Rev 6:5,6 NCV When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse, and its rider held a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard something that sounded like a voice coming from the middle of the four living creatures. The voice said, "A quart of wheat for a day's pay, and three quarts of barley for a day's pay, and do not damage the olive oil and wine!"
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<p class="MsoNormal"> “<span>Against all odds, the frameworks of the world’s economic, political, and social systems are being shaken and are beginning to crumble.</span>”<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">-Jim Bakker in “Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse”</p>
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Struggling banks led Spain to be the fourth and largest European Union nation to ask for a bailout. The country will receive up to 100 billion euro, however, some of the member nations, like the UK, are not contributing to the loan.
The news of the bailout initially sent worldwide stock markets soaring but the enthusiasm quickly wore off and many markets were trading lower than opening by mid-morning. Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the rating for two Spanish banks two ranks from A to BBB+. Fitch attributed the move to last week’s downgrade of Spain’s sovereign credit rating.
Spain is in its second recession in the last three years. Many of the main Spanish banks are sitting on bad loans for billions of euros connected to the collapse of a property boom in the nation. The exact amount of the bailout won’t be known until the audits of Spanish banks has been completed however the bailout is not expected to stave off the recession which is now expected to run through all of 2013.
Spanish citizens took to the streets in protest of the bailout as government officials expressed their commitment to economic reforms. The government also wanted to stress the banks were being bailed out and not the actual government.
