crisis

There are those who think that the housing crisis can be solved by building. At the Polytechnic University of Catalonia they believe they are wrong

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Spain has a problem with housing. That is an (almost) objective fact. The CIS says so, which places it as the great concern of the Spanish, but a quick review of the newspaper archive arrives to confirm it. During the last months few topics have generated more political debate or have taken out so many people on the street such as difficulties in accessing a home. What is no longer so clear is how to solve this “crisis” residential area recognized by the Government itself. Should we build more houses? Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? Do we need more land to build? Usually the answer to those three questions is a strong ‘yes’. Now a new study signed by two professors of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and published in a magazine linked to the Ministry of Housing points out that perhaps we were wrong. What has happened? That two professors from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB), Blanca Arellano-Ramos and Josep Roca-Cladera, have published a study about the problems that Spain is facing in terms of housing. The report in question is titled ‘Five theses about housing policy in Spain’ and is included in a monograph of CyTETa magazine published by the Ministry of Housing. So far nothing exceptional. The curious thing is that the text questions many of the ideas rooted in the real estate sector, such as that our country suffers from a housing deficit or needs more land to build. While the Bank of Spain (BE) estimates 700,000 homes the mismatch between supply and demand, the study questions whether there really is a ‘hole’ in the market or that prices will go down if we build more. Is there a housing deficit? As already indicated in its title, the article is structured around five theses. And the first addresses precisely that point: Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? The question is interesting because it is one of the most deeply rooted ideas in the sector. The Bank of Spain itself has calculated that it would be necessary 700,000 houses to meet residential demand. For Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera the reality is quite different. In his opinion, one cannot talk about a deficit without first taking into account the excess of housing accumulated between 2011 and 2021 and the stock of vacant properties. The researchers remember that between 2011 and 2021 the housing stock exceeded the growth in the number of homes by 959,554 units, generating a considerable pocket. In fact, they assure that in 2021 the “accumulated excess” was close to 8.1 million properties, a “‘cushion’ more than enough to absorb temporary housing deficits such as the one produced during the 2021-2024 period,” recalls the UPC in the statement in which he reports the study. What does that mean? That for researchers it is not so obvious that Spain suffers from a shortage of new housing. In their analysis they also remember that a good part of the excess of houses and apartments corresponds to second homes and empty homes. The INE itself estimates that at least in 2021 there were 3.84 million of uninhabited properties, 14.4% of the real estate stock. That percentage far exceeds what most experts consider “desirable” (5%), but at least in the statement The UPC does not address another fundamental aspect: the distribution of these wasted properties, if they are located in stressed markets, such as Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga, or in centers where demand is minimal or even non-existent, in the case of emptied Spain. What if we build more? That is the second question the researchers address. What if we build more homes? Would prices be reduced? Their response is once again skeptical to say the least: increasing buildings will not lead to greater social equity nor will it serve to soften prices. “On the contrary”, slide the UPC note. “According to the authors of the study, the solution is not to build more new homes so that the laws of the market balance prices. In addition to having serious environmental effects, what favors is the real estate bubble like the one that occurred around 2000.” What happens in other neighboring countries? Among other arguments, Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera recall that the rise in prices is not a problem exclusive to the Spanish market, but rather something widespread on the continent. So the question is obvious: if the increase in prices is due to the imbalance between supply and demand, do the majority of EU countries share that same problem? “Is there simultaneously a restriction of supply in relation to demand occurring throughout Europe in relation to demand that explains the increase in residential prices? It does not seem that this is plausible. Therefore it is not reasonable, prima facieturn to the scarce construction of new housing as the main cause of the price of housing”, they reflect the authors before remembering that Spain has invested a higher percentage of GDP in construction than the European average. Do we need more land? The researchers also question whether in Spain the problem of lack of accessibility to housing can be explained by the scarcity of land. And to prove it, they go to the newspaper archive: between the late 90s and the early 2000s, buildable land was made available in the country, which allowed for “massive construction” of residential housing. This boom was not accompanied, however, by a reduction in the price of the square meter. Quite the opposite: residential prices increased, as in other parts of Europe. If Spain saw housing prices rise between 1996 and 2008, it was not because there was no land on which to build or build new homes. “Spain became more urbanized than ever and the result did not represent a reduction in prices, on the contrary,” underlines the UPC in your statementwhich recalls that between 2000 and 2012 Spain was the European country with the greatest “consumption” of land: more than 2,400 square kilometers (km2), almost as … Read more

There is a canary in the mine that is reminiscent of the subprime crisis: people in the US paying in installments for their supermarket purchases

