Seriously, I've been trying to bring myself up to speed regarding this Spanish deal. It seems (to me) that one of the biggest gripes is Spain's redistribution of wealth. The Catalonia region is one of the wealthiest in Spain and they are taxed heavily, but receive very few benefits from those taxes. Most of their tax money is "redistributed" to the remaining regions. Kind of a Robin Hood situation, Spain takes from the rich and gives to the poor. Catalonia is getting tired of carrying the burden of the rest of the country and receiving very little in return. The EU thing "could" get a bit sticky because Spain would have the power to cast a negative vote for Catalonia's entry into the EU. Catalonia exports more goods than any other region of Spain. As an example, Catalonia exports approx. 70,000-million Euros in goods and the next highest exporter in the whole country is Madrid at approx. 30,000-million Euros. One problem they'll be facing is that they NEED to be accepted into the EU, because that's where a majority of their exports are sold.

It's a mess, but an interesting mess. Their biggest hurdle will be getting Spain and her allies to grant entry into the EU ... even then, it will take quite a bit of time to work through the process. Otherwise, they'll have their hands full establishing a currency (Euro's?) and banking relations as a new country. Of course, the biggest question is whether ol' Carles ends up eating a chunk of lead or gets arrested. This may be an interesting ride. As a side note, if they pull it off .... do you think Texas and California will follow?