At MR, Tyler Cowen has a rather strong reaction against an economist who supports Catalan secession:
He taught me Ph.d Micro I at Harvard, so it’s too bad he wants to wreck both Spain and Europe, and for so little in return. Didn’t one of his theorems suggest this was a bad idea? It’s not as if Catalonia is treated like Tibet.
Would Tyler also say the Velvet Divorce “wrecked” the Czech Republic and Slovakia?
As an aside, if only peoples treated like Tibet are granted a moral right to secede, then in fact no one will secede permissibly, for governments that treat Tibet like Tibet don’t let Tibet secede.
Martin Luther to the peasants of Swabia:
Two different cases.
The stability of Spain will have an impact in Europe. Catalonia’s secession would destabalize Spain further. Czechoslovakia at the time was outside the UE and we were not in the middle of a huge crisis.
The point about Tibet is that the separatists make is sound they are treated like Tibet, when Catalonia has freedom and quality of life.
Czechoslovakia’s economic turbulence in 1992 was surely greater than that of Spain today.
Sure, minority nationalists exaggerate their plight, but majority-state nationalists also exaggerate the negative consequences of independence.
“Czechoslovakia’s economic turbulence in 1992 was surely greater than that of Spain today.”
Really? did they have 25% unemployment and a collapse of a housing bubble like the one in Spain? did they need billions in a bail out? Were they a threat to bring down the UE?
There are other indicators of economic turbulence beside the unemployment rate. But if you don’t like the Czechoslovakia example, what about Slovenia? There’s no question that Yugoslavia was in a dire situation in 1991.