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The United States faces a disturbing financial phenomenon that is beginning to spread throughout Europe: 91.5 million people finance their purchases with interest-free deferred payment services, and 25% of them use them for something as basic as filling the refrigerator. Defaults continue to grow: 34% in 2023 42% this year. The alarm does not come from pessimistic analysts, but fromNigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One and investor in Klarna. Someone who built an empire by understanding exactly how much financial stress the average American can endure before going bankrupt. Why is it important. In addition to the data itself, because the majority of these loans do not appear in traditional credit histories. Regulators call it “phantom debt.” A bank may consider someone who is drowning on five simultaneous microloans between Klarna, Affirm and PayPal solvent. The system flies blind. Morris sums it up: “If I’m a BNPL provider and I don’t look at credit agency data, I’m completely unaware that someone may have taken out ten of these loans last week.” And that is exactly what is happening. Between the lines. BNPL dangerously replicates pre-2008 logic: debt concentrated in vulnerable borrowers, packaged and sold to investors who believe they understand the risk. Elliott Advisors bought Klarna’s UK portfolio for $39 billion. KKR agreed to acquire up to $44 billion in BNPL debt from PayPal. The difference with the crisis subprime is that much of that debt remains invisible to the financial system. In Xataka The secret business behind your interest-free purchases: this is how El Corte Inglés turns your installments into financial gold The contrast. The Biden Administration attempted to regulate BNPL like credit cards. Trump backed down in May after pressure from the industry, revoking 67 rules. Days later, the Financial Protection Bureau published a surprisingly optimistic report: customers repaid their loans 98% of the time. The discrepancy with the 42% real delinquency rate reveals the problem: no one really knows what happens when someone manages several simultaneous accounts. Yes, but. By not reporting to the credit agencies, these companies prevent their customers from building a history to access cheaper credit. “Some companies don’t want that to happen because they don’t want the consumer to graduate,” Morris acknowledges. It’s part of the business model: keeping users trapped. And Europe is not immune. Klarna has been operating as a licensed bank since 2017 and has expanded its model to large Spanish shopping areas. The integration with Apple Pay and Google Pay makes it as simple as bringing your mobile phone closer to the dataphone. What started as a niche payment option is becoming integrated financial infrastructure. {“videoId”:”x9b3a8a”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”IF YOU SHARE A TENTH OF THE CHRISTMAS LOTTERY you have to KNOW THIS… 😓 #shorts”, “tag”:”loteria”, “duration”:”50″} turning point. Morris does not predict a collapse, but vigilance is urgently needed. In the United States, signs are accumulating: rising unemployment, end of student loan moratoriums, accelerated deregulation… The combination creates conditions where problems could escalate quickly. And when consumer debt becomes unsustainable, the pain spreads. Also even the investors who financed this ecosystem. In Xataka |The data that revives the ghosts of Spain and the real estate bubble: €8,000 of average debt for each tenant Featured image | appshunter.io (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news There is a canary in the mine that is reminiscent of the subprime crisis: people in the US paying in installments for their supermarket purchases was originally published in Xataka by Javier Lacort .

If the solution to the housing crisis in Madrid is to build, there is a municipality that has taken the lead: Alcobendas

