It’s been a long time since the Balearic Islands went from a competitive region to something else. And this is despite the luck of a privileged geography and economic monoculture (tourism) that resists the influence of globalization quite well. It is not an empty Spain or a geography of deindustrialization to understand ourselves. But our Gross Domestic Product has been slowly eroding for decades, leading to widespread impoverishment and declines in many other indicators. The most obvious of these is per capita income, which is gradually moving away from the Union average. In this respect, it seems to follow the economic compass of the country, which has not yet recovered from the fiasco of the first decade of this century. Following the real estate boom and its systemic effects on banking, Spain has seen the reemergence of its secular demons. It is not a new experience neither in our history nor in our environment. Spanish exceptionalism—if it exists at all—perhaps consists in embracing the excesses of each period, thoughtlessly expanding ideas until they turn against themselves and run amok.
