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The Next Greece? A Sketch of Spain. BARCELONA — Joan Miró’s farmhouse in Mont Roig, about fifty miles from here, is well known from the Catalonian artist’s own depictions of it.

The Next Greece? A Sketch of Spain

The best of them, a work he called La Ferme (the farm), was owned by his friend Ernest Hemingway, whose widow later gave it to the National Gallery in Washington. The house itself still stands today, but it is empty, rundown, and neglected. Its walls are peeling and what furniture remains is in bad condition; the cobbles in the front courtyard where Miró and his family often dined alfresco are hardly visible among the weeds. Europe braces for Spanish banks bailout - Europe.

Eurozone finance ministers are holding a conference call on Spain's expected request for aid to shore up its distressed banking sector, European government sources said.

Europe braces for Spanish banks bailout - Europe

The eurozone greenlighted the "holding of a teleconference of the Eurogroup on Saturday at 4:00pm (1400 GMT) to agree a declaration on Spain's intention to request aid and the Eurogroup's commitment to granting it," a European government source said. The move came as the International Monetary Fund released a report on Friday which estimated that Spanish banks need at least a 40bn euro (about $50bn) capital injection following a stress test it performed on the country's financial sector.

"And some leaks coming out of that meeting - unconfirmed - suggest they are talking about something in the region of as much as $125bn," he said. Spain has not yet asked for assistance, our correspondent said. "All that Madrid has to do is ask for that bailout ... No decision yet. Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos says Spain will seek financial help. Sunday 10 June 2012 07.10 Eurozone finance ministers tonight agreed to lend Spain up to €100bn to recapitalise its banks.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos says Spain will seek financial help

After a 2.5-hour conference call of the 17 finance ministers, the Eurogroup and Madrid said the amount of the bailout would be sufficiently large to banish any doubts. "The loan amount must cover estimated capital requirements with an additional safety margin, estimated as summing up to €100bn in total," a Eurogroup statement said. Spain said it wanted aid for its banks but would not specify the precise amount until two independent consultancies - Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger - deliver their assessment of the banking sector's capital needs some time before 21 June.

Joseph Stiglitz: Spain Bank Bailout 'Not Going To Work' By Tiziana Barghini NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - Europe's plan to lend money to Spain to heal some of its banks may not work because the government and the country's lenders will in effect be propping each other up, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said.

Joseph Stiglitz: Spain Bank Bailout 'Not Going To Work'

"The system ... is the Spanish government bails out Spanish banks, and Spanish banks bail out the Spanish government," Stiglitz said in an interview. The plan to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion), agreed on Saturday by euro zone finance ministers, was bigger than most estimates of the needs of Spanish banks that have been hit by the bursting of a real estate bubble, recession and mass unemployment. If requested in full by Madrid, the bailout would add another 10 percent to Spain's debt-to-gross domestic product ratio, which was already expected to hit nearly 80 percent at the end of 2012, up from 68.5 at the end of 2011.

Instead, Europe should speed up discussion of a common banking system, he said. Europe’s Depressing Prospects: Two Reasons Why Spain Will Leave the Euro. Normally I don’t like to write about European prospects in the midst of a very rough patch in the market because in that case there isn’t much I can say that isn’t already being said.

Europe’s Depressing Prospects: Two Reasons Why Spain Will Leave the Euro

I find it more useful to wait for those recurring periods in which the markets recover and optimism rises. Still, given the conjunction of political uncertainty in Beijing, low Chinese growth numbers, and another round of deteriorating circumstances in Europe, I will spend most of this issue of the newsletter trying to outline the possible paths countries like Spain must face. For several years I have been saying that Spain would leave the euro and restructure its external debt. I should say that I specify Spain because it is the country in which I was born and grew up, and so it is also the country I know best. Spain’s Death Spiral and the Hypocrisy of the Euro. Anyone out there who thinks the euro zone debt crisis is over – and you know who you are – should take a good look at what’s going on in Spain.

Spain’s Death Spiral and the Hypocrisy of the Euro

If Italy represented the biggest threat to the euro in 2011, then Spain will be the big story of 2012. Whatever numbers you look at, Spain is in a death spiral, a self-defeating circle of recession and austerity that is sending one of Europe’s most important members into an economic dark ages. Spain: Simmering anger in Seville. 6 June 2012Last updated at 08:32 ET Paul Mason reports on how the economic crisis is changing lives in Seville The Spanish version of the soprano cornet is tiny: it curls like a golden snail in the hand of the player.

Spain: Simmering anger in Seville

There is only one valve, and it is tweaked, like a tap, so that the melody it produces swoops and squeals. In an English brass band there is only one soprano and its job is to add a sweet echo, one octave higher, to the main melody. Cheap Spanish vacation? The Euro euro is keeping Spain way too expensive for tourists. Lourdes Segade/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Cheap Spanish vacation? The Euro euro is keeping Spain way too expensive for tourists

Economic chaos and mass unemployment are bad news. But to the curious traveler, they are an opportunity for a bargain. So it’s only natural for a cost-conscious American reading headlines about economic catastrophe in Spain and Greece to wonder: Is there a cheap vacation there for me? Moody's downgrades Santander UK along with 16 Spanish banks. The credit rating agency Moody's has downgraded 16 Spanish banks along with Santander's UK arm, citing the Spanish government's reduced ability to shore up the banks.

Moody's downgrades Santander UK along with 16 Spanish banks

Santander UK, whose rating was lowered to A2 – a notch higher than its Spanish parent – insisted there was no impact on its business and that it was an autonomous subsidiary with 90% of its assets held in the UK, where it is also regulated. Brendan O'Connor: McCreevy's role in Spain's crash - Comment, Opinion. Brendan O'Connor – Updated 02 December 2012 11:53 PM.

Brendan O'Connor: McCreevy's role in Spain's crash - Comment, Opinion