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Madrid begins the countdown to have a new and large pool of apartments in the north, relevant news if you take into account how tense its market is and the serious deficit of housing that drags. The Alcobendas City Council has just given green light to the partial plan of the new neighborhood of Los Carriles-Valgrande, a new (and enormous) area of ​​​​the town that will have around 8,600 homesa good part of them (more than 4,600) protected. We will still have to wait before seeing the new blocks built, but its promoters are already anticipating that it will be “the largest urban development project in the north of Madrid”, with a wide range of residential, services and parks. What has happened? That Madrid is a little closer to reinforcing its residential offer with an injection of 8,600 homesa good part of them under protected regime. And that is always news in a market like the capital, marked by the price escalation (both in sales and rentals), certain access conditions each time more draconian and the imbalance between supply and demand. In fact in one of his latest reports The Association of Real Estate Developers of Madrid (Asprima) states that to meet the demand of the community it is necessary to create 40,000 homes per yearwell above the volume of new construction that is being generated right now. As a reference, remember that last year “a maximum peak” of 23,500 homes was delivered and everything indicates that the pace of completions will not reach that mark in the coming years either. Where will they be built? These 8,600 new homes will be built in Los Carriles-Valgrandea new (and ambitious) neighborhood planned in the municipality of Alcobendas. The initiative is interesting for several reasons. In addition to reinforcing the offer, its promoters they boast that it will be “the largest urban project” in the north of the community and one of the developments “with the highest proportion of affordable housing.” In addition, it will “complete” Alcobendas up to its limit with the capital. The new buildings will arrive accompanied by hectares of green areas, two new parks and more than 55,000 m2 dedicated to the tertiary and commercial sector. Its implementation will also generate employment: Alcobendas City Council speaks of 4,000 positions during construction and more than a thousand once the neighborhood is completed. In terms of mobilized capital, it is estimated that the investment will be around 2,300 million euros and the return for the municipality will be around 511 million. Do you know anything else? Yes. Of the 8,600 homes that will be built, around 4,600 (54%) will be protected and 40% will be built on municipal plots. The project also includes the creation of 570,000 square meters of green areas and open spaces, which will include two new and large parks, one next to Monte de Valdelatas and another near the Valdelacasa stream. “Each one will have dimensions that are equivalent to six times the Andalusia parkin Alcobendas”, they need the promoters of the project, who remember that all trees that are affected by the urbanization will be replaced. In fact, they estimate that the area will go from having 2,555 to more than 6,700. He dossier The urban planning area specifies that in total it will occupy about 2.17 million square meters, of which about 57% will be public surface. 25% will be dedicated to green areas and almost 20% to equipment and services. Once it goes ahead, its promoters estimate that it will be able to accommodate around 25,800 inhabitants, a considerable population injection for the area if one takes into account that right now Alcobendas has (according to the INE) 121,400 registered. Why is it news? The project is not new. In fact, Leopoldo Arnaiz, manager of the Valgrande compensation board, remember that there are people who have been working on it for more than 20 years. If it is news now it is because it has just overcome a key obstacle at a bureaucratic level: on Tuesday the local plenary session of Alcobendas gave the green light to the new partial plan, which will allow further progress in the processing of the urbanization. The approval has also been majority: the plan went ahead with the favorable photo of 26 of the 27 councilors of the corporation. “With the approval of the new partial plan we offer legal security for buyers, investors and to continue with the urbanization project in the area and maintain the action schedule,” stands out the mayor of the town, Rocío García Alcántara. Among other issues, the document details the distribution of homes, public spaces and parks, marks the location and layout of roads and what land will be reserved, for example, for green areas. And from now on? The step is also important because it helps urbanization overcome the legal obstacles those he had encountered. In his day the Supreme delayed it due to a technical defect after noticing a failure in the strategic environmental evaluation of an artificial mountain. Once the urbanization works allow it, the idea is to start the work to build blocks and have the first homes “as soon as possible”although the Consistory does not specify dates. “The final approval of the partial plan is great news,” claims Arnaiz. “Today we take a decisive step. We continue to advance and comply with the roadmap that we announced in June. And we reaffirm our commitment to this development, because it is viable, sustainable and necessary, since it responds to a real demand from the residents of the municipality and the north of Madrid.” Images | Valgrande and Alcobendas City Council In Xataka | Madrid needs to decentralize its tourism if it does not want to suffocate. So he’s betting on a “Chinatown” in Usera

Funko literally produced more dolls than it could afford. And now it faces the biggest crisis in its history

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It seemed that this moment would never come, but it did: the Funko Pop They are in crisis. In popular culture everything is cycles, and if now it is an inevitable topic in the conversation the “superhero fatigue“, after having lived through years in which it seemed that there was going to be nothing but superheroes in the cinema, now it is the turn of the Funko Pop. All after an overwhelming success, which has turned these dolls cut from the same pattern into inevitable passengers in any conversation about the pop panorama. The data. The company recognized in its last quarterly report that there are “substantial doubts” about its ability to continue operating for the next twelve months. Funko carries $241 million in total debt while maintaining just $39.2 million in cash reserves, a ratio that puts the company on the brink of the financial abyss. In the second quarter of 2025, Funko lost $41 million, and although the third quarter showed an improvement with losses of less than one million, these contrast with the $8.9 million profit in the same period just a year earlier, in 2024. The reasons. Sales fell from 292.8 million to 250.9 million year-on-year, a 14% drop that originated mainly in the US market. In 2023, the company destroyed between 30 and 36 million dollars in excess inventory, literally sending millions of figures to landfills because it was cheaper to eliminate them than to pay for storage. The crisis has multiple culprits: the Trump administration’s trade tariffs have hit toys with the nature of Funko hard: cheap items made abroad. But the fundamental problem is structural: overproduction. Funko has systematically and for years produced more than the market has been able to absorb, believing that demand would be infinite. This has led to the company’s debt growing from 182.8 million at the end of 2024 to the current 241 million, an increase of 32% in less than a year. The signs told us. There were different crises that made it clear that problems could come for Funko Pop. In 2021, the pandemic led to a boom and the company achieved record sales of one billion dollars, an increase of 58% over 2020. But like the entire economy that emerged during the pandemic, it was temporary. The post-pandemic drop (losses in the fourth quarter of 2022 of $47 million) should have served as a warning. Then, in 2023, the massive destruction of inventory confirmed that Funko Pop was generating material beyond its capabilities. 40 different Grogu dollsIf nothing woke us up before, it should have been a warning to sailors. And what about collectors? The company crisis is not just a problem of corporate mirage: it is the collapse of a dangerous aspect of collectingwhich is done by mere accumulation of assets that it is believed that it is going to revalue in the future. We have seen exclusive figures for the San Diego Comic-Con that They were resold for 200 or 500% above their original price (and the same phenomenon repeated at the recent Comic-Con in Malaga). And we have seen sets reach impossible prices (especially mythical isWilly Wonka quele in 2022 which reached $100,000). Now, second-hand sales platforms show Funkos that sold for $200 languish at $10. Even discontinued figures can be found at bargain prices, all due to overproduction, which made the “exclusive” or “limited release” label lose its value. There are those who compare what is happening with the phenomenon of Beanie Babies, highly coveted a couple of decades ago by collectors in the United States, and whose bubble ended up exploding. Plastic mountains. AND eye on environmental impactwhich goes beyond a few (many) collectors with shelves full of products that have lost their value. The aforementioned between 1.4 and 3 million vinyl figures that were sent to landfill They were only the first phase of mass destruction. The material Funkos are made of, PVC, can remain in landfills for centuries because it is not biodegradable. And hundreds of millions of units are produced every year, which in the United States are deposited in landfills perfectly legally (in countries like France, companies were prohibited from destroying unsold non-food merchandise, forcing them to donate or recycle). Header | Photo of Z Graphica in Unsplash

