The dangerous 10-N election auction: the Bank of Spain asks to clean up the accounts as a "priority"

Behind closed doors, without cameras or journalists, the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, on Thursday submitted questions to dozens of Valencian businessmen chaired by Vicente Boluda with the concern of the great problem of the moment: the slowdown and measures economic aspects that the new government will face after the November 10 elections. Strong increase in spending and tax increase as proposed by the PSOE? Drastic tax reduction as proposed by the PP so far? Spain cannot afford one or the other, according to the governor, although he was careful to point out political options. “He has made it clear that he is against an electoral auction to see who offers to increase public spending more or who reduces taxes more, because what he has stressed is that the key is to clear public accounts at once to face the slowdown », Assures an assistant. "Fiscal consolidation must now be the priority, it is crucial, it is what allows in the event of an eventual crisis that automatic stabilizers work without having to take drastic measures to cut spending or raise taxes as in the past", affirmed the governor, according to the versions collected by this newspaper.

Hernández de Cos believes that time has been lost in recent years to make the necessary reforms and told businessmen that he does not believe that a crisis as hard as 2007 is coming, but he pointed out that, if it did occur, the country's problem is of size. He recalled that the public debt brushes 100% of GDP when in 2007 it was 33% and that the deficit exceeds 2% chronically, while in that year the State had a deceptive surplus.

Germany will be able to launch a large investment plan to neutralize its recession due to its effective sanitation in these years of public accounts, but Spain could not do so if a similar drama arrives. And even less with what is beginning to be heard already in the first game of the country.

In the opposite direction to the governor, the socialist leader Pedro Sánchez assured hours later in La Sexta, that his 370 proposals to Podemos will be his electoral program.

They suppose an increase of the annual public cost of 30,000 million at the end of the legislature without the tax increase that it reveals - what will it plot? - covers 15% of that money. As for the PP, its leader, Pablo Casado , promised in April "a tax revolution" with a reduction of the IRPF and Societies or elimination of taxes such as Patrimony and Successions for a value exceeding 16,000 million. The commitment was to undertake it in the first 100 days, but, unfortunately they have been fulfilled even more than the predictions of deceleration that the PP itself then exposed and force to review the plan so as not to lose revenue. Sources of the PP admit to this newspaper that "the electoral program will have to be updated in the face of the new economic situation and it is surprising that others do not." The Executive Committee of the PP should address this moderation on Monday, but the sources consulted bet that the Secretary of Economy, Daniel Lacalle, will be more ambitious in the savings he raised to improve efficiency in the public sector and will have to postpone at least part of the "fiscal revolution" at the end of the legislature at least.

Albert Rivera conditioned already in April his descent of taxes to the evolution of the public accounts; and Pablo Iglesias promised not to lower the deficit further, so that if he came to power he would sleep better at night, despite his incoherent statement, it would be Sanchez compared to the governor and investors.

Does it scare off voters to tell the truth that it is utopian to revalue pensions with the CPI without taking hard system adjustment measures? Is it scary to tell you that a sharp drop in taxes is not possible in slowdown? Voters are not so heartless, according to the securities survey published by the BBVA Foundation. "67% of Spaniards are in favor of making adjustments in spending to balance public accounts in the face of the current economic situation," says the study. That includes 58% of those who declare themselves leftist. The survey shows that the factor that is most valued in a party, after ideology, is "the ability to manage the economy" and in that all candidates must show much more solvency than until now. Will the slowdown be a campaign star theme? If it is not in the country with the most unemployment in the OECD after Greece and South Africa, it is not to sleep at any time.

Success Small Letter

Spain once again has an A in the rating of solvency of Standard & Poor's for the first time since January 2012. It is a success for the acting Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño , and her Treasury team, which may issue even cheaper debt, although Beware because it is a rating at the level of Latvia or Iceland and below the most solvent economies of the euro. But the problem for the Government is the fine print of the S&P report. Bases the improvement in the resistance of the Spanish economy to political instability and the external environment and bet that there will be no strong party after 10-N to get out of the EU economic policy. In addition, it threatens to lower the rating again if the deficit is demanded or "if the reforms of the past are reversed", in reference to labor or pensions. That is, if Calviño continues, he can improve the grade if the PSOE does not fulfill his plan.

Piketty is back

Six years after publishing his book Capital, the French economist Thomas Piketty, has just launched his new 1,232-page work Capital and Ideologie with revolutionary proposals for a European social democracy that he considers to be heartless in the face of inequality. It proposes that workers occupy 50% of the corporate governance bodies and limit the power of each shareholder with more weight to 10%. Also raise taxes to the richest to reach 90% of their assets! He assumes that "the billionaires" will disappear, but he sees it as healthy for a fairer society. And with the proceeds? He asks that every young person at 25 can receive "a universal endowment of 120,000 euros" to face their lives. It sold 2.5 million copies of Capital around the world and its influence on the new European debate should not be underestimated.

CaixaBank, before Torra

In Thursday's meeting of the board of the Circle of Economy with the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra , it was Javier Faus who told him to give up unilateral measures and assume the sentence of the process without soothing the population, but they also took the floor , among others, the president of CaixaBank, Jordi Gual. He - in the picture - explained the difficult economic and financial environment and stressed to Torra the need for "political stability and legal certainty" to meet the challenge. The president showed no change, but neither took the opportunity to ask CaixaBank headquarters to return to Barcelona. That march in October 2017 was as painful for Gual - former member of the Carec economic advisory council of Artur Mas - as rational and if a committed Catalan economist like him does not see conditions to return, Torra should take note but will not.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• PP
• Spain
• PSOE
• Pablo Casado
• Pablo Iglesias
• Pedro Sanchez
• We can
• OECD
• Personal income tax
• Greece
• Germany
• Albert rivera

Mediterranean Something from me, something from us

Considering cold The solitaire game

nothing in writing Rivera's voter dilemma