<![CDATA[Ara Balears in English - Ferran Navinés]]> 10 <![CDATA[Far right and tyranny: the dangers of voting for extremist governments]]>

Polls indicate a growing proportion of young people who want to vote for the far right. Perhaps they should ask themselves what the far right would do if, for example, Trump decreed that, for the good of the Empire, not only were scholarships cut—that is, military spending increased to 5% of GDP—but also mandatory military service reinstated. They should also know that if they no longer liked this and wanted to protest, the far right would prevent them from doing so, for the good of the Empire and Spain's service to the Empire's vassalage. Who would defend them from tyranny then? No one, unless they themselves reorganized to defend their rights and freedoms, so absurdly lost to those who can enjoy democracy today but prefer to vote for tyranny tomorrow.

]]> <![CDATA[Let's talk about housing]]> The UPC's Centre for Land Policy and Valuation has published the study Five theses on housing policy in SpainPrepared by professors Blanca Arellano-Ramos and Josep Roca-Cladera of the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), these five theses dismantle the PP-Vox arguments regarding the neoliberal housing policies they advocate. Let's examine them:

]]> <![CDATA[Annual economic reports in the Balearic Islands: 1969-2024]]> The main reference point for annual economic reports on the Spanish economy is the Bank of Spain. What is less well known is that the first Annual Report wasn't published until 1962, thirty-two years after the creation of its Research Department in 1930. In the case of the Balearic Islands, the figure of Miquel Alenyà Fuster cannot be overlooked if one wishes to provide, even briefly, a concise outline of the origins of annual economic reports. In his memoirs From my memory: 1939-2017' (Ed. Lleonard Muntaner. Palma, 2017) comments on the beginnings of the 'Economic and social report"In February 1969, Carles Blanes Nouvilas, then general manager of Sa Nostra for a year, (...) commissioned the writing of the four chapters that made up the first edition of the report mentioned in 1968. The economist Pere Costa Porto was in charge of the chapter on trade and the trade balance, Casasnovas wrote the one on tourism, and I wrote the one on industry. Under the direction of Miquel Alenyà, the annual economic reports for the Balearic Islands continued until 2000, since from 2001 onwards Sa Nostra began l'Report from the Center for Economic Research (CRE), which breaks radically with the trajectory of previous reports, since: "(...) The quality of the reports gradually declines (...) From the outset, the entire previous team, its experience, and the values associated with a 33-year trajectory of continuous, prestigious, and consistently pluralistic public work are dispensed with. The model shifts from authors who sign the chapters of the report to a model of a single author and responsibility (...) On November 9, 2012, the last actions of the CRE are carried out, and on Monday, November 19, 2012, the termination of the agreement with the UIB by Sa Nostra is made public through a press release (178-179).

]]> <![CDATA[Catalonia, Madrid, Balearic Islands: which model to choose?]]> If we look at the latest Eurostat data on per capita income for 2023, the best figure is for the autonomous community of Madrid at €47,000, while Catalonia's is €39,400, and the Balearic Islands at €38,300. This higher per capita income in Madrid is often explained by its higher labor productivity. In terms of the EU-27 regional labor productivity ranking, Madrid ranks 117th; the Balearic Islands, 119th; and Catalonia, 120th.

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