Spain's seabed is home to the wrecks of hundreds of ships laden with treasures plundered during the country's imperial zenith. Now the battle is on to reclaim them By Graham Keeley Published: 29 December 2007 Gazing from the beaches of southern Spain into the blue waters of the Mediterranean, few tourists have any idea what really lies beneath the waves. Aside from jellyfish, the occasional whale and the usual flotsam and jetsam, at the bottom of one of the world's busiest waterways lies something many a holidaymaker would love to get their hands on. Maritime historical experts say that, scattered around the Spanish coastline, lies more gold and silver than in the vaults of the Bank of Spain. There are said to be the 700 shipwrecks, from Roman barges, to Spanish Golden Age galleons and British aircraft carriers. Many of the galleons were laden with a fortune in gold, silver and bronze plundered from colonies between the 16th and 19th centuries when Spain's empire stretched from the Americas to the Philippines.
Gazing from the beaches of southern Spain into the blue waters of the Mediterranean, few tourists have any idea what really lies beneath the waves.
Aside from jellyfish, the occasional whale and the usual flotsam and jetsam, at the bottom of one of the world's busiest waterways lies something many a holidaymaker would love to get their hands on.
Maritime historical experts say that, scattered around the Spanish coastline, lies more gold and silver than in the vaults of the Bank of Spain. There are said to be the 700 shipwrecks, from Roman barges, to Spanish Golden Age galleons and British aircraft carriers.
Many of the galleons were laden with a fortune in gold, silver and bronze plundered from colonies between the 16th and 19th centuries when Spain's empire stretched from the Americas to the Philippines.
The Arctic ice supports, literally, the polar bear, a half-tonne behemoth of creamy-white fur and muscle and claws you would not argue with. It is highly visible and hugely iconic. But just as the tiger and the rhinoceros depend on creatures you cannot see without a microscope and would not willingly give house room to if you could, so does the polar bear stand, literally, on a patchwork lattice of invisible, miniscule life. Life-forms such as polychaetes (or bristleworms), copepods and amphipods that live just under the ice, around its edge, or even inside the floes themselves. "There are polychaetes, for example, which have juveniles or larvae that instead of living in the water column as they usually do, they go into the ice," Bodil Bluhm relates.
The Arctic ice supports, literally, the polar bear, a half-tonne behemoth of creamy-white fur and muscle and claws you would not argue with.
It is highly visible and hugely iconic.
But just as the tiger and the rhinoceros depend on creatures you cannot see without a microscope and would not willingly give house room to if you could, so does the polar bear stand, literally, on a patchwork lattice of invisible, miniscule life.
Life-forms such as polychaetes (or bristleworms), copepods and amphipods that live just under the ice, around its edge, or even inside the floes themselves.
"There are polychaetes, for example, which have juveniles or larvae that instead of living in the water column as they usually do, they go into the ice," Bodil Bluhm relates.
More bad housing news this morning. The question remains, how far is down? Below are two pictures. The first is the CBO's estimate of the housing-rent ratio -- the ratio of home prices to an estimate of the rental rate on equivalent properties. It's comparable to the PE ratio on stocks. What you see is that it fluctuated in a relatively narrow range until this decade, then took off for the wild blue yonder.
More bad housing news this morning. The question remains, how far is down?
Below are two pictures. The first is the CBO's estimate of the housing-rent ratio -- the ratio of home prices to an estimate of the rental rate on equivalent properties. It's comparable to the PE ratio on stocks. What you see is that it fluctuated in a relatively narrow range until this decade, then took off for the wild blue yonder.
Well, one thing has changed: interest rates, including mortgage rates, are lower, in large part because of huge capital inflows from China and other countries. Here's the chart:
So I come down to the view that the price-rental ratio will have to move most if not all the way back to historical norms. And that's a long, long way down. PS: Aha. For really long historical perspective, the Shiller price index corrected for inflation.
So I come down to the view that the price-rental ratio will have to move most if not all the way back to historical norms. And that's a long, long way down.
PS: Aha. For really long historical perspective, the Shiller price index corrected for inflation.
