The magazine Time The February 15, 1999, issue of the magazine featured three men on its cover with a condescending air and the headline "The Committee to Save the World." In the center, Alan Greenspan, then the all-powerful chairman of the Federal Reserve (the Fed, the US central bank), appeared surrounded by US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and his deputy, Lawrence "Larry" Summers. The magazine highlighted the three economists' role in managing the recent financial crises in Mexico, Southeast Asia, and Russia. That cover served as a springboard for Summers, the least known of the three. In July of that same year, 1999, he replaced Rubin as head of the Treasury (equivalent to the Ministry of Economy) and for many years was one of the most respected economists in the US, where he stood out as one of the architects of the Democratic Party's neoliberal shift: he was a staunch advocate of financial deregulation, free trade, and free markets.

Michael Burry tweets infrequently, speaks even less, and is rarely seen in public, but when he does, it's for a reason. And this week he decided to make his stance against artificial intelligence public.

This week was Financial Literacy Day. The headline? In Spain, it's low compared to other European countries, especially the Nordic countries. Financial literacy is measured based on knowledge of three key concepts: compound interest, inflation, and risk diversification. It's not just about knowing how to define them, but also knowing how to incorporate them into everyday decisions. People who are familiar with these concepts tend to have an emergency fund, save more for retirement, and make better decisions.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump He denied in a press conference that he planned to fire Jerome Powell., the chairman of the Federal Reserve (the Fed, the US central bank). That same morning, several media outlets such as Bloomberg and The New York Times They had published that Trump had a draft letter to send to Congress to oust Powell, which led to an immediate drop in the dollar on the foreign exchange market and put the US stock market in the red. Only with the president's denial, a few minutes after its publication, did the situation in the markets normalize.

Barcelona and Madrid have been suffering from a housing bubble for two years, according to a new study. The causes include several factors, from population growth due to the arrival of immigration and the lack of public and private housing construction to the cheapening of credit and the entry of speculative investors.

In May 2019, the real estate agency California Outdoor Properties added a luxury property to its portfolio for $6.4 million. It was a luxury ranch located in Pescadero, a small town on the California coast with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. The plot covered 75 acres of wooded land, three catfish ponds, a stream surrounded by willows, green fields stretching to the horizon, and a majestic European-style house crowned by a terraced tower. The property boasts four bedrooms with panoramic windows, six bathrooms, a library, and an office. It was the house where Dee Hock lived for over twenty years when she decided to live a quieter life. Perhaps this name doesn't mean anything to you, but it's the reason why you carry a credit or debit card with a specific logo in your wallet today: Visa. Who was he, and how did he create this global financial giant?

Luis de Guindos, currently Vice President of the European Central Bank (ECB), was the first Minister of Economy who, with the 2007 Competition Law in hand, decided in 2012 to submit a takeover bid to the Council of Ministers, citing reasons of public interest. This involved the acquisition of La Sexta by Antena 3. He was the only minister of his rank who could claim that honor until Tuesday afternoon, when the current Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, decided to do the same in the case of BBVA's hostile takeover bid for Banc Sabadell.

It was the great economic upheaval in Catalonia in 2024 and, no matter how it turns out, it will be one of the big news stories of 2025. BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell, which poses an existential threat to Catalonia's fourth-largest company, is a story that has followed ARA readers for the past twelve months.Companies We wanted to take a chronological look at this hectic year, looking at our readers' comments. This is the movie of the year as you saw it.

The Stock market crash in response to tariffs imposed by the White House In most countries around the world, the impact is very different in the United States than in Europe. On both sides of the Atlantic, stock markets play quite different roles within the economy: in the US, they are a key element, both for the business sector and for families, while in Europe, they play a more secondary role.

The big economic difference between the United States and Europe lies in the way savers prepare for their retirement. In the United States, they buy stocks on the stock market, while in Europe, they entrust everything to their governments.

The La Caixa Foundation announced on Wednesday that it will increase its budget by 9% in 2025 to 655 million euros, which is "a record in the history of the entity", according to the Foundation itself.