Convenience stores were an emblem of Japan. Until the demographic crisis has revealed the dark side of opening 24 hours

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The stores japanese convenienceknown as konbini, are not simple shops where you buy fast food or basic products, they are a deep part of the social fabric of the country. Its success is measured not only in numbers (more than 55,000 establishments spread across the 47 prefectures) but in the way in which they accompany daily life: they allow you to pay bills, send packages, print documents, buy tickets for shows, resolve unforeseen events, take refuge in case of emergency or simply take a break in them. And now that the country doesn’t stop agingthe stores are mortally wounded. The konbini. Let’s think that, in urban neighborhoods, rural towns or isolated coastal areas, these establishments have become the minimum infrastructure indispensable where there used to be post offices, banks or small family businesses that have now disappeared. The store, therefore, is not just a business: it is a safe space, open and available 24 hours a day, an emotional and logistical support point that has shaped the Japanese daily rhythm and has captivated even to millions of touristswho find in these establishments a mix of efficiency, warmth and aesthetic thoroughness that is difficult to replicate. Efficiency and expansion. I remembered the new york times in summer that the development of the Japanese konbini has been the result of an evolution of decades. Since 7-Eleven opened your first store In Japan in 1974, the combination of non-stop hours, quality fresh food (onigiri, bentō, noodles, seasonal desserts) and integrated services made the model a unique phenomenon. For many residents, these stores are literally the closest store, the most accessible ATM, the place to go when something is missing or something happens. The associated image is one of precision: perfectly organized shelves, impeccable coffee machines, attentive employees, continually renewed food and a sense of total availability. From Japan to the world. This internal success was projected outwards, so that 7-Eleven, today Japanese owned, is the largest retail chain on the planet, and global expansion plans aim mainly to North America. The konbini became an exportable image of Japan: efficient, friendly, reliable. The hidden reverse. But not everything shined the same. one piece from the Financial Times has revealed that behind that facade of functional perfection A franchise system is under increasingly intense tensions. Japan agesthe active population is decreasing and small businesses are experiencing increasing difficulties to hire staff. The model requires stores open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the pressure not to close falls squarely on the owners. He Akiko’s case and her husband, a 7-Eleven manager who worked without a day’s rest for six months until dying by suicide, starkly revealed the human price of this silent perfection. And more. It was not an isolated case: a labor inspection recognized the relationship between death and overwork, but the root of the problem is structural. Franchisees must deliver between 40% and 70% of gross profit to the parent company, which reduces their margin and exposes them to absorbing personnel, overtime and unforeseen charges. Visible efficiency therefore has an invisible cost. The crisis of the model. Faced with the problem, the chains 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson have tried make schedules more flexibleintroduce automatic checkouts, ordering systems assisted by AI and robots cleaning to reduce the need for labor. But none of these measures solve the main equation: fewer available workers and more opening hours supported by fewer people. Domestic consumption is also not growing as before, which limits the owners’ ability to increase payrolls. As minimum wages rise, margins narrow even more. many managers they work for free for dozens of hours to keep their stores open. Some they confess that, in the current state, closing would be a more rational option than continuing to operate. The fragility of the system thus becomes visible: if there are no new franchisees willing to take over, the model can collapse. Adaptation or goodbye. The response of the companies points towards a profound transformation of the model. 7-Eleven study contracts renewed from 2027, possibly moving towards the “mega-franchise” model, where the same owner manages multiple stores and distributes human resources between them. However, this implies a concentration of the business and could further displace the small independent owners who historically defined the konbini as a community space. The central question is whether the konbini will continue to be a connected capillary network to the territory or whether it will become a centralized corporate system, more profitable but less close. The great dilemma. If you will, the konbini was born as proximity symbol and frictionless service, and became part of emotional memory from Japan: open places when everything else is closed, spaces where the daily routine has a friendly pause. But that same ideal has been held for decades by people whose efforts they have become invisible beneath the surface of efficiency. Today, the system faces a limit that is not technological, but human. The future of the konbini will depend on whether Japan manages to rebalance the contract between the community, the company and those who keep the doors open at any time, 365 days a year. If it manages to adapt without sacrificing those who support it, it will continue to be an intimate and essential institution. If not, it could become the emblem of a society that knew how to take care of every detail… except for the people who made it possible. Image | Pexels, Japanexperterna, Shankar S. In Xataka | While half the planet aspires to retire, in Japan the opposite is true: 100-year-olds who only want to work In Xataka | The aging population and a poor pension system have a new symbol in Japan: grandmothers are rented

