Last Friday I went to dinner at a very well known restaurant in Madrid, el Tomato Bar. It was completely full. I actually booked a table for dinner at 9pm and was told I had the table "until 10.15 a.m.". In short: I had an hour and a quarter for dinner and then I had to leave because others were coming. The truth is that I did not take it very seriously, but it turned out to be very true what I had been told when I booked. At 10.30 the person in charge of the dining room came to us, apologized and presented us with the bill. We had to leave because there was a long queue to sit at our table and at all the tables of the 9 o'clock shift.
Today morning, having a coffee with a colleague and friend, she told me about the problems they also had on Friday to find a table in the Gran Vía area of Madrid. They had not made a reservation. The third restaurant they went to was the one where they were able to sit down. And the table they got was the last free table left in the restaurant.
With these comments one thinks... is there really a crisis in Spain? Is it really as hard as they say it is?
From my point of view it is much worse, much more serious and much deeper than what is being said.
The gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider. The middle class is not just suffering. It is disappearing. Of this to my surprise the ruling politicians, both in Spain and in many other countries are either not realizing it or pretending not to realize it.
Entrepreneurs have been without credit for four years. Four long years. And it is only now that the press and politicians are starting to talk about it. Until now it has been a carefully silenced reality.
The economy has been losing steam since 2007. It is now 2013. Five years have passed. The destructive impact of the lack of credit to small and medium-sized companies and, as a derivative, to consumption, is devastating. Again, it seems that it is only now that our leaders are beginning to realize this. It is clear that even they themselves had believed in the "...".green shoots". There are no green shoots. Nor were there then, nor are there now.
For those of us entrepreneurs who are still alive, all this hurts us and hurts us a lot. But it is no consolation: we must go on and keep fighting.
When I look at what is happening to many businessmen, when I hear and read how out of touch with reality our government and many of the governments of a large part of the so called "....developed countries"I can't help but be surprised.
I believe that someday all this will be written down and people will throw their arms over their heads wondering how it was possible for everything that is now happening to happen and to happen in the way it is happening. But that will be history. And our life is not written in the past, but in the present.
This weekend in Turkey there have been a number of clashes between civilians and police very significant. Turkey is not among the countries of the European Economic Community, but Turkey is Europe. And it is also the Europe that Europe was in the 1970s and 1980s.
Alfonso Guerraa politician who has always had a very accurate vision of the social, political and economic situation, last week said at the presentation of his new book that the reaction of the public to all these problems, in view of the lack of real solutions, is not going to be peaceful, and the will generate violence. In his own words he sums up very well what is happening: "the world is at its worst moment as a consequence of the transition from productive capitalism to financial capitalism. The choice has been made to despise industry and production. The exchange of shares allows to earn much more money than productive activity and much faster. That's where all the current ills come from"..
It's a huge truth, which I was talking about in a recent postbut of which many are not being aware.
There is another assessment made by Alfonso Guerra that I would like to comment on: "the difference in salary between the manager and the laborer used to be 1 to 25, sometimes 1 to 50: now the difference is 1 to 1,000.".
Worrying or not?
It is financial capitalism that fills many of the restaurants on the main arteries of cities. The abandonment of productive capitalism enriches some restaurants but is leading our economy and our society to ruin.
And meanwhile, our rulers continue without facing reality. They strive not to do so. They continue to protect financial capitalism and allow the productive environment to be destroyed.
What real support do we small and medium-sized entrepreneurs have? None. And what is worse, we cannot speak and tell the experiences we are having, because if we speak the System turns against us and ends with us.
Where is all the liquid money that the Central Banks have put into the system to help citizens and the Financial System? In the Balance Sheets of the protected Banks. It has not reached the street.
And sincerely I am sure that the will of the politicians is to solve the problem. But the reality is that they are not succeeding.
We get news that officials from Brussels are about to arrive and will once again force more cuts.
In the case of Spain, it seems that we are still not making the cuts in the ".mother of the lamb"The state structure. Roberto Centeno titled his article in this week's Cotizalia as follows: "Governed by crooks: the budget disaster"and gave a figure that, if true, makes one's hair stand on end: Spain's GDP is actually 21% lower than the official GDP. If this is true, the deficit has nothing to do with the recognized deficit. It is much higher and makes it really impossible to repay an ever-increasing public debt.
In the same article, he talks about one of the solutions proposed by the Government: to maintain pensions, but... attention: not to increase them with the rise in prices in the future. In short, our retirees will not have enough to live on in a few years.
And the banks, because they cannot and those who can do not want to, continue not to give credit to small and medium-sized companies. No credit at all. At least that is our experience and that of many other entrepreneur and businessmen friends.
My head has me bewildered, but my body and my heart ask me not to look to the sides. I have to go on.
In the future we will talk about the past. In the present we must try to talk little and work to get to tomorrow. If we make it to the day after tomorrow, to the end of the month or even enjoy a week's vacation, it will be fantastic.
We are in the middle of something that is worse than a war. In a war everyone is prepared to lose everything. In the situation we are in, people pretend that nothing is happening, but there are many who have lost everything and there are many who are or are at risk of losing everything. There is little hope, in view of what we see happening day by day, and there are a few who party while all this is going on.
Where are we headed?
What is happening in our world?