Exactly five years ago, as a Member of the European Parliament, I filed a 22-page complaint with the European Commission arguing that Spain's €53 million rescue of Plus Ultra, a tiny airline with Venezuelan shareholders operating four leased planes on three Latin American routes, was illegal state aid.
The company was not strategic: 0.1% of Spanish aviation passengers, position 77 by passenger volume. The aid was nearly eight times its financial debt and more than three times the maximum the Commission's own rules allowed. The capital that lifted it out of "firm in difficulty" status pre-Covid (a requirement of the aid approval) came from a €6.3 million participative loan from a Panamanian bank, of which €4.1 million was locked as collateral in a foreign account. The actual loan was €2.2 million.
Today the Audiencia Nacional has indicted former Prime Minister Zapatero for organised crime, traffic of influences, and document falsification in the same case. The criminal investigation alleges that the rescue funds were used to launder money from Venezuelan corruption, with €1.5 million in commissions paid through a consultancy owned by a Zapatero associate.
Plus Ultra is what the "entrepreneurial" state looks like in practice. A small concentrated group (Plus Ultra's shareholders and their political contacts) captured a large diffuse rent (€53 million of Spanish taxpayer money). The politicians making the call were not maximising the survival of strategic Spanish industry.
Rules are out and discretion is back on both sides of the Atlantic. Trump grants tariff exemptions firm by firm, takes equity stakes in Nippon Steel and Intel, allocates CHIPS Act funds on terms that are not public. Everyone in the know trades on the news.
When the market fails the easy solution is "let the state intervene". But the state is not composed of angels, but of politicians who are human beings. When designing solutions to "market failure" one has to always wonder "with this design and these incentives, are there reasons to believe the state will be able to do this better"?
I explained the Plus Ultra case here:
https://t.co/vaT0zOaShY
Link to my allegations in spanish: https://t.co/FWqpynQU5p
And thread below
@gymbroinvestor@captain_snkrs Las camisetas vintage de Levis tiene un corte más anchote y en rebajas te las llevas a buen precio. A mí me encantan.
https://t.co/u8a7t3xVEV
Valencia: Nada distinto de otras veces. El cambio climático no mata. Mata la ineptitud de los gobernantes: (1) Falta de aviso eficaz a la población
(2) Urbanización desde hace décadas en zonas inundables
(3) Falta de inversión en infraestructuras
(4) Falta de limpieza de cauces
Ya disponible mi Plantilla de Finanzas Personales de forma GRATUITA! 💥
Para recibirla simplemente cumple los siguientes requisitos 👇🏼
1️⃣ Sígueme @gymbroinvestor
2️⃣ Da RT a este tweet ♻️
3️⃣ Comenta “Plantilla” y te la envío por MD 📥
Sólo durante 48h, el tiempo vuela ⏳
Since May 2001, Spanish teams have played in 27 major finals (Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, Euros). There has been a Spanish winner in all 27 finals.