Job market: the most valued cognitive skills

To find a job in the digital age, one needs more than just technical skills. Interpersonal qualities are critical to success in an increasingly complex and diverse work environment. Professionals who can master these competencies will be better prepared to thrive and face the challenges and opportunities presented by the labour market of the future.

The new technological revolution we are experiencing has brought about an accelerated digitisation and automation of many tasks, driven by artificial intelligence, which is radically transforming the labour market. This radical evolution of the nature of work requires new skills and personal competencies that will be critical for future jobs.

It is a paradigm shift that is enabling a reduction in workload without reducing productivity and could also make it feasible to reduce working hours to facilitate work-life balance, reducing stress and improving workers’ health and well-being. Even so, it may have a negative impact on people by replacing some jobs with automation or reducing available working hours.

In this context, while some jobs will become obsolete, others will emerge to replace those that will disappear. We expect this to happen in terms of both quantity and quality of employment, but at the very least it will require effort and investment in education and training.

Problem-solving, creativity and adaptability

Although there will continue to be many skilled jobs that will see little change, the labour market will increasingly require more dynamic and creative professionals who have a strong ability to adapt to change.

In fact, according to a study by the Skills and Occupations Barometer of Catalonia, promoted by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and PIMEC, this skill is most highly valued by companies when hiring future professionals. Specifically, it was found that 51% of job offers published in Catalonia in 2023 required this skill, which is also in demand in most sectors (96%) and occupations (68%).

Likewise, the most valued qualities are the ability to assume responsibility, manage time, and accept criticism. These data are especially relevant in ICT occupations, which also concentrate the demand for people with the ability to “think creatively” and “solve problems” which, on the other hand, is significantly requested in 70% of the sectors and 40% of the occupations,

On the other hand, the barometer found that the importance of “teamwork” is particularly concentrated in professional, scientific and technical activities, where 24% of vacancies require this skill. In any case, and as Antoni Cañete, president of Pimec, emphasised, we are talking about “soft skills”, which can be applied to all professions and refer to “very human, transferable and transversal” skills.

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A growing number of African nations are pushing the US and France out of the continent while welcoming China and Russia. The use of coercion and military power that characterises Western imperialist doctrine is being replaced by a new model of cooperation that seeks mutual benefit rather than the hegemony of one party.

“The struggle of the African people across the continent, particularly in the Sahel, is not an isolated event. All over the African continent, they are rising. The whole continent is burning right now. So we have not seen the last of the African popular masses overthrowing governments. We’ve only seen the beginning. They’re kicking France out, and the United States will be next,” declared journalist and activist Eugene Puryear on 19 September 2023 during protests against US and French imperialism and warmongering in the Sahel on the UN General Assembly opening day in New York.

In West African countries such as Niger, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Chad, protests against French colonialism and coups d’état against Western vassal governments are spreading, with new administrations emerging that heralded a new path to self-determination and sovereignty.

Arikana Chihombori-Quao, former permanent representative of the African Union to the United States, claimed that the recent military coups in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea were part of the first phases of an “African revolution” against Western neocolonialism. She added that this wave of military interventions is a reaction to the West’s ongoing “plunder of the continent’s natural resources.”

US to withdraw its troops from Chad and Niger

France was in the crosshairs, but as Puryear predicted, the US would soon follow suit. A few months later, the US government has announced that it will withdraw its troops from Chad and Niger as African countries question their role in the fight against terrorism.

In early April, Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder stated that AFRICOM is in talks with Chadian officials about a plan to “reposition some US military forces from Chad”, but that “this is a temporary measure as part of an ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after the 6 May presidential elections in Chad.”

Niger hosts a major US air base in the city of Agadez that is used for a variety of military operations, including manned and unmanned surveillance flights. As for Chad, the US has Special Operations Forces troops stationed at the French base.

A paradigm shift from coercion to cooperation

The Western colonialist or neocolonialist model has been characterised by the use of coercion and military power to achieve its objectives and impose its political and economic agendas under the pretexts of ensuring political stability and the fight against terrorism, often to the detriment of the interests and sovereignty of the recipient countries of this pattern of “democracy.

