Good morning!
How are you doing this week? We are somewhat surprised by the attitude of the Popular Party towards the consequences of DANA in Valencia. With more than 200 deaths, the PP has done nothing other than use the tragedy to gain political advantage and try to close the way for Teresa Ribera in the European Commission. A useless attempt because the forms, uses and times of community politics are very different and are governed by other criteria very far from the destructive at all costs of the PP. While the popular ones put on a show in Congress, their more socialist and liberal counterparts in Brussels signed an agreement for the new European Commission with Ribera as vice president.
While some engage in meaningless partisan fighting, the world is changing. This has been the week of Bluesky, a platform similar to the old Twitter that has gained millions of users since the victory of Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the United States elections, where the social network X has played in favor of the Republican candidate.
Bluesky was created by Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, but he ended up leaving the company. Now it is venture capital specialized in cryptocurrencies such as SevenX Ventures, Protocol Labs or Blockchain Capital that control the social network. Here we tell you who is behind Bluesky.
Trump’s victory is going to change the playing field for technology companies. For now, the leaders of the digital multinationals have buried the hatchet against the Republican, hoping to stop the hostilities that marked his first term. The technological emperors have chosen to kneel before Trump, in a legislature where the interventionism of the Republican Administration is going to be felt with special convulsion.
With this panorama there are movements that give added fear. The business of artificial intelligence (AI) and the geopolitical panorama have opened a new scenario for digital giants and arms companies. Technology companies ratify agreements to sell artificial intelligence for military use, without anyone raising objections as was the case before, not even among the workforce. In this link we explain how Silicon Valley has surrendered to the arms business.
There was a time when Google’s slogan was Don’t be evil (Do not be evil or do not do evil), over time the managers of the digital company chose to change to Do the right thing (Do the right thing), which is the perfect formula to do whatever you want. What is correct? Whatever suits you at all times and you have an argument to defend it. In the Terminator saga films, Skynet is the name of the artificial intelligence that leads the machine army that rebels to wipe out humanity. We are still far away, but today a little closer.
The graph
It is becoming more difficult to buy a home, especially for working families. A legion of investors and funds are starting to buy homes as investments, leaving citizens with fewer options. Among other things because they are acquiring properties in much less time. Spain is becoming a country of large holders. In 2023, 56% of home purchase and sale transactions were carried out without a mortgage. In this way, these investors are added competition for people who, while being able to make a down payment, need more time for the purchase processes imposed by banks to grant a mortgage. In this link we explain the difficulties families face in competing in the purchase of a home with investors who can pay in cash.
The data
This is how interest rates will be in the Eurozone in July 2025, according to Goldman Sachs. In short, the American investment bank points out what the European Central Bank (ECB) does not want and cannot admit. According to Goldman Sachs analysts, the institution that sets European monetary policy will make a fourth cut in the official ‘price’ of money by 0.25 points on December 12, to 3%, and five more drops over the next year until it leaves them at 1.75%. Economic activity in the region needs oxygen, it has already been sufficiently punished by monetary policy, and the rise in wages cannot be used by the ECB as an argument to stop rate cuts. Here we explain how Goldman Sachs says what the ECB does not want to admit: “Interest rates will fall to 1.75% in 2025.”
Entrepreneur
This week we have as our favorite entrepreneurs the Dorado-Pizzorni, Venezuelans with Italian-Galician roots and businesses in remittances, with Italcambio, owners of the “most important bank in Puerto Rico” or owners of the rights to the Frida Kahlo brand, among others business. However, in Spain they have encountered several problems: Hundreds of thousands of euros in settlements and fines from the Tax Agency, a dispute with Social Security due to a serious work accident and the veto of the Bank of Spain to the purchase of a company. of remittances. In this link we tell you who the Dorado-Pizzorni are, the Venezuelans behind the sale of the most expensive penthouse in Madrid, and their lawsuits with the Treasury and a serious work accident.
The Supreme Court has revolutionized labor relations by ruling that it is mandatory that there be a “prior hearing” to a disciplinary dismissal so that the worker can defend himself. The High Court ruled that it will not be a valid dismissal if the company has not opened a procedure so that the worker can fight the accusations against him when they are going to be disciplinaryly dismissed. How this new law is applied, since when, and some doubts and possible interpretations will give rise to “a lot of litigation” in the courts, several Labor Law specialists anticipate. Here we explain how the Supreme Court ruling that requires workers to be heard before firing them affects dismissals.
Every time he speaks the bread rises
That the commission in which the future state prosecutor is being decided is stopped for 3 hours and resumes at 11:00 p.m. is another example of the short game of some and the disorder of this legislature
Aitor Esteban
— Spokesperson for the PNV in Congress
The PNV spokesperson in Congress, Aitor Esteban, is right about one thing: last Monday’s Finance Committee was absolute chaos. Another thing is that they are more accustomed to the agreement under the table and not airing the back and forth of political negotiation. The truth is that in that commission it was not clear whether progress was made in the fiscal package that the Government is trying to approve trying to please the right and the left. The socialists attempted a last-minute move to approve the Law that establishes a minimum of 15% for corporate tax with an agreement with ERC, EH Bildu and BNG to try to save taxes on banks and electricity companies. The Plenary Session of Congress votes this Thursday on the minimum tax of 15% to multinationals along with a “package” with other measures, where the lack of agreement between political parties is the only thing that is clear.
Meanwhile, in Brussels they warn us that Spain will deviate from its deficit objective if it eliminates taxes on banks and energy companies, taxes that are at the center of the political discussion. The European Commission places the deficit at 2.7% in 2026 due to the expiration of these two taxes that the left-wing political forces are trying to maintain while the right-wing political forces want to overthrow them as companies request.
With this political mess and when the Government’s parliamentary weakness becomes more evident, we find that Spain loses 10,000 million in tax collection due to the flight of companies and the rich to tax havens.
public good
And we return with technology because although it may sound dystopian, the consequences are palpable. While the debate was being fueled about whether robots would take away people’s jobs, what has really been happening is that there was a palpable deterioration of labor rights due to the use of technological applications. I still remember how a senior manager of a courier company justified the hiring of false self-employed workers (without paying Social Security) with the argument that technology gave the worker freedom to decide when to work: freedom without rights or regulation is the jungle, It’s not freedom, it’s every man for himself. Justice did its job and it was proven that the algorithm was a way of chaining the employee to a schedule and guidelines and that, therefore, they were employees. Just like the false self-employed, there are more movements in companies, where business management is invisible in much more massive and discreet processes that cause the reduction of basic labor rights thanks to the use of algorithms. Here is a report by Laura Olías about how technology companies distract you with a world of robots while they steal much more basic labor rights from you.
We like competition
In this section we bring you a series of articles from other media that we found interesting:
We finish the newsletter for this week. More economic news next Thursday. Until then you can write to us at [email protected] with your proposals, complaints or ideas.
Good week!
#remember #Skynet #Today #closer
