I don't know about you, but I've been leaving the house without cash for a while now. And I don't mean going down to buy bread. I mean taking a high-speed train, going to Madrid, spending the whole day there, and coming back without a single coin in my wallet. Not a bill. Nothing. At most, a card. And often not even that: my phone. I suppose that was progress. That's why it's somewhat comical that the European Central Bank is now recommending that we keep cash at home. Not much. Between 70 and 100 euros per person, more or less what would be needed to last 72 hours in case of an emergency. In other words, the same system that has been pushing us towards an increasingly digital, more traceable, and more dependent world of screens, networks, batteries, keys, and platforms for years, is now asking us to keep a few bills in a drawer in case all this technical marvel fails for three days. The news is amusing. First, they get us used to not touching money. Then they turn cash into a somewhat inconvenient relic, even suspicious and frowned upon. Then they close ATMs, reduce branches, normalize paying by swiping a finger over a screen. And, when the process is already quite advanced, they warn us: "Don't forget to have a little cash just in case." Just in case of what. Just in case what almost everything now depends on fails.The ECB explains it in technical language: resilience, contingency, operational continuity. All very credible. But translated into everyday Catalan, it means something quite simple: have cash, because we know the system can fail. And when it fails, you won't eat with a password. What strikes me most is not that they tell us to have cash at home, but that they have had to say it. It doesn't show that the authorities are giving up on digital money. It shows just the opposite: that they know perfectly well how much we have handed over our daily lives to a payment and collection infrastructure that we do not control. So much so, that they are publicly releasing a contingency plan that consists of returning, for 72 hours, to something that was supposed to be despicable and old. They don't recommend it to us from a daily perspective, but as a monetary first-aid kit, like someone who advises having flashlights, batteries, or cans of preserves. Honestly, it makes me laugh. Put 100 euros in your emergency kit for blackouts.The message: it's not that cash is still alive; it's that we've advanced so much towards its daily irrelevance that the central bank has had to remind us that real money (the kind that works when everything else fails) still exists, and that we should try to keep some at home. We are a society that, in effect, has already given up on cash.

Oil prices are rising again. Brent crude is hovering around $110 and has even touched $120. This isn't a one-off spike. It's a jump that could last for months.

Judging by the headlines surrounding the Iran war, there's a fear that the West will enter the war and we could end up in a third world war. However, when one examines the international system from an economic perspective, another conclusion emerges: a large-scale, protracted war is profoundly irrational for almost all the actors involved.

Today I'm taking a brief break from my economics articles. On Saturday night, at the Palau de la Música, the show about Maragall that I had the privilege of composing and which the newspaper ARA co-produced premiered. Before returning to my usual topics, I feel I must simply say thank you. To everyone.

Revenues are growing. Spending is growing. The deficit remains. The 2026 budget projects non-financial revenues of €48.231 billion and total spending of €49.162 billion. The difference is small in relative terms (a deficit of 0.1%), but the economic message is more profound: in the midst of the expansionary phase of the cycle, we are still not generating a surplus. Spending increases by €9.126 billion compared to the last approved budget. That's a jump of 22.8%. Revenues, driven by the strong economic performance and the financing model, are also growing strongly, although the Catalan government doesn't present the comparative data with the same political forcefulness as it does for spending. The key is this: practically all the increase in revenue is absorbed by higher structural spending. In economic terms, this means that the permanent size of the public sector is increasing, taking advantage of the tailwinds of the economic cycle. Is this prudent?

The government has created a single state registry for tourist accommodations. A mandatory registration number. One-stop shop. Digital traceability. And appeals have already been filed with the Supreme Court alleging an overreach of authority. Andalusia and industry associations have challenged it. The autonomous communities are defending their jurisdiction. The central government wants to centralize the data.

Gold is back at record highs, over €4,200 per ounce. Since July of last year, it has experienced a meteoric rise. Those who invested back then have almost doubled their initial investment. Just three months earlier, a wholesaler in the jewelry sector recommended I invest in gold. I didn't because I never speculate or invest in things that don't offer clear returns.

