If you ask any
foreigner who's lived in Spain a while what the best thing about the
country is, they're likely to reply "The Spaniards". I
thought of this this week when, on my return from the nuptials in the
UK, I was greeted with affection by all the staff in my regular cafés
and tapas bars. Indeed, one of them messaged me saying they hadn't
seen me for a while and were wondering if I was OK. Plus there was a
Thanksgiving dinner of great bonhomie at Pontevedra's English
Speaking Society. In short, it's much harder to feel alone here than
in the UK, I imagine.
Talking about welcomes in the UK, the National Health Service - in its
desperation to increase nurse numbers - has upped its campaign to
recruit them in Spain and elsewhere in the EU. Trouble is, the NHS
doesn't appear to be too fussy about their level of English and
leaves this to the hospitals to check. Or not. In fact, there seems
to be some 'freedom of movement' norm which prevents the testing of
English. My impression is that would-be Spanish nurses need high
marks in the nation's pre-university exam. So, what they lack in
English facility they should make up for in intelligence. Not that
this will impress any patient given the wrong medicine.
Relatedly, Spaniards
are reported to be falling behind other EU nations in the learning of
foreign languages and may now be almost as bad as the Brits. The
average EU citizen of working age is said to speak 3 languages,
including their own, but the Spanish achieve only 2. Which is possibly
double the British average. Of course, if you live in the Basque
Country, Galicia, Cataluña, Valencia and the Baleares, you have no
choice but to speak the 2 co-official languages. Which skews the
Spanish results at least a little.
There's a new Facebook
page I've joined - GCOP, or Get Cyclists off Pavements. Well, I felt
I had to, as I'd set it up. 'Pavements', by the way, are 'sidewalks'
in the US of A. I don't know that the law is about this (frequent)
irritant here in Spain but, back in the UK, you face a fixed fine
of 30 quid. Or prosecution and a fine of up to 500 quid, if you hurt a
pedestrian.
Amazon - A Warning:
Think twice if you're ordering a book and it's said to be published
by Amazon itself. I've received 2 books recently in which the print
was miniscule. And I mean miniscule. And one short item in which the print was gigantic, to make a pamphlet look like a book.
Finally . . . The EU.
Yesterday's Times had a leader which I can't just link to because of
the paywall. So, you can see it below, if interested. After this
latest wedding foto for Richard et al:
Entering the chapel:
Europe’s Paralysis
Enthusiasts for
European integration have long couched their arguments in the ideals
of peace and fraternity. If only they had paid equal attention to the
most fundamental principle of economics: things add up.
Through bad policy,
economic ineptitude and bureaucratic hauteur, the governments of the
eurozone have consigned its member states to stagnation and
widespread political disaffection. It is a record of fecklessness in
the service of ideology, at the expense of real people’s living
standards. Even a change in policy is doomed to failure, however,
until the eurozone comes to terms with its fundamental problem. A
misconceived currency union has frozen in place an inflexible and
dysfunctional economic model. Europe needs radical supply-side
reforms.
The numbers are
alarming. At the beginning of this year, the eurozone appeared at
last to be recovering, if weakly, from its banking collapse and debt
crisis. In reality, it is barely growing at all. GDP across the
18-member eurozone was stagnant in the second quarter and recovered
to an annualised rate of 0.6 per cent in the third quarter mainly
because of a technical effect of companies building up inventories.
Aggregate GDP in the eurozone is still below the level of 2008.
It may get worse.
Figures released yesterday showed that the annual rate of inflation
in the eurozone had moderated to 0.3 per cent. Partly this is an
effect of declining oil prices. Yet it is also due to a severe
shortage of demand and shows how close the eurozone is to a state of
deflation.
If deflationary
pressures become entrenched, they will impose great hardship.
Expecting prices to fall, consumers will defer their purchases and
companies will postpone their investments. Weak demand will become
self-reinforcing.
At the same time, the
unemployment rate in the eurozone is stubbornly high at 11.5 per
cent. In Italy, it has hit a record of 13.2 per cent. In Spain, youth
unemployment is at an extraordinary 25 per cent. This is all a
phenomenal waste of economic resources as well as a human tragedy.
Worse, it could have been predicted.
A single interest rate
and a single currency across Europe have removed an essential safety
valve for economic growth: the exchange rate. They have yoked
together very different national economies while depriving them of
the option of restoring competitiveness by devaluing the currency.
Currency depreciation would not in itself be enough to resolve the
weaknesses of the heavily indebted southern European economies, but
without that option their only course is a sustained squeeze on
living standards.
Even with weak growth,
debt levels in the eurozone remain dangerously high, and thereby
limit the room for fiscal expansion. France, Italy and Belgium were
yesterday given an extension of three months by the EU to cut their
bloated budget deficits. That is likely merely to reinforce Europe’s
downward spiral. Policymakers have relied on low interest rates to
get Europe out of its crisis. That is not enough and it is not
working.
There is a key to
promoting growth in the eurozone. It requires removing the structural
impediments to business expansion. Without supply-side reforms, a
loosening of fiscal policy in the indebted economies would be
self-defeating and dangerous. A spurt in demand would be strictly
temporary and would be accompanied by a rise in these countries’
debt-to-GDP ratios.
A proposal by
Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, to boost
investment by €315 billion will not be effective while these
weaknesses exist, as the plan relies on attracting private
investment. Simplifying national tax systems and making it easier for
business to hire the right people (and shed under-performers) are
essential to Europe’s prospects. All else is detail.
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