'fear of a bank freeze is palpable’

Should you want to see the real effects of the Spanish debt crisis, the Pluton Bar in Sant Pol de Mar, Catalonia, is a good place to start. Over morning coffees, customers discuss sovereign defaults, credit spreads and a possible euro exit.

There is certainly plenty to talk about – and complain about too. Local property taxes are set to rise by 15pc, on top of recent state income and capital gains tax increases. The national tax increase is supposed to be temporary, but no one believes rates will come down any time soon.

Banks also come in for a lot of stick. A local restaurant owner complained that her savings bank manager refused to let her take €30,000 out of her account. The money was needed to get the restaurant ready for the summer rush. New small print lets the bank block withdrawals, even on instant-access accounts. It took two weeks for the bank to relent. Apparently, it could block savings for two years if it wanted.

Changes to lletra petita (small print) are rife and rarely in customers’ favour. Banks and mutual lenders changed their terms and conditions when a new law to limit super dipòsits (high-interest accounts) came into force last year. Before the law took effect, big banks could afford to offer high rates. Weaker rivals saw money walk out of the door. The new small print might save them from a bank run, but fear of a corralito – a bank freeze – is palpable.

When Argentina defaulted on its debts in 2001, the government simply banned withdrawals over a certain size. Might Spain have to do the same to stop a bank run? That seems unlikely, but it hasn’t stopped me from making contingency plans.

I’ve stopped transferring money from the UK to my Spanish account on a monthly basis. Swiss friends are holding on to their beloved francs. “Little and often” transfers cost more, yet even a short-term corralito would kill our household finances.

At least we have money and I am earning in sterling. The weakened euro makes the Burgins feel marginally better off, a dead euro might not. A quick call to my mortgage bank shows just how unprepared the country is should Spain exit the euro or default on its debts. My mortgage is in euros and the interest rate pegged against the Euribor wholesale interest rate.

I ask what would happen if we went back to the peseta. Would my repayments rise or fall? The woman from Lloyds Bank International replies with another question: “Why are all the customers asking about this today?” Why indeed?

A promised call back with a sensible answer from the finance department fails to materialise. Instead, the Barcelona branch manager calls to tell me a default is highly unlikely. He also admits that he has no idea what would happen to the mortgage if Spain dropped out of the euro. I am not reassured.

Friends who, along with thousands of others, were sold a multi-currency mortgage in 2007 are actively considering handing back the keys to their home, even though their debts could haunt them for life. These loans were pegged to the Japanese yen, and banks promised zero interest rates and lower monthly payments. Since then, the euro has dropped by some 40pc and the cost of repaying such loans has risen by two thirds.

Visual Arts Society Gala a feast for the senses

The 20th annual Spring Gala and Silent Art Auction, on behalf of Jacksonville State University’s Visual Arts Society (VAS), was held on May 17 at the Victoria Inn in Anniston.

Gale Brodie, Jean Pugliese, Linda Mann and Jason Wright — as well as other VAS Board members — organized the event with help from Jane Greene, Ron Baker and Sharon Wasden. JSU President Bill Meehan and his wife, Beth Meehan, were on hand to greet those in attendance.

The weather could not have made for a more perfect evening. Guests spilled out onto the Victoria’s lovely tiered patio to socialize with friends and listen to the music of the Manabu Saeki Band, a jazz trio.

Everyone enjoyed sampling a variety of red and white wines as well as delectable hors d’oeuvres. Those yummies included platters of seasonal vegetables, mushroom and goat cheese tartlets, lump crab cakes and roast beef bites with horseradish cream.

While mixing and mingling continued outside, the silent auction inside The Victoria’s front dining room was in full swing. Almost two dozen pieces of art, donated by area artists, covered a variety of mediums, from oil paintings to jewelry and prints. Those pieces were in hot bidding wars all evening!

The area artists whose work was up for grabs included Dr. David Cummings, who donated an enchanting photograph entitled “Paris for Lovers,” shot in a garden with the Eiffel Tower visible in the background. Another print — “Garden Gate at Kent” taken in Kent County, England, was donated by David’s wife, Lesa Cummings. David and Lesa’s daughter, Lori Cummings, proved that artistic talent runs in the family with her donation of a hand-blown glass vase and bowl.

Other auction items included an oil painting by Lee Manners, who served as head of the JSU art department for 20 years, and a heliogravure print from Jauneth Skinner, who is the current department head.

Diana Cadwallader, Jack Hadder, Paulette B. Parks, Bryce Lafferty and George Cox all donated watercolor pieces.

Retired Anniston architect Julian Jenkins donated a charcoal sketch while local artist Betty Groover crafted a mosaic mirror.

Birmingham artist Sally Wood Johnson donated a series of digital prints. Laverne Lombardi provided a knitted and beaded boa fashioned from recycled silk fiber. Allison McElroy donated an elemental object collection entitled “Flightless.”

A ceramic vase and teapot was donated by JSU art professor Steve Loucks, and a crocheted necklace and watch were given by Dawn Swenson.

Anita H. Stewart donated a color photograph that she took of the old Anniston Land Company building. Retired Army Maj. Rose Munford Tolliver donated a collage crafted from recycled magazine pieces.