Spain wants to bet on rent with an option to buy in the face of the housing crisis. First you must solve your black hole

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The Government has decided to expand its arsenal to alleviate the serious housing crisis that Spain is going through, a crisis marked by the decoupling between housing supply and demand, the rise in prices and a market so inaccessible that more and more young people find that the only way to have a home is to wait for their parents donate it. A few weeks ago, during a speech in Congress, Pedro Sánchez advanced that the Executive wants recover aid for rent with option to buy. The measure is part of a broader plan with more legs, but in recent weeks it has generated as much expectation as skepticism. The reason: although there are still unknowns to clear up, everything indicates that the scope of the new aid will be limited. What will the help consist of? What the Government plans is to offer aid up to 30,000 euros for rent with option to buy homes with permanent protection. The initiative is designed for young people from up to 35 years and its objective is that that amount ended up being discounted of the final price of the property, in case the tenant decides to buy it. “The aid will be used to pay the rent, which will allow the young person to save to own their home,” they need from the ministry. When focusing on VPO, the focus is on properties that must conform to a series of requirements, such as respecting a pre-established price and certain guidelines when changing hands. “This means that if in the future you want to sell that home, you will have to do so at an appraised price and to a person who meets the same requirements as the previous owner,” explains the Government. “In this way we protect the homes paid for with state resources.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. Do we know anything else? Yes. There are still details to be outlined, but we know that the measure is included in the State Housing Plan (PEV) for the period 2026-2030where it is combined with other proposals that aspire to “consolidate a public system of access to housing” and revolve around five major goals: creating more and better supply, reducing the rate of financial effort, focusing on stressed markets and lowering the age at which young people become independent. As? To achieve that ultimate goal the PEV contemplates offer rental aid for the purchase of housing in municipalities of emptied Spain (La Moncloa speaks of 10,800 euros for localities “at demographic risk”), youth guarantees and “aid for renting with the option to buy housing with permanent protection of up to 30,000 euros.” Sanchez too has spoken of non-payment of rent insurance for young people. Support for VPO on a rent-to-own basis is not exactly new. It was already contemplated in the state housing plans 2005-2008 and 2009-2012. How has the idea been received? Sánchez launched his announcement to mid octoberduring the interparliamentary meeting of the Socialist Group, but a quick Google search shows that in recent weeks it has generated some skepticism. Not so much because of the fear that it will end up causing an increase in rents (something that the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, reproached her for) but because of the doubts that exist about the real impact that the aid will have. The reason: in reality in Spain very few VPOs are built for rent with an option to buy. His mark is testimonial. Are there so few? The official data published by Raquel Sánchez’s department speak for themselves. If we talk about protected housing for rent with the option to buy with “definitive qualification” (that is, already completed), the state registry shows only 2,300 over the last decade. There are not many and they are concentrated in just seven autonomous communities. What’s more, there is not a single one between August of last year and June, a period of 11 months during which no home eligible to benefit from the aid announced by the Government was completed. If what we are talking about is “provisional ratings” (still under construction) the balance sheet is not buoyant either (less than 70 in the last 15 months). The data includes both VPOs from state and regional plans. What do the experts say? Not everyone agrees. For Javier Burón, manager of Nasuvinsa, the key lies not so much in what has been built so far but in what is done for the future. That is, the effectiveness of the measure in stimulating supply. “There is an attempt to restart the machine for building protected housing, although focused on rentals, so it makes no sense to look at the past,” he explains in an interview with The Country. In fact 40% of resources of the PEV focus precisely on increasing the supply of protected housing on a permanent basis. For Carolina Roca, president of the Association of Real Estate Developers of Madrid (Asprima), the reading is somewhat different. “The aid announced in the PEV has, once again, a conceptual error: we have a problem of supply of subsidized housing and not demand. The PEV should be aimed at increasing the construction of subsidized housing, so aid should go to supply rather than demand. What sense does it make to provide aid of 30,000 euros for a figure for which only 65 homes are built per year?” Roca asks in statements to the Idealista portal. Images | Ronni Kurtz (Unsplash) In Xataka | The Basque Country wants more homes but does not have much land. Solution: build 2,000 apartments on top of other houses

