed. An estimated 22,000 passengers have been affected by the collapse, and more than 2,000 employees will lose their jobs at a time when the country’s jobless rate last week rose to 5.27m, or almost 23 per cent. Spanair, created in mid-1980s by SAS, the Scandinavian airline, was taken over by the Catalan state in 2009 as part of a drive by the region’s government at the time to secure the Barcelona El Prat airport’s status as an aviation hub to rival Madrid’s Barajas. Bloomberg reports this is the first collapse of a scheduled European airline since the last recession. Read more

Spain’s first town to (officially) suspend payments

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Izzy's posts
| Oct 20 2010 13:15 | Comment |

A hat tip to the Twittersphere for highlighting this story from Spain’s elEconomista.es on Wednesday, which recounts the sad tale of a town called Villajoyosa in the Valencia region of the country.

We have to rely on Google Translate — but from what we can make out, it seems to suggest it’s the first Spanish town to officially admit it is approaching bankruptcy, if you equate the suspension of all payments — bar essentials — with that classification. Read more

A deep freeze over Catalonia, or is it?

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Izzy's posts
| Aug 12 2010 15:34 | Comment |

Now here are some rather interesting developments in the Spanish banking arena this week.

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported how Spain’s autonomous region Catalonia has been completely frozen out of the lending market since about March. Read more