In this context, we are witnessing how many countries, not only in Africa, are opting to establish new relations with other international actors such as China and Russia, which, unlike Western countries, offer an alternative based on cooperation and respect for their sovereignty.

China, in particular, has established a significant presence across the African continent through massive investments in infrastructure, natural resources and economic development through the Belt and Road Initiative. These investments are made in exchange for facilitating its exports of goods and access to raw materials necessary for the growth of its economy.

Similarly, Russia has sought partnerships in security, energy and natural resources. Through defence cooperation and investment in the energy sector. As has happened in Niger, where after French and US troops were driven out, the new government junta has turned to Russia for security.

On the other hand, the West’s loss of credibility in terms of human rights and international law as a result of the wars imposed on the African continent and in the Middle East to maintain its economic hegemony under the guise of the fight against terrorism, or its unconditional support for the genocide in Gaza, only accelerate a process of change towards a multipolar world that, for now, seems unstoppable.

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Inflation, biflation, stagflation… Learn what the different concepts linked to the evolution of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) mean. Media are using them more and more.

This year we have experienced the highest inflation rates since 1985, with increases of up to 10% per year. As a consequence, the purchasing power of the population is shrinking. And the situation in Catalonia is not very different from that in neighbouring countries.

It is becoming increasingly common to find a series of concepts related to the evolution of prices that you should be aware of. We present you our particular inflation dictionary.

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The US House of Representatives has approved another 57 billion euro aid package for Ukraine and a further 24.7 billion euros for Israel, but who will benefit from this money – the people suffering from armed conflicts or the Military Industrial Complex?

After months of stalled funding by a group of Republican lawmakers, in a rare weekend session, the US House of Representatives approved an additional package of some 89 billion euros in assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan on Saturday.

The three foreign aid items that were voted separately will provide 57 billion euros for Ukraine, 24.7 billion euros for Israel and 7.6 billion euros for security in the Indo-Pacific region, including billions for Taiwan. The package also includes a ban until March 2025 on funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides vital assistance in Gaza.

The bulk of this aid will go to weapons support, including new weapons systems for the Ukrainian and Israeli militaries directly from US defence contractors, as well as to resupplying US and allied weapons arsenals. Let’s not forget that the Biden administration is about to approve the sale of up to 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel, in a deal expected to exceed $18 billion.

According to the official rhetoric of President Joe Biden’s administration, this money is an urgent and necessary sacrifice at a time when threats and wars besiege US allies. Republican opponents of the bill argued that these budget items should be tied to addressing national border security problems and the country’s growing debt burden, warning against spending more funds, many of which are channelled directly to the arms industry.

The skyrocketing profits of war

The military assistance package approved last weekend is the latest in a string of major subsidies or taxpayers’ money recycling into the arms industry since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which has become a gold mine for the US and European MIC. This should come as no surprise, as it is often the case in every armed conflict.

According to a study by GlobalTimes, US defense contractors received almost half – $400 billion – of the $858 billion earmarked in the 2023 defence budget. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the largest Wall Street-listed companies in the sector have accumulated share price gains of 24 billion euros.

Moreover, US weapon sales abroad rose sharply last year, reaching a record 223 billion euros, 56 per cent more than in 2022, according to State Department data.

As for the rest of NATO, the decision of the main members to increase their investment in defence due to pressure from the United States has boosted the growth projections of many multinationals in the weapons industry which, in some instances, have registered increases of up to 150% in the stock market and profits of more than 300% over the previous year, as in the case of Germany’s Rheinmetall.

Spain is experiencing the largest increase in military spending in the last 40 years. The defence budget already represents 23% more than in 2022, making it the item with the highest growth in state spending. Defence companies such as Indra, Navantia and Santa Bàrbara de Sistemas have made huge profits.

When taking into account the genocide in Gaza and the fact that the war in Ukraine has been more than lost for months, it is hard to understand how this new funding will benefit anyone, beyond the defence industry and the pockets of the politicians who are linked to it. But as BlackRock employee Serge Varlay said: politicians are easy to buy, and war is good for business.

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We talk about anxiety, insomnia, and exhaustion. But we often ignore one of their main causes: economic insecurity.

