Watching And Waiting, Anticipating ...

The anticipation was great. Deliverance might have been hoped for but deliberation was what turned up. Balearic president Francesc Antich came, he spoke and he will have to conquer the guardians of central government's purse-strings. The much-heralded announcement on the islands' economic situation was something of a damp squib in this long, hot and difficult summer. The politicos can pack their bags for their August vacations sure in the knowledge of their own impotence.

Antich presented a 13-point plan. It was politics dressed up as economic expediency. Tax cuts for certain groups buying their first home, some adjustment of capital gains and a whole wedge of moolah for the construction industry. Little of it was new. The relief for the construction sector had already been announced; tax assistance for the young buying a house is yesterday's news. This may be welcome but it is the banks who fund house purchases not tax breaks; mortgages are as scarce as rain at present. The pumping of further cash into the economy relies on Madrid being cajoled into opening its coffers wider. That's the deliberation; the funding arrangements for the Balearics is and has been an ongoing discussion. There's more deliberation - a committee to look at how to reduce property prices and a call for cross-party participation at a time of crisis. At least Antich, unlike President Zapatero, was prepared to refer to a "crisis"; he has his head half raised out of the sand whereas Mr. Shoemaker seems to be buried in it. The only hint as to something new was a vague reference to the fact that the current problems offer the chance for a different economic model - whatever that might be.

It is easy to be critical. The fact is that regional governments, in this case the Balearics, are even more incapable of dealing with global economic difficulties than a national government. It is not really their fault except for the absence of a genuine attempt at a re-modelling of the economy that could smooth some of the harm caused by situations such as the present one. We shouldn't really have anticipated much because there was little to anticipate.

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