Spain was no garden of delights prior to the S&P downgrade to just a couple of slots above "junk" bond rating. But with unemployment at a staggering 24% and half of Spain's young people unable to find work, the chances of default keep growing. Reuters: Spain's sickly economy faces a "crisis of huge proportions", a minister said on Friday, as unemployment hit its highest level in two decades and Standard and Poor's weighed in with a two-notch downgrade of the government's debt. On Thursday Rajoy said he was determined to stick to austerity measures even though they are aggravating the economic slump and calls for growth measures are on the increase around Europe. Spain's unemployment rate shot up to 24 percent in the first quarter, the highest level since the early 1990s and one of the worst jobless figures in the world. Retail sales slumped for the twenty-first consecutive month. "The figures are terrible for everyone and terrible for the government ... Spain is in a...(Read Full Post)