To Hide a Huge Deficit
- Written by Xavier Sala i Martín
- Published in Articles
Minister Montoro and his employee Ángel de la Fuente, former researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the UAB (Autonomous University of Barcelona), have finally published their "territorialized accounts". After a first reading, these are my reactions.
First. It is not acceptable that the ministry would hide data that should be public property. Making the data publicly available would allow economists to estimate the interregional accounts using their own preferred method including the scientific methodologies that have been in use for years by academia. To hide the data and only publish "cuentas territorializadas" (literally, "territorialized accounts" 1), completely cooked by like-minded economists, is an intellectual embarrassment. In democratic countries, data belong to the citizens, not to the ministers or the king, and respected ex-academics should not engage in this kind of concealment [...]
- Link to the whole article (ENGLISH)