Finland has realized that its welfare state is not enough to avoid the birth crisis. Now look for how to stop it

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The world has been looking at the Nordic countries for decades with a mixture of admiration and envy for their model of social welfare. A clear example is Finland, a benchmark in education, aids to motherhood and spent in social benefits. None of this, however, has prevented him from seeing how his birth rate it contracts little by little. In fact, the fall has been so forceful since 2010 and its rate is at such low levels that the Government has decided to hands to work. Now you have a diagnosis… and a formula with 20 ingredients. What does the data say? That Finland has a birth problem. A particularly complex one. The statistical basis The World Bank shows that its birth rate has plummeted over the last six decades, going from 2.7 during the baby boom to 1.3 in 2023. The decline was particularly sharp between the 1960s and 1970s, followed an oscillating curve until the last decade and accelerated again towards 2010. latest data of Macrotrends show a slight recovery, but the rate still remains far from past values. Why is it important? Because it shows that Finland has a problem, one recognized without half measures by the Government itself. “Finland’s birth rate has been declining rapidly over the past 15 years. In 2024 the country’s total fertility rate became as low as 1.25,” recognized last March the Ministry of Social Affairs, which admits that although Finland is not the only country dealing with this challenge, the collapse there has been “exceptionally rapid” in the last decade and a half and threatens to become an economic and social challenge. “Finland’s rate has fallen to a historic low and the decline has been more pronounced than in the other Nordic countries. There is a considerable gap between the ideal number and the actual average number of children. It is essential to find solutions to reduce the gap,” advocated in spring the Minister of Social Security, Sanni Grahm-Laasonen. In 2023 the indicators of the neighbors Norway and Sweden there were around 1.4 children on average per woman, also far from the replacement rate that allows countries to stay away from immigration. Why is the birth rate falling? That’s the million dollar question. And the one that the Finnish authorities did a while ago. To answer it in 2024 the Government commissioned a report which had to clarify the factors that hinder the country’s demographic engine and (just as important) explore possible solutions. The task was relevant because, as the Executive assures, in Finland there is “a big difference” between the number of children that couples want to have and those they have. “Studies show that Finnish family policy has favored both well-being and birth rates and continues to play an important role. However, the current decline is mainly due to the fall in the number of first births and the increase in the proportion of childless people,” reflect Professor Anna Rotkirch, from Väestöliitto (the Finnish Family Federation), one of the experts who participated in the preparation of the birth report. Did you identify the causes? Yes. And no. The Government quote somebut he also recognizes that there is no “clear reason” that alone explains the decline in birth rates. “Therefore there are no easy solutions to stop it,” the Ministry of Health resigns itself before listing some factors that come into play, such as cultural changes, unstable relationships, health, the situation of the labor market and income or the problems of reconciling professional life and parenting. The NPR organization was recently one step further and interviewed experts and young Finns to find out how they approached parenthood. Poa Pohjola and Wilhelm Bomberg, aged 38 and 35, are the first ones he cites in his analysis: the couple has been together for about three years and last July they had their first baby, although Pohjola admits that not so long ago he believed he would never have children. “It seemed impossible to me,” the woman confesses. His case is paradigmatic because it agrees with a phenomenon that Finnish researchers have observed and can be extended to many other countries, including Spain: delayed maternity and the increase in people who directly choose not to have children. In the case of Finland this has led to a fertility rate slightly lower to that of the EU average and nations such as Iceland, Denmark, Sweden or Norway. Does it matter beyond Finland? Yes. And it matters because Finland offers a particularly interesting case study. As remember Liisa Siika-ahofrom the working group of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, “in Finland benefits and services for families are relatively good.” In fact the Nordic countries they usually stand out precisely because of the facilities they provide for having offspring. Specifically Finland does it in aspects such as incentives, education and paid leave. “We can no longer claim that our good family policies explain the good fertility of the Nordic countries,” points out to NPR Annelie Miettinen, from the state agency Kela. “What baffles researchers is how this can be true, because all of these countries are relatively good at offering family support,” Miettinen said, “but there are really no good explanations for today’s very low fertility rates.” Just as it happens in Spain if the country is managing to weather the demographic storm is basically thanks to the immigration flow. How to solve it? A few months ago the Government made public a report on the topic that includes twenty proposals focused on the family and birth rate, all based on the premise that the commitment to early childhood education, family leave and economic support will boost birth rates. Until it is confirmed, the Health Department itself remains cautious. “In Finland the benefits and services for families are relatively good. This means that there are no areas where simple changes can be made,” takes on Sikka-aho. “However, all systems require maintenance and that is what many of our proposals address. It is unlikely that … Read more