Several banks have announced that they will tighten mortgage conditions throughout 2026. Prices will rise, and lending standards will be stricter. This shift comes after a record-breaking 2025. The official explanation cites prudence and the need to avoid future risks in the real estate market.

This week, new ads have appeared for entire villages for sale at five hundred thousand euros. I confess: I'm one of those people who spends time looking at these ads, driven by a kind of fascination, a dream, and awe all at once. "Should we sell our apartment and move there?" I often ask my family, knowing I'm suggesting the impossible.

This week, the ARA reported on a study by four German economists analyzing millions of import transactions in the United States. The conclusion was devastating: between 94% and 96% of the cost of the tariffs imposed by Washington has not been borne by foreign exporters, but by Americans themselves. Prices have not fallen. They have risen. The tariffs have functioned as a hidden internal tax. An own goal. Read this way, the message seems reassuring for Europe. If the tariffs are paid by Americans and everything remains more or less the same, the damage is limited. This interpretation is incomplete. And, above all, misleading.

This January 14th, I strolled down a shopping street in Barcelona and… Hearts. Red. "Give love." "Surprise them." Gift sets. Ribbons. Valentine's Day was on full display as if it were imminent.

A year and a half ago I was in a serious car accident in which I almost lost my life. It was nighttime. I was driving towards Seville. A girl sped towards me on a two-lane road. I was hit several times and ended up off the road, crashed into a wall.

Imagine NATO as a community of three villas with a swimming pool, gardens, sports courts, and an expensive security system. Three major owners pay the main dues: the United States, Europe, and Canada.

What has happened in Venezuela is difficult to comprehend. The United States has launched a military operation on Caracas to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. It is an intervention comparable only to the capture of Manuel Noriega in Panama in 1989.

For years, the explanation for almost everything in economics was the cycle. We were doing badly because the cycle was bad. We were doing well because the cycle was helping. 2025 has served to dismantle that excuse. The Spanish economy is no longer trapped in a temporary downturn. On the contrary. It is growing above the European average, has managed to reduce inflation without destroying jobs, and has normalized the financial environment without major disruptions. And yet, the public perception is one of stagnation, not to mention hardship and hardship.

The Catalan government wants us to eat more pork. And to achieve this, it has decided to talk about pork a lot. A whole lot. Statements, press releases, press conferences. And now, an institutional advertising campaign. All pork, all the time. It's a bold strategy. As bold as recommending skydiving on the same day the news opens with a plane crash.

You go to a restaurant to eat. And, if you're with someone, to chat or share a good meal, lingering over conversation afterward. Dining out is, among many other things, a social activity. However, it's becoming increasingly common to walk into a restaurant and find the music so loud that you have to call one of the other diners over to ask for bread.

The "free" economy has become the greatest illusion of our time. We don't pay with money; we pay in kind. And a lot. Every click, every registration, every "free" update is an invitation to surrender something more valuable than our money: minutes of our lives, attention spans, fragments of our identity. Digital freeness has trained us in a lie: if it doesn't hurt the wallet, it doesn't hurt anything. And that's false. The tech industry discovered before anyone else that our scarcest resource isn't money, but attention. And it orchestrated a perfect system to capture it. The entry price is zero euros. The exit price is never clear: it's the trapped users.

It doesn't affect humans. I repeat: it doesn't affect humans. But it has already set off alarm bells, paralyzed exports, and threatens the Spanish livestock sector. Welcome to the latest episode of economic panic: African swine fever (ASF). This week, six dead wild boars were found in the Collserola forests near Barcelona. The cause: an animal virus that has been spreading from Africa for decades and has arrived (no one knows exactly how) in a nature reserve with no pig farms, livestock operations, or transport of animals. Collserola is a green lung, a protected area where hikers and cyclists stroll. No industrial logic justifies ASF's arrival. But it's here.

Yes, it was a baby boomBut it's already deflating. I'm not writing. bluff not in the sense of disappointment or failure, but referring to a generation that is beginning to deflate as it begins (in fact, it has already begun) its withdrawal from the labor market.