When we think about mental health, we tend to look inward. Self-esteem, emotions, lifestyle. But there is an external, persistent, and silent factor that deeply shapes the well-being of millions of people: money. Or, more precisely, the lack of control over it.

Financial stress does not always make noise. It does not appear as a sudden crisis, but as a constant drip of worries that eventually affects the body, the mind, and personal relationships.

When Money Affects Health

Barely making it to the end of the month. Not understanding why the numbers do not add up. Living with the feeling that any unexpected expense could destabilize everything. This sustained tension generates chronic stress, one of the main risk factors for physical and mental health.

Various studies by the World Health Organization indicate that prolonged stress is linked to sleep disorders, cardiovascular problems, anxiety, and depression. When the source of stress is economic, the issue worsens: one cannot “switch off” from money. It is present every day.

Financial insecurity does not only impact the individual. It has a direct impact on relationships, parenting, social life, and even work performance. The mind is occupied. Concentration decreases. Emotional exhaustion accumulates.

Living in Survival Mode

When money is scarce or perceived as a constant threat, the brain enters survival mode. It prioritizes the short term. It reacts, but does not plan. And this has consequences.

Economic uncertainty often leads to:

• Debt to cover immediate needs. 
• Dependence on credit as a recurring solution. 
• Inaction out of fear of making mistakes. 
• Impulsive decisions made from distress.
  

This pattern is not a matter of lacking intelligence or responsibility. It is a human response to stress. But it is also a vicious cycle: decisions made from fear usually worsen the financial situation, which further increases stress.

When Fear Makes Decisions for Us

One of the most harmful effects of financial stress is that we delegate decisions to fear. We do not review numbers. We do not plan. Furthermore, we do not ask. We avoid checking the account or the bills because they cause anxiety.

This avoidance may bring temporary relief, but in the long term it worsens the problem. Lack of information fuels the feeling of loss of control. And loss of control is one of the main sources of anxiety.

According to data from the Bank of Spain, a significant portion of the population acknowledges not understanding the basic financial products they use. This knowledge gap is not only economic; it is emotional.

Financial Education as Preventive Care

This is where a key, often underestimated element comes into play: financial education. Not as a formula to get rich, but as a preventive health tool. Understanding how money works reduces anxiety. It does not eliminate risks, but it allows us to understand them, anticipate them, and manage them wisely. Knowledge does not guarantee certainty, but it does provide control. And control reduces stress.

Having a clear vision transforms the relationship with money. What was once a diffuse threat becomes a concrete, manageable, and plannable issue. Therefore, it is essential to understand basic concepts such as:

• Income and expenses 
• Debts and deadlines 
• Real saving capacity 
• Available options

Finances and Well-Being: An Inseparable Relationship

For years, the world of economics has been separated from the world of well-being. As if money were a cold, technical matter unrelated to emotional health. The reality is precisely the opposite.

Financial peace of mind does not depend on having a lot of money, but on feeling that one has control and sound judgment. There are people with high incomes who live in anxiety, and others with limited resources but clear management who sleep peacefully.

Taking care of finances is also taking care of the mind. Putting numbers in order is a way to reduce mental noise. To regain decision-making margin. To stop living in constant reaction mode.

The First Step Is Not to Earn More, but to Understand Better

Faced with financial stress, we often think the solution is to earn more money. And in some cases, it is. But many times, the first step is not increasing income, but better understanding what is happening with the money we already have.

Clarity reduces fear. Planning reduces uncertainty. And information transforms stress into action. It is not an immediate process. But it is deeply liberating.

Taking care of health also means taking care of finances. At La Plaça d’11Onze, we understand money as a tool at the service of life, not as a source of suffering. Because regaining economic control is not only a rational decision; it is an act of emotional well-being.

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Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia “threatened” to sell European debt in retaliation if the G-7 confiscated the $300 billion in Russian assets frozen by the European Union and the United States, according to sources consulted by Bloomberg

It is no secret that countries outside the Western sphere have long been closely watching the use of economic sanctions against Russia, amid concerns that these same tools of economic warfare could be used against them.

It is an economic siege designed to attack the Russian economy on all fronts – destroying its funding capacity and commandeering foreign reserves – that has become the most obvious example of how the US-led global economic system is being used to isolate and punish any country that poses a threat to US hegemony.