Governments and supervisory bodies are suspicious about cryptocurrencies. The aim is to increase control over a kind of asset which, precisely, is going through one of its worst moments due to the war in Ukraine. The Spanish government has now taken a step further in this direction. The Ministry of Finance is preparing a royal decree which will amend the General Tax Law and the Personal Income Tax Regulations and incorporates new obligations for owners of cryptocurrencies, both at an informative level and in terms of the operations they make. "It is a new currency we should be able to regulate so that there is no kind of fraud or any undesirable effect on the economy", Minister of Finance María Jesús Montero told TVE on Tuesday.

"I'll just Bizum you the money". Anybody having lived in Catalonia for some time will have heard this, and it says a lot about a company that has managed to get its brand name into everyday speech. In October 2016, around thirty Spanish banks – then representing over 90% of the country's finances – reached an agreement among competitors to corner a common enemy. Big tech companies were threatening to break into their exclusive territory of cashless payments, which were timidly beginning to shift from cards to phones. The result of this alliance was Bizum, a platform that allowed free instant transfers between individuals with baking accounts at any of these banks at zero cost.

"At the beginning of the year, interest rates have risen because the interest rate curve is steepening". This sentence, a bit cryptic for the uninitiated, was pronounced a few days ago by a bank manager to a client and reveals a trend that is still difficult to detect but which seems increasingly unstoppable: the price of mortgages will soon start to rise for all those who want to take out a new one. Or also for those who already have a variable rate mortgage, whose price varies over time.

The Catalan ombudsman has announced this Friday that it will investigate ex officio the impact the closure of bank branches has on vulnerable population. In a statement, the Ombudsman has pointed out that financial services are "of general interest" and, therefore, the administration has to guarantee access to all people, respecting a minimum of quality and at an affordable price. According to the data provided by the agency, 12% of the population has problems accessing these services, either because of the physical distance from the closest branch or because of a lack of understanding of the systems (for example, the elderly may have more difficulties using online banking).

The new Catalan bank 11Onze will start operating on October 1. The entity, which will receive deposits and issue debit cards, will open its doors from that day to the first 5,000 people who want to become their customers, as explained in a statement. People who do not make it in this first batch will be registered on a waiting list and "we do not know how soon they will be joining us," according to a spokesman for the new Catalan fintech. Originally, entry is being offered to people who are registered in La Plaça, a social network where the company's customers interact.

Maria Carme is 87 years old and has no credit card or online banking application. Until three months ago, whenever she needed to, she would always go to the cash machine in the centre of Navata, the village in Alt Empordà where she lives, to withdraw money with her bankbook. But Banco Santander decided to close it and, since then, all the villagers have to go to Figueres or Besalú every time they want cash. "But I'm not very well and I don't feel strong enough to take the bus to Figueres", explains the neighbour. Now it is his son who has to go to him to get money, but this dependency gave him a scare a couple of weeks ago. "My son was in close contact with a covid-positive person and couldn't come for more than ten days. And I was worried about running out of money and not being able to buy food". A whole series of damages that have complicated the daily lives of the residents of the 480 Catalan municipalities (more than 50% of the total) that, like Navata, do not have any ATMs.

CaixaBank announced on Tuesday that it will reduce by 500 people the total number of layoffs, after the recent merger with Bankia. Thus, the bank will cut 7,791 jobs, compared to the 8,291 proposed at first.

BBVA is to aiming to carry out a labour force adjustment plan that will affect 3,800 workers throughout the State, equivalent to 16% of the workforce, and will involve the closure of more than half a thousand offices, most of them in Catalonia, as reported by the unions after the meeting held Thursday with the entity.

BBVA also joins the new wave of staff cuts across the Spanish banking industry. ARA has learnt the bank has already informed staff it has begun the process to initiate a redundancy plan (ERE) that could affect about 3,000 workers. This will affect both the central services of the bank and its commercial branches.