Creativity can change young lives

Several years ago, I was employed by York Arts in ArtWorks!, a public-service project for teenagers on probation. For several months, the group worked on community and individual assignments -- beginning with the destruction of a room full of tiles.

I will always remember the look of gleeful disbelief as they were handed safety goggles and hammers and told to pound away at the stacks of tile that needed smashing for their mosaics. Or the faint hope expressed briefly in tough faces as they held up their works in progress which were always met with much-needed praise.

As the weeks passed, Kevin Lenker, the executive director in charge of the project, deftly guided these young men and women through the process of creation, its inner mysteries teaching patience and discipline and ultimately revealing some of the hidden potential within the broken pieces of their lives that encouraged seeking restoration for their crimes.

Sadly, programs like these are often the last to receive funding during times of economic downturn. Many of us rationalize that we must be logical and provide the necessities of life first. While I agree to a certain extent, it is the artistic expression -- paintings, music and the written word -- that will hearten us through the hard times and help us to find a hope for the future.

Share the timeless spark of creation with a young man and his pen can bring forth stories of entertainment and wisdom. Teach a child music and you give her the power to transform muteness into melody. Give a few kids broken tile and glass and they will bless a community with a new vision.

Within the Parkway Housing Authority lies the "Peace in Our Community" mosaic assembled by the staff and volunteers of York Arts. The montage of colorful pieces depicts three angels who appear to be keeping guard over the residents of York County. On a recent visit, I stood in the cold air, the glow of house lights and the angels' countenances seeming to mix into a mirage of heaven. Through a drizzle, we regarded one another with mutual understanding.

I closed my eyes and an image formed in my mind of a group of young people standing in the grass, in the middle of the darkness, hands in the grout, placing piece after piece of tile into the mold, making this mosaic to inspire, to encourage, or even change a life. Little earth angels, filled with the joy of doing what they love. There are many young people like this in York today.

When I was growing up the local art scene was dismally empty. Except for a few brave high school teachers and local professionals sounding the clarion call, and mostly for dance and music, anyone interested in pursuing creative endeavors was left largely abandoned. To the young dreamer, helpless without a craft, the shifting sands of life amid the demands to conform to a future I couldn't envision seemed impossible to manage. And so I left York. I moved to New York City to live and breathe the expansive creative world in that City of Dreams.

But by the time I returned to York, enter left stage, venues like York Arts; DreamWrights, welcoming families into that lemon-yellow, unpretentious slice of joy and wonder; OrangeMite Studios, where original plays and films are scripted and directed by local artists; the YCPrep Community School offering top notch musical instruction; and closest to my heart, the Professional Writing program at York College, where my own earth angels -- Dr. Madeline Yonker, Dr. Dominic Delli Carpini, Professor Cynthia Crimmins and Dr. Anthony Fredericks shared their tools and further helped me find my voice.

Pipeline in limbo as China slows

BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers yesterday admitted the miner was wrong to pledge $US80 billion ($82bn) on projects such as the Olympic Dam expansion and an outer harbour at Port Hedland, saying the current economic conditions had made the resources giant more cautious on its spending outlook.

"This is a conservative, low-risk company," Mr Kloppers said yesterday, adding that most companies "blow themselves up" because they were overly exuberant rather than overly pessimistic.

Mr Kloppers's comments signal that the BHP board is almost certain to delay spending on some of its major new projects in Australia - including the $30bn Olympic Dam copper and goldmine expansion in South Australia and the $20bn outer harbour for iron ore exports in the Pilbara - amid the latest round of global economic uncertainty.

The admission came as Mr Kloppers cast fresh doubts over Wayne Swan's promise to deliver a $1.5bn budget surplus in 2012-13 through the controversial mining tax that starts next month. He said BHP would escape paying much of the tax if iron ore prices continued to weaken and the Australian dollar remained strong.

"It is almost impossible to forecast," he said of BHP's expected contribution to the minerals resource rent tax. "It is a highly volatile tax."

The federal Treasurer last month downgraded expected MRRT revenue from $10.6bn to $9.7bn over the first three years, but analysts have questioned this figure and claim the big miners could pay less due to generous depreciation allowances.

The Gillard government has said previously that the three big companies that helped design the MRRT - BHP, Rio Tinto and Xstrata - will account for about 90 per cent of the revenue.

Mr Kloppers conceded BHP had erred last year in promising $US80bn in capital spending over four years, before China's economy began to slow and commodity prices retreated. "We said to the market (18 months ago) we are going to do all of these things - what we should have said is we have the ability to do all of these things, should the conditions be right," he said.

"We just don't want to make that mistake in reverse by saying we will do this on that date."

Mr Kloppers would not comment on whether the BHP board would approve construction of the Port Hedland outer harbour by the end of the year, but he said the iron ore price would play a crucial role in whether it went ahead.

Iron ore is trading at about $US135 a tonne - down from a high of $US180 last year - but some analysts have forecast it could fall below $US100. "We may or may not approve the outer harbour by the end of the year," Mr Kloppers said. "If the iron ore price goes to $US80 tomorrow, we probably won't."

Despite his bearishness about future expansions, Mr Kloppers said there were no signs that customers were cancelling orders