This is causing many states to question this hegemony and take steps to create a multilateral financial system to shield their economies. They are also pushing for de-dollarisation to decouple their economies from dependence on the dollar.

The importance of debt

Beyond de-dollarisation, the main reason the dollar is in danger is the large fiscal deficit in the United States. This has led to massive indebtedness, which is sustainable as long as the world continues to have confidence in the ability of the US to pay its obligations.

If this confidence is lost, investors and countries that now buy their debt through Treasury Bonds could look for alternatives to diversify their currency reserves, causing the US economy to collapse. Hence, the alarm generated by the possibility of Saudi Arabia turning its back on the petrodollar.

European Union member states are in an even worse situation because, unlike the United States, they do not have ‘their’ petrodollar and therefore cannot print money without consequences. In other words, the United States has the equivalent of an “opaque credit card” with which, at least as long as oil continues to be sold in dollars, it can maintain indebtedness that would be unsustainable for the European Union.

Saudi Arabia makes a move

Leaving aside the possible illegality of confiscating Russian reserves, using these funds would not only be illegal but could generate a major crisis of confidence in the Western-dominated international banking system, which is not exactly overburdened with credibility. If countries that feel threatened withdraw their reserves, this would be a paradigm shift with global consequences.

In this context, it is not surprising that yesterday’s Bloomberg article revealed that Saudi Arabia’s finance minister told his G7 counterparts (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US, and the US) that the Kingdom would sell some of its European debt in retaliation if the $300 billion in Russian assets frozen by the EU and the US were confiscated. The Saudi stance was seen as a “veiled threat”, say unnamed sources consulted by Bloomberg.

According to Bloomberg, Saudi Arabia’s warning is likely to have galvanised opposition from some EU member states against a more forceful approach, despite US and UK pressure for outright seizure. If anything, the warning seems to have worked, watering down initial calls for stronger measures.

For its part, a representative of Riyadh has denied the facts described by the anonymous sources, telling Bloomberg that it was not its government’s style to make such threats. Even so, explaining that the likely impact of any seizure of assets against Russia was possibly indicated to the G7 countries.

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The Western political class and its mainstream media have repeatedly claimed sanctions would bring Russia down to its knees, and yet, the economic siege has been mostly ineffective and counterproductive. While the Russian economy and its war machine are thriving, the main European economies have collapsed. What has gone wrong?

Since the beginning of the armed conflict in Ukraine in 2014, the United States and its vassal states have imposed unprecedented sanctions and trade restrictions on Russia. These measures were intended to sink the Russian economy, dismantle its war machine and limit its ability to finance the war.

Today’s sanctions against Russia go far beyond the traditional sanctions that the United States has used since the end of World War II to “punish” any country that threatens its hegemony on the global geopolitical chessboard, historically targeting the banking system and elites. Yet, they have become the most glaring example of a failure to achieve the desired results through the imposition of economic sanctions.

This Western economic siege was designed to attack the Russian economy on all fronts. On the one hand, to castrate its financing capacity by requisitioning half of its foreign currency and gold reserves, nearly 400 billion euros, and to make it impossible for it to pay its foreign debt in dollars, even if it is willing and able to do so, in order to force a default.

Moreover, the US control over SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), coupled with the hegemony of the petrodollar, allowed them to isolate Russia from the Western-led global economic system, as they had previously done against Iran when the US unilaterally withdrew the nuclear deal after breaching it from day one.

On the other hand, they wanted to curb its hydrocarbon exports and thus limit its ability to finance the war. However, while Western European economies collapsed and even went into recession, the Russian economy grew by 3.6 per cent in 2023 and is expected to grow by another 2.6 per cent in 2024, according to IMF data.

Similarly, despite Western media propaganda constantly repeating that Russia was running out of ammunition and other military supplies, the combined military-industrial capacity of the entire Western bloc and some of its client states, such as South Korea, Japan and Israel, remains far below that of Russia. They cannot even maintain the production needed to fuel the US proxy war in Ukraine, let alone produce enough ammunition for a direct confrontation against Russia.