It is the canary in the mine of the theater crisis

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The Spanish box office is in crisis. However, we pack the theaters to see re-releases of classics. Is one of the many contradictions that populate the current theaters, an industry on the tightrope during this season. The re-release of ‘Back to the Future’, if it succeeds at the box office (which it will) will serve to corroborate a series of possible solutions to this seemingly hopeless situation. And without the need for a Delorean. ‘Back to the Future’ returns. The film directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg in 1985 returns to theaters around the world for its 40th anniversary. Marty McFly’s journeys through the (apparently) happy fifties to get his parents to fall in love so he can be conceived retain the same charm as the day it premiered. For this reason, starting October 31, Universal is re-releasing the classic in theaters throughout Spain, which will allow more than one generation of viewers to discover it on the big screen. Why we still like it. First of all, It’s still a perfect adventure: Its alchemical mix of comedy and science fiction is absolutely canonical and has a script taken care of down to the smallest detail, full of nuances that, even after having been revised dozens of times, continue to provide surprises to the viewer. And above all, it is not a film that the film industry has worn out: after the original trilogy, which works compactly as a single narrative, there have been no sequels (more or less) no remakes (nor will there be any as long as their original managers can prevent it). Unlike most hits of the eighties, ‘Back to the Future’ remains untouched in a bubble that, significantly, prevents it from aging. The situation. This re-release arrives in a crisis situation at the Spanish box office. The domination of streaming has led us to a peculiar and paradoxical panorama: we watch more movies than ever, we go to the movies less than ever. According to the Statistical Yearbook According to the SGAE, 60.7% of the Spanish population watches at least one movie a week, while a significant 15% watch it daily. Howeverand here comes the dark side of the issue, in 2024 attendance fell 5% compared to 2023, with 71 million viewers and 477 million euros in income, 2.2% less than the previous year, stagnating at pre-pandemic figures. The platforms have transformed traditional habitsoffering the possibility of watching movies and series on multiple devices (TV, computer, mobile), at any time and place, apart from being much more economical. We need events. These are signs that point to a “crisis of spaces”: people do not want to stop watching movies, but rather turn a visit to the cinema into something special. That is why re-releases of classics and the return to the big screen of all kinds of hits from the past work so well. For example, this past summer we had the 50th anniversary re-release of ‘Shark‘, a film that worked wonderfully at the US box office and also in Spanish. The beautiful nostalgia. Obviously, no matter how much you have managed to escape from fashions and trends of the mainstream of Hollywood and not giving in to sequels or remakes, the re-release of ‘Back to the Future’ is the result of another of the trends that mark the agenda of international cinema: nostalgia. It is thanks to her that these cinema re-releases are working just as well or even better than conventional releases: in 2022 we had the 50th anniversary of ‘The Godfather’in 2018 a restored version of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, the classic installments of ‘Star Wars’ return again and again to theaters, in the same way that ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘The Lord of the Rings’ do… Good proof that venues need to find new formulas. And perhaps turning to classics and revivals is one that also needs to be reviewed before it, like the rest of the box office, ends up singed. In Xataka | The remake of ‘Agárralo como puede’ has performed very well at the box office. Excellent news for an almost dead genre: comedy

We have been thinking for years that, after the midlife crisis, old age is synonymous with happiness. This researcher thinks it’s a hoax

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We are happy during adolescence and late youth, but as the years go by we become increasingly sadder, more unhappy, more miserable. At some point, in our late 40s to early 50s, we hit rock bottom. And once there everything tends to improve. “It’s statistics,” we said. What we did not suspect was that the statistics could be ‘trick’. Happiness is U-shaped. “Happiness is a slippery slope until we hit the bottom at some undetermined point in middle age. From there, it climbs back to the levels of youth.” That’s what I said a 2008 study than by Blanchflower and Oswald with data from more than half a million people. Over the following years ( here an example from 2017), studied in some detail how firm this U-shaped trend was; Everything seemed to indicate that this was the case. Until Fabian Kratz and Josef Brüdel from the Ludwig Maximalian University of Munich they realized of a small – possible – problem. Wonkblog A fundamental problem. What if happiness steadily decreases with age and what we see in the aggregate graphs is just a statistical effect? Kratz has been studying for years happiness and, as explained in New Scientistis increasingly convinced that the U simply does not exist. Reviewing the scientific literature, the authors found studies that justify a “stability“in happiness throughout the years; a”increase” or progressive descent; a inverted U; a U normal; and a curve like of waves (promotions, relegations). The problem is “that all studies on age and happiness have incurred biases that have distorted their results.” The other form of happiness. By correcting them, Fabian Kratz and Josef Brüdel came to the conclusion that it is true that happiness shows some stability around the last 50, but it does not rise at any time. Kratz and Brüderl (2021) But why? It is important to keep in mind that this work is essentially methodological. But Kratz’s central idea is that previous studies they didn’t realize that “after a certain age, happiness seems to increase only because unhappy people have already died.” The least happy people they tend to die before, which would cause an overrepresentation of the happiest at older ages (literally, as said our colleague Andrés Mohorte, pure survivor bias). According to this theory, “that old popular story” through which retirement would open a window towards a fuller and more satisfying life is just that, a story: a lie. Or, perhaps, a strategy. Because, in short, “there is a lot of evidence about how humans experience a bassoon psychological in middle age” (Blanchflower and Oswald, 2007; Steptoe, Deaton and Stone, 2015; Graham and Pettinato, 2002), but there is very little about the relationship between that downturn – that unhappiness – and quality of life. As we said quite a few years ago“we’re about to see what happens to the millennials when they become unhappy” and maybe that is behind a part generational battles. But facing the future with the certainty that things are going to improve is not the same as facing the future with the certainty that things are going to get worse. The science of happiness has never been so depressing. Image | Garloncio In Xataka | If the question is “where is the secret to happiness,” an expert believes it is hidden in these 15 statements

