Basta!?After two years of reforms, Spaniards are all too familiar with the deadly ritual Europe’s strategy to fight the crisis has become. Every new reform package adopted is praised by European institutions and met with a pat on the back. Then, when recession looms, unemployment jumps again and risk premiums keep rising, Spaniards are asked to face yet more austerity. If and when you question whether the strategy amounts to a self-inflicted recession, you are told not to worry and encouraged to be patient and wait for the results. If faith is defined as the capacity to believe without seeing, Spaniards are being asked to replace politics and economics with a sheer act of faith in austerity.
夠了！在經過兩年的改革后，西班牙人已經對這種由歐洲抗擊危機戰略演繹而成的致命套路了如指掌了。每一項新的改革方案都得到歐洲機構的贊揚和大力支持。隨后，當衰退迫近、失業率再次飆升和風險溢價持續上升時，西班牙人仍然被要求實施更多的緊縮措施。當你質問這種戰略是否會導致一場自我造成的衰退時，他們會告訴你不要擔心，并鼓勵你耐心等待結果。如果信心的定義是盲目相信，那么西班牙人被要求對緊縮懷著絕對信心，而把政治學和經濟學拋諸腦后。