The so-called international community

Western propaganda rhetoric also has us believe that the international community supports sanctions against Russia. It should be noted that this so-called “international community” only includes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and perhaps Australia, Japan and the occasional Micronesian island. It therefore does not include the large part of the international community who is either against the sanctions or prefers to remain neutral.

This has been reflected in the failure of the ‘real’ international community, including China and India, to follow through on Western sanctions, which has been key to maintaining Russian oil exports. Even towards the European Union and the United States, with the full knowledge of the two Western actors, thus consolidating the hypocrisy of “do as I say, not as I do”.

The same EU has continued purchasing record volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia. This, while the US enriched itself by tripling its EU LNG exports and selling it at a much higher price than Russia, while becoming the world’s largest LNG exporter. All thanks to the economic sanctions and sabotage of the North Stream pipelines.

A new trade and monetary paradigm

Other than those related to the energy sector, the most obvious reasons for the failure of trade sanctions on Russia revolve around implementation issues. Complex supply chains, gaps in exports of dual-use goods and the reluctance of companies to completely discontinue their business with the Russian market have established alternative trade corridors through bordering and related countries in Russia.

In the monetary sphere, the temporary convertibility of the rouble to gold at a fixed price did not mean a return to the “gold standard“, but it became key to recovering and stabilising the rouble’s value after the fall experienced by sanctions. A revaluation of the rouble against the dollar even allowed the Central Bank of Russia to lower interest rates to avoid excessive appreciation of the state currency.

After most Western governments banned imports of Russian gold, China started buying Russian gold in record numbers. In July 2022 alone, it had already imported gold worth 109 million euros, an increase of 750% compared to the previous month and 4,800% compared to the same period in 2021.

Over the past decade, Russia and China have also initiated de-dollarisation programmes, signed de-dollarisation agreements, implemented alternative interbank communication protocol systems to SWIFT and created digital currencies linked to their central banks (CBDCs).

The West has lost all credibility

Leaving aside the hypocrisy of the economic sanctions and the background of the coup d’état orchestrated by Victoria Nuland in Kyiv in 2014 that triggered the current armed conflict in Ukraine, the West lost all credibility as a moral authority decades ago, if it ever had any.

Without wishing to make a compilation of all the wars imposed by the United States and its “allies” over the last decades and justified on a pack of lies, we cannot ignore the current illegal military occupation of countries such as Syria and Iraq by the United States, likewise by Israel in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. It is quite obvious that international law and the sovereignty of nations are only relevant and respected when it suits the West.

If anyone still had any doubts, the political and military support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza has surely vaporised the last ounce of integrity left in the Western moral compass. The complicity of the collective West in bankrolling this massacre is nothing short of a criminal endeavour worthy of a Nuremberg tribunal. Clare Daly, MEP for Ireland, being one of the few white doves in a European Parliament full of war hawks when calling out Ursula von der Leyen as “Frau Genocide”.

Given the West’s blatant hypocrisy on human rights and international law, it is hardly surprising that some of its corporations are simply pretending to comply with the sanctions, while behind closed doors they are doing everything they can to circumvent them. Nor would it be logical to expect the international community to follow the orders of the geopolitical equivalent of a school bully that is increasingly losing its strength when confronted by a multipolar world.

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Gold is a strategic safe-haven asset that continues to play a key role in diversifying investment portfolios. Throughout history, it has remained the ultimate store of value, precisely because it maintains or increases in value during periods of economic uncertainty.

For any investor, allocating all his savings to a single asset is very risky because it exposes him to the ups and downs of a single market. That is why it is recommended to diversify investments across assets so that gains in some securities can offset unexpected losses in others.

One characteristic of gold that sets it apart from most financial assets is that its demand comes from various quarters, from central banks and private investors, who accumulate bullion and coins of this precious metal, to the jewellery industry and electronic device manufacturers, who use it in the creation of their products.

This is precisely the reason for its intrinsic value, which carries no credit risk, cannot be inflated, and has remained unchanged throughout history. In other words, unlike fiat currencies, gold is not subject to devaluations caused by monetary policies or economic factors.

This unique characteristic makes it particularly attractive for diversification and return on savings in times of economic uncertainty. Gold’s ability to maintain its relative value in the face of currency fluctuations makes it a trusted asset for investors and households seeking protection against inflationary risks.

