España fallida

That the IBEX-35 is the shadow management that pulls the strings is no less a commonplace, but the reality is different. With few honorable exceptions, the Spanish business community is small, weak and rather submissive. Political parties and governments control too many parcels, bogged down in sectarian and short-sighted polemics, while essential structural reforms are indefinitely postponed. John de Zulueta, former president of the Círculo de Empresarios, portrays the lights and shadows of the Spanish elites in a failed Spain. Upright and committed people or individuals who thrived in the culture of crony capitalism parade through its pages, partial successes and repeated failures are recorded. His thesis is not complacent: Spanish society is too dependent on the government solving its problems like a miracle, but that is not going to happen. Only an adult, active and critical citizenry can force the changes on which our future depends. The pension reform, the training and labor integration of young people, competitiveness, innovation, legal certainty and institutional stability cannot wait any longer.