save the company from the worst crisis in its history

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Intel need a breakand Panther Lake could give it to him. The company has just presented its new SoCs, which boast 18A photolithography and will begin to appear in laptops and other devices – portable consoles are clear candidates – in early 2026. We are looking at a promising chip that will also be manufactured massively in the US and that now must face its greatest challenge: meeting expectations. Why is it important. These new chips from the Panther Lake family (Intel Core Ultra Series 3) are the first created with a 18A photolithographic node (roughly equivalent to 2 nm). This is a critical advance for a company going through the biggest crisis in its history and what you need before achieving success with this launch. According to the manufacturer, this 18A process allows up to 15% more performance per watt and 30% more chip density compared to its predecessors. Made in USA. The official press release Intel highlights how these chips will be manufactured at the recently opened Fab 52 in Chandler (Arizona, USA). It is expected to be massively produced there at the end of the year, thus achieving that boost to “domestic” chip manufacturing that the US wants to achieve to avoid dependence on China. We are facing a potential milestone for the aspirations of the US Government, which recently bought 10% of Intel to, among other things, try to strengthen the country’s “chip producer” role. What is Fab 52? It is a mega manufacturing complex that occupies an area of ​​more than 280 hectares (we would have to join together about 400 football fields to cover that area). Kevin O’Buckley, head of the manufacturing business at Intel, Indian that this complex that has cost 32,000 million dollars “has the most advanced semiconductor production technology today on planet Earth.” It is a bold statement, especially considering that TSMC or Samsung have managed to surpass Intel’s technological capacity for years. We will see without with this Fab 52 Intel also manages to fulfill its role as “chip factory for third parties“. A very promising CPU. The Panther Lake Socs arrive with a CPU configuration that can reach 16 cores that combine high-performance Cougar Cove cores (P-cores) and high-efficiency Darkmont cores (E-cores). CPU performance is up to 40% higher than its predecessors (Lunar Lake) in single-process, and up to 50% higher in multi-process. If it keeps that promise, we will be looking at truly exceptional chips in terms of the leap in performance. And the GPU will not be left behind. If we want graphical power, there is also good news. The variant with 12 of the new Xe3 cores is theoretically 50% more performant than the Lunar Lake variants with 8 Xe2 cores. Here the number of cores has an influence, of course, but also the behavior of each core itself. More leeway for AI tasks. The new NPU 5 of these Panther Lake SoCs also promises a notable performance jump and according to Intel it can reach 180 TOPS, when in the past the figure did not exceed 50 TOPS. This is a clear advantage if we want to run local AI models. Support for up to 96 GB of LPDDR5 memory with the new LPCAMM format It’s another demonstration of how these ambitious chips want to make the most of their opportunity. The most ambitious version of the Panther Lake SoC has 16 cores in its CPU and 12 Xe3 cores in its GPU, among other advanced features… We do not know models or prices. This preview of what awaits us with Panther Lake has not been complete. The company has not revealed the exact models or prices they will have. These SoCs will be intended for laptops and even portable consoles, and it is very possible that during the CES electronics fair in Las Vegas we will see the first machines based on these chips. Everything to prove. On paper, of course, these new Intel chips have a promising future, but it will be when they hit the market that they will really be able to demonstrate whether they actually have a chance in this ultra-competitive market. Intel and its leader, Lip-Bu Tanare facing one of the moments that can define their future for two reasons. The first, due to the performance of the chip itself, which we hope does not disappoint. The second, due to this massive commitment to manufacturing in the US, a radical turn for a company that clearly aligns itself with its government in this new stage. In Xataka | Intel has been making chips just for itself for decades. His only salvation is to make chips for everyone else

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