We are seeing this in the current economic context where, for example, for many Chinese families, buying gold has become the safest investment, given that the real estate sector has collapsed and the stock market and currencies have lost their stability. Francesc Canals, correspondent for TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio in Beijing, explains how in recent months, the shopping centres dedicated to the sale of gold “have become veritable pilgrimage centres for Chinese families seeking to invest the savings accumulated during the years of pandemic confinement”.

The strategic role of gold

A report published by the World Gold Council (WGC) on 28 March details the three key attributes that make gold the ideal asset to complement and enhance an investment portfolio.

Generating long-term returns. Historically, it has had positive long-term returns, both in good times and in economic downturns. The diversity of its sources of demand gives gold particular resilience and the potential to generate strong returns in a variety of market conditions.

Diversification that works. The value of many assets follows the same pattern as market uncertainty increases and volatility increases. This is not the case for gold, which has a negative correlation with increased selling of equities and other risky assets.

A large and liquid market. The gold market is large, global and very liquid. The WGC estimates that investors’ and central banks’ holdings of physical gold amount to approximately $5.1 trillion, to which must be added $1.0 trillion in open interest through derivatives traded on exchanges or over-the-counter (OTC).

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There are holidays that celebrate an event; and others that celebrate a structure. Easter Monday belongs to the second category. It does not commemorate any specific evangelical episode, nor any martyrdom, nor any political anniversary. And yet, it persists. It survives labor calendars, state decrees, and the accelerated secularization of the continent. Like many other elements of our calendar, it is not just religion: it is the historical geography of Europe.

Easter, as a cycle, is the heir of an ancient world that understood time as return rather than as a line. Christianity Christianized spring —as it had done with the winter solstice— but it did not invent the human need to celebrate rebirth. What Europe did do was institutionalize this celebration and turn it into a shared social structure. And this is where Easter Monday appears: not as dogma, but as sediment.

The Carolingian legacy: calendar and power

When we think about the Europe that today shares similar festive rhythms —from Catalonia to Bavaria, from France to Austria— we must look back to the time of Charlemagne. The Carolingian Empire did not only unify territories under a single political authority; it unified calendars, liturgies, and customs. Time, at that moment, was a tool of governance.

The consolidation of festive octaves —eight days of celebration around major solemnities— responded to a spiritual pedagogy, but also to a need for order. The people learned the faith, yes; but they also learned to live within a common temporal framework. Easter Monday is part of this architecture: an extension of the main feast, a way of inscribing the resurrection into daily life.

In Catalonia, like December 26 with Saint Stephen —another Carolingian legacy linked to the organization of festive time— Easter Monday remains as a reminder of that Europe that was built both with swords and with calendars. It is not local folklore; it is a continental imprint.

From liturgy to popular culture

Over the centuries, liturgical solemnity gradually transformed into cultural practice. The Easter cake, gatherings, countryside outings, decorated eggs in other regions of Europe… all of this speaks of the same impulse: to celebrate shared life after the austerity of Lent.

It is revealing that many European societies —except the Castilian one— maintain Easter Monday as a civil holiday, even in highly secularized contexts. The United Kingdom, Germany, France or the Scandinavian countries preserve “Easter Monday” as an official holiday. Faith may have receded in the public sphere, but the calendar endures. And when the calendar endures, it means there is sedimented identity.

Because holidays are not just rest; they are organized memory. They remind us that time is not only productivity. Europe was also born from this conviction, which marks that there are days that do not belong to the market, but to the community.

Europe as a community of rhythms

At a time when the European Union is torn between technocracy and identity, speaking about Easter Monday may seem minor. But perhaps it is the opposite. Institutions create rules; traditions create belonging. And Europe, before being a market or a currency, was a shared system of values and time.

The Christian calendar —with all its regional variations— acted as a common language. Major feasts marked collective pauses in diverse societies. The same Christianized solstice at Christmas, the same spring Easter, the same octaves extending the celebration. It was not uniformity; it was mutual recognition.

Easter Monday, therefore, is a modest piece of this architecture. But it is precisely in modest pieces where the solidity of a building is revealed. When a society maintains a celebration it no longer fully knows how to explain, it shows that it still lives within a tradition that sustains it.

