> Is it optimism or cynicism to call that "recovering well"? Probably a bit of both. Depending on when you look at the data from, it's a definite improvement

> Is it optimism or cynicism to call that "recovering well"? Probably a bit of both. Depending on when you look at the data from, it's a definite improvement from their peak unemployment rate of 26.94%. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/charts/spain-unemployed-persons.png?s=spainuneper http://www.tradingeconomics.com/charts/spain-unemployed-pers... Long and short of it though, the economy is growing, though very slowly. Economic growth, even small amounts, quarter over quarter, is much more cause for optimism than economic decline, which was the course it had been on up til 2013 Q1.