Great News in Spain – Only 60,000 More Unemployed in February

Grasping for Vindication of a Failed Policy

Like Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy, Spain instituted an anti-Keynesian austerity program with the idea that what Paul Krugman calls the “Confidence Fairy” would visit and bestow jobs and investments on economies that cut spending and raised taxes.  The results, as anyone who has paid the slightest attention knows, have been a disaster, although not for the officials implementing the policy but for the tens of millions of unemployed whose lives are ruined.

The programs have been such a failure that in order to find even the slightest bit of good news we have this report from Spain.

The number of registered unemployed in Spain rose beyond the 5m mark for the first time, but the relatively modest month-on-month increase raised fresh hopes that the country’s economic crisis may be starting to recede.

That’s right, the increase in the unemployed is slowing down.  Notice this is not saying the unemployed number are going down,

According to labour ministry data, almost 60,000 more people registered as unemployed in February than in the previous month, an increase of 1.2 per cent.

but that the increases are slowing.  Wow, what a success story.

And yes, even those numbers are suspect.

The registered unemployment data issued by the labour ministry differs from the more closely-watched labour market survey published by the national statistics office, which puts the number of unemployed at close to 6m and the jobless rate at above 26 per cent.

Again, to quote Mr. Krugman, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”