When the calendar reveals who we are

We could reduce Easter Monday to a simple long weekend, to a leisure day or to a gastronomic excuse. But that would be looking at the calendar without seeing its geography. The structures of time are moral structures, as they indicate what we consider worthy of being stopped, celebrated, or remembered.

Europe is not just a sum of states; it is a shared inheritance of rhythms. And perhaps its contemporary crisis is not only institutional, but also temporal: we have forgotten why we celebrate what we celebrate.

Easter Monday reminds us that there are continuities that do not shout, but persist. That the past is not a postcard, but an invisible structure that organizes the present. And that a civilization is recognized not so much by what it produces, but by the days it decides not to produce.

In this sense, initiatives like the 11Onze community are not only an economic proposal, but also an attempt to rebuild bonds in a world that tends to dissolve them. Because, just as the shared calendar was one of the invisible foundations of Europe, any community that aspires to endure needs something more than exchanges: it needs shared meaning. And that —like the festivals we still celebrate without fully explaining— is not improvised; it is built with time, awareness, and a will for continuity.

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Els ETF són uns productes financers que aquí es coneixen com a fons d’inversió cotitzats. Es tracta d’uns actius financers híbrids, entre els fons d’inversió tradicionals i les accions, que segueixen l’evolució d’un determinat índex de referència. 

ETF (de l’anglès exchange traded funds) o fons d’inversió cotitzats, són uns fons d’inversió que cotitzen en els mercats de valors. La característica principal d’aquests productes financers és que combinen la diversificació que ofereix una cartera d’un fons d’inversió amb la flexibilitat de la compravenda d’accions.

La seva política d’inversió consisteix a replicar un índex borsari: de renda fixa, de primeres matèries, d’un sector, etc., cosa que els fa molt atractius. D’aquesta manera són un producte molt utilitzat per invertir per tendències o temàtiques perquè, un cop agrupats els actius d’una tendència en un índex, els ETF en repliquen el comportament.

Operativa dels fons cotitzats

Quant a la seva operativa, és igual que la de les accions, ja que cotitzen durant tota la sessió borsària i tenen un valor liquidatiu que es publica al tancament de la sessió. És a dir, el seu valor real no es coneix fins al final de la jornada borsària.

Poden invertir en fons cotitzats tota mena d’inversors, tant institucionals com particulars, els quals poden comprar un ETF a temps real, al preu que fixi el mercat en cada moment. La cotització podrà variar al llarg d’una sessió borsària en funció de l’oferta i la demanda, com passa amb qualsevol altre valor cotitzat, cosa que facilita una gran transparència per als inversors. 

Tipus d’ETF

Encara que tots els ETF repliquen el comportament d’un índex de referència, això es pot portar a terme de diferents maneres: 

• ETF de renda fixa: es comporten de la mateixa manera que els títols o bons de deute, tant públics com privats.
• ETF d’actius monetaris: representen a actius de deute a curt termini i actius monetaris negociats en el mercat interbancari.
• ETF segons capitalització: pot ser petit, mitjà o gran segons la capitalització de les empreses que el conformen.
• ETF sectorial: repliquen índexs d’inversió d’un determinat sector.
• ETF segons l’estil de gestió: fons que inverteixen en empreses amb un cert valor o amb expectatives d’un bon creixement a mitjà o llarg termini. 
• ETF sobre divises: existeixen productes que repliquen l’evolució de les cotitzacions del mercat de Forex.

Els riscos que comporten els ETF

Tot i que hi ha ETF específics amb cobertura per minimitzar el risc de divisa, és important tenir en compte que els ETF no gaudeixen de cap garantia: com en el cas de qualsevol inversió en renda variable o fixa, hi ha un risc de pèrdua del capital invertit inicialment.

Invertir en ETF implica assumir un nivell de risc determinat que dependrà de la composició de l’ETF, de les fluctuacions del mercat i d’altres factors associats a la inversió en valors. Aquests actius d’inversió acostumen a ser fons de renda variable, excepte els que repliquen índexs de renda fixa, per la qual cosa, en general, presenten una volatilitat elevada. 

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