From Argentina... most of us are happy with the return of YPF to us :)

Possibility of expropriation was part of the contract signed in 1992 between YPF and Argentina in case of "causas de utilidad publica", cases of public interests.

"La nacionalización, expropiación o cualquier otra medida característica o de efectos similares que pueda ser adoptada por las autoridades de una parte contra las inversiones de la otra parte en su territorio, deberá aplicarse exclusivamente por causas de utilidad pública conforme a las disposiciones legales y en ningún caso deberá ser discriminatoria. La parte que adoptara alguna de estas medidas pagará al inversor o a sus derechohabientes, sin demora injustificada, una indemnización adecuada, en moneda convertible".

Here in Argentina where almost everything is in the private sector its nice to have at least oil nationalized.

I live in Spain and am not Spanish (or an Argentine), and I am surprised to see most opinions from Spain on here to be so pro-government official line. From what I have read in the last days, the opinion in Spain is quite divided on this, and most people do not even consider Repsol to be a Spanish company. Less then 25% of their taxes are paid in Spain, whith most going to fiscal havens, and it has been a long time since it was not owned by the Spanish government. I see this as a dispute between Argentina and a multinational privately owned entity, and there has been a lot of anger with the government here putting so much energy in for a private (mostly foreign owned) company in this time when things are going south for so many ACTUAL Spanish citizens. Just wondering really, I have no interest in this dispute other than being exposed to it through the media constantly. However, I do not find it at all surprising that many governments put corporate interests before citizens, especially with any elections so far off... Let them eat cake for the next 4 years I guess...

First of all, I really did not mean to offend, and also I am no high class believe me. I also do not propose any model to anyone and as a foreigner I obviously couldn't vote. I know many people lived in shared flats in BCN even before the crisis but did it ever occur to you that someone must own them and rent them out? Also, what would be a property of 150K in Berlin or Brussels, was 400K here, and is still overpriced. That IS a bubble. And I am not insulting any group or nationality or bringing up some colonial past as if it was a responsability of the current generation. All that tribalism is beside the point. Neither will the Spanish people lose or Argentine people gain from this latest populist maneouvre. It is always the same corporate cats at the top, all the rest is just cannon fodder.

I've heard the Spanish will be retaliating. They'll be holding Messi hostage before the 2014 World Cup.

This opinion http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/56620#Comment_56620 by Vitaliy pretty much nails it. What a different world would we be living in if that was a common practice... and how many wars would have been avoided...

@brianluce around 320K, the drop was big, but still nowhere close to realistic values. That is actually Spain's biggest liability-banks holding all this real estate they can't sell. If they put it all on the market now, EVERYTHING would collapse in a week. Something like a Detroit nation.