According to Bank of Spain data, while Spain's ten-year headlong rush into housing produced a 115 percent increase in house prices between 1997 and 2007, the United Kingdom's bubble was bigger still at 140 percent, and Ireland topped the list at 160 percent. Why Spain matters much more than Ireland, however, is that Spanish GDP is approximately seven times the size of Ireland's; Spain is the fourth-largest economy in the Eurozone and is responsible for almost 10 percent of Euro Area GDP. As such, the popping of the Spanish housing bubble was going to matter in more than just Spain.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 187