October 30, 2013

Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.1 percent in the three-month period from July through September, the Spanish National Statistics Institute reported today. The third-quarter economic growth ended a two-year recession. Spain’s economy had contracted for the previous nine quarters. Spain—with Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal—was one of the countries hit worst by the recent debt crisis in the eurozone. (The eurozone consists of the 17 European Union member nations that adopted a single currency, the euro). According to the Institute report, Spain’s third quarter economic growth was driven by an increase in exports and a boost to tourism from vacationers avoiding the ongoing upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East.

The euro has replaced the individual currencies of the eurozone—made up of 17 member nations of the European Union. The eurozone has finally begun to climb out of a lengthy recession (European Central Bank).

Spain’s economy was hard hit when a decade-long property bubble burst with the worldwide crash of 2008. The country’s banks, sitting on hundreds of billions of euros in bad property loans, only survived with government bailouts. Thousands of businesses went under, and the country’s rate of unemployment soared to 26 percent. The rate of unemployment among people under the age of 25 spiked to more than 50 percent. High unemployment combined with a government austerity program consisting of spending cuts and tax hikes triggered huge public protests.

Many economists now suggest that the eurozone debt crisis appears to be easing. They point out that Ireland emerged from recession in the second quarter of 2013, helped by a rebound in exports and a rise in consumer spending. Portugal pulled out of two and a half years of deep recession with economic growth of 1.1 percent in the second quarter of this year, surpassing expectations. Economists believe that Greece’s record six-year recession is bottoming out, with the economy set to shrink this year by significantly less than analysts had forecast in June. Italy remains in recession, but the Economics Ministry reported yesterday that economic indicators suggest that a predicted recovery next year will likely be stronger than expected.

Additional World Book articles:

• Crisis in the Eurozone (a special report)
• Economics Crisis: The Banking Meltdown (a special report)
• European Union: The Euro (a special report)
• Eurozone Crisis: No End in Sight (a special report)

Nov. 15, 2011

New York City police dislodged about 200 Occupy Wall Street demonstrators from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan early this morning. About 200 of the protesters were arrested, primarily on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg noted, “health and safety conditions became intolerable” in the park where the demonstrators had been camping for nearly two months. The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City inspired similar movements across the United States and around the world. Participants essentially protested what they saw as an ever-widening gap between the wealth of the top 1 percent of the population compared with the rest — “the 99 percent.” They demanded a more equal distribution of the world’s wealth and a stronger response to the global economic crisis.

Oakland, California, which lies on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, is one of the busiest ports on the West Coast of the United States. Oakland Convention Bureau.

The Occupy encampment in downtown Oakland, California, was similarly shut down police on November 14. City officials had issued several orders for protesters to abandon the camp in the wake of a fatal shooting there the week before. The police arrested more than 30 protesters without incident. The Occupy demonstrations in Oakland had been more violent than those in other cities. On November 3, hundreds of police in riot gear fired tear gas and other projectiles at several thousand protesters in an attempt to break up a demonstration at the Port of Oakland on San Francisco Bay. The riot was triggered when protesters essentially shut down the entrance to the port, keeping the night shift from getting to work on the docks.

Additional World Book articles:

• Income (distribution of income)
• Economic Crisis: The Banking Meltdown (a special report)
• Economic Crisis: The Government Jumps In (a special report)
• Economic Crises: Then and Now (a special report)