Spanish
life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
-
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in
Spain.
If
you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra,
see my web page here.
CATALUÑA
Here's
a few pertinent points from this New
York Times article:-
- The drama between the Spanish government in Madrid and the pro-independence government in Catalonia, which reached a new stage of tension Friday when the separatist government in Barcelona declared independence, has featured two characters familiar to students of Spanish politics: the martyr and the strongman.
- Throughout this crisis, Mr. Puigdemont has reveled in the history of political martyrdom of the Catalan nationalist movement. For his part, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is acting as the keeper of the rule of law and the protector of the homeland, a role reminiscent of a long line of autocratic figures (the so-called Caudillos) in Spanish history
- At the heart of Francoism was the myth of a unified, culturally homogeneous Spain, held together by the glories of Spanish civilization — especially the “discovery” of the New World and the Christianization of the Iberian Peninsula — and a common culture defined by the Spanish language and Roman Catholicism, most notably Franco himself, who ruled with an iron fist from 1939 until his death in 1975
- In performing to great effect the roles of martyr and strongman, Mr. Puigdemont and Mr. Rajoy are trying to score political points even as Spain careens toward political disaster. Activating Article 155, something that no other Spanish prime minister has ever done before, takes the game of chicken between Mr. Puigdemont and Mr. Rajoy to a new level of political drama, sanctimoniousness and uncertainty.
- The big loser is the people of Spain, including the majority of Catalans, who throughout this ordeal have consistently called for the one thing that neither martyrs nor strongmen are particularly good at: dialogue and compromise.
And
here's a summary of recent doleful developments, from various
sources:-
- A European arrest warrant may be issued for the Catalan leader after he made clear he would defy a court order to appear in Madrid today.
- Seeking Sr P's extradition, which would further inflame the political crisis. If the court issues the warrant, Belgium has up to 60 days to deliver Sr P to Madrid. Legal analysts said that if the latter fights extradition, the battle could drag on until after regional elections in Catalonia on December 21.
- Spain is set for another day of drama in the Catalonia crisis, with a judge in Madrid to question the deposed leaders of the region’s separatist government.
- There are signs of growing divisions in the separatist camp, with many unhappy with Puigdemont and his handling of the situation. Joan Josep Nuet, a Catalan parliamentary deputy due to go before the supreme court, said on Wednesday that a no-show by Puigdemont raised the risk that those who do come will be put in preventive custody. “The attitude of the [Catalan] president and the government in recent days has been really absurd, managing only to create yet more bewilderment,” Nuet told Catalunya Radio.
- Two former Catalan ministers who had travelled to Belgium with Sr P and who have also been ordered to appear in court have flown back to Barcelona. They were greeted at Barcelona airport with jeers by unionists who waved the Spanish flag and shouted Viva España.
- Picking up on humorous portrayals in the Spanish media, someone big in Brussels has dismissed Sr P as a 'chaotic Tintin'. Which might well be fair.
If
you want to know how Cataluña could go about
creating its own currency, see the article at the end of
this post.
Life
in Spain
- HT to Lenox of Business Over Tapas for this article – in Spanish – on the unattractive folk who organised last Sunday's largepro Spain, anti Cataluña demonstration in Madrid last weekend.
- And a second HT to Lenox for this article on Spanish superstitions.
- And a 3rd for this article on the reasons for Spain's parlous performance as regards solar energy. It's an unimpressively 'sordid' story. An extract:-The people that own those money-losing GCC plants (Iberdrola, Gas Natural Fenosa, etc), have, let’s just say, some very strong influence with Rajoy´s government. Therefore, in Spain we have a very strong, and very successful, lobby preventing not only new solar farms but more importantly widespread residential use of solar in Spain.
- So, the 10-ride Madrid metro ticket I bought in September - and which has 8 rides left on it - will be useless to me very soon . . .
The
UK and The EU: Richard North of EuReferendum here
asks the pertinent question: Why are these bastards lying to us?
The
English Language: Collins has pronounced that the 'word of the
year' is fake news. This has been in use for some time but, needless
to say, Donald Trump claims to be the 'inventor' of it.
Finally .
. . A sentiment with which I find it easy to agree . . . God
save us from the New Puritans who think it’s their job to police
friendly gestures on other people’s behalf. A
reaction, of course, to the febrile post-Weinstein witch-hunt in the
UK political and arts worlds.
Here's
how Catalonia can go about creating its own currency
The Catalan independence vote has drawn parallels with the Greek crisis of 2015 - including speculation the region could form its own currency.
During
the upheaval in Greece in the summer of 2015, the spectre of a
'Grexit' was on the horizon that would have entailed it withdrawing
from the eurozone.
Even
before Greeks voted in a referendum against the deal laid out by
its creditors, preparations were already under way to prepare for
this by creating a new currency, a version of its old drachma.
In
an echo of the Grexit crisis, the Catalan Government is planning
contingencies so that it can go it alone, separate from the
Spanish banking system. But its preparations make it different
from Greece's moment because the Catalans
could be looking to set up a cryptocurrency.
What has the Catalan Government been preparing?
The
Catalonian government recently sent representatives to Estonia to
learn more from digital currency pioneers there. Experts in the
hi-tech Baltic state have set up an "e-residency
programme", a digital identity card that allows its holders to
access Estonia's public services. It is designed to attract
entrepreneurs to set up a business there without stepping foot in the
country.
Dani
Marco, the director of SmartCatalonia, said that Estonia "started
from scratch, with all the possibilities they were offered to build a
model of economic development".
Some
Estonians have also floated the idea of holding an initial coin
offering (ICO) to raise money for the nation by issuing crypto tokens
called "estcoins", which would make it the first country to
do so. But European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi dismissed the
idea, saying "No member state can introduce its own currency;
the currency of the eurozone is the euro".
Barcelona
is a fintech centre, and hopes to leverage this to potentially create
a national blockchain currency beyond the control of the Spanish
state and the European Central Bank.
This
would essentially create a decentralised store of value,
and mean that it might not have a central bank. It is relying on
advice from Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, a
blockchain-based system to create and regulate contracts. Russia and
Kazakhstan have also all proposed setting up their own national
digital currencies, while some Japanese banks have proposed setting
up a "J-coin" to try too.
Catalonia's ideas recall the
actions of Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in
trying to launch a parallel payment system at the height of the
crisis in case Greece was ejected from the euro.
However,
there are big issues with Catalonia's amorphous and
technologically advanced plans: firstly, the problem of scale.
It would be difficult to replace transactions
overnight in such a sophisticated economy with this system. Second,
it would be left with no everyday currency.
Euros, but not in the eurozone
In
2015, the governor of the Bank of Spain warned that if Catalonia
became independent, it would automatically drop out of the euro
and lose access to the ECB. But Stephen Brown of Capital Economics
argues that "if independence did happen, they would
continue using the euro" in a parallel currency system, like
Montenegro, which has adopted the euro but is not in the
eurozone.
He
added that Catalans would have "assets and debts in euros
in banks in the rest of Spain. Unless those banks agreed to create
new subsidiary in this new Catalan country, they would stay in
euros".
Claus
Vistesen, of Pantheon Macroeconomics, compares the hypothetical
independent Catalan economy to "emerging markets like Argentina
and Zimbabwe". He adds: "There is the local currency, which
is useless, and then the dollar or euro. Catalonia is not
Zimbabwe; over time their own currency, if they managed it
properly, would be strong."
The
Catalan situation is different from the Greek one as a whole new
banking system would need to be created, adds Brown. "There
is no national banking network - it can’t impose capital
controls or redenominate the debt to the new currency." Even if
Catalonia successfully broke away, says Vistesen, civil servants
and pensions would have to be paid for and debt would have
to be serviced by the Government in a new currency.
Has any country set up a currency in a short time before?
When
the Austro-Hungarian empire broke up in 1918, stacks of currency were
transported across borders and into the countries in which people
thought it would be worth more when converted. The currencies that
were created after the break-up of the empire took years to
stabilise.
In
an ideal world, any government would want to introduce a new currency
with an element of surprise to stop money rushing out of the country
as people seek to avoid a devaluation of their savings.
A new
currency would have to be introduced very quickly. De La Rue, the
world’s largest printer of banknotes, which has also made the new
£10 notes, says: “Working out the details... is all very
well when you have a year or two to think about it. Make that a month
or two, and things start to get interesting.”
How do you create and print a new currency?
First,
you need a design for a note. De La Rue organised the complex
operation to replace Iraq’s old currency in 2003-4, delivering the
notes 10 weeks after the order was placed. The company said that this
process typically takes a year and a half. In South
Sudan,
the company designed, produced and distributed a new currency in
six months -
an unusually quick process.
Before
the 2015 crisis, Greek banks had been preparing for an exit of
the monetary union for years. In
2012, De La Rue drew up contingency plans when
it looked like there was a possibility Greece might leave the
eurozone.
Setting
up a brand new currency is a complex procedure: central banks
provide designs or guidance, or a competition is held to produce
ideas. De La Rue then works on the design.
In
April 2013, designer Pavlos
Vatikiotis came up with designs for
a "new drachma", featuring portraits of modern Greeks from
the arts and sciences, his tongue partially in cheek.
He
said: "I
think the currency should be beautiful because it's kind of a mirror
of a country."
Steve
Pond, a designer at De La Rue, said: "A banknote is a country’s
national, or international, calling card. An aesthetically pleasing
banknote, or one that really communicates the special features of a
country, has a knock-on effect. It influences people’s perceptions
of that country.”
There
is also the need to decide on denominational structure and
anti-counterfeit protection. De La Rue said that the largest coin
should be worth 2pc of the average daily wage, and the smallest note
5pc.
For
Iraq's new currency, De La Rue printed the banknotes in different
location around the world: in Malta, Sri Lanka, Kenya and the UK.
Special paper needs to be ordered, as well as millions of metres of
security thread, watermarks, ultra-violet features and any other
anti-counterfeiting devices.
Countries
within the Austro-Hungarian empire did not print new notes, but
stamped ink on top of old crowns to create a new currency.
Czechoslovakia had its name stamped, and Romania had a cross.
How do you distribute it?
In
Iraq, the distribution process was complicated by the ongoing war -
one of the officials working on the Iraqi Currency Exchange team was
badly injured in a bomb attack.
In the
Greek situation, there were capital controls imposed, meaning
large amounts of money cannot be moved around. This would have made
it easier to distribute a new currency.
With
any new currency, laws would have to be enacted, and businesses would
potentially have to draw up new contracts.
As
for Catalonia, there would be the not insubstantial prospect of
creating a brand new banking system from scratch. Most observers
would expect the central government in Madrid to impose order long
before such a serious step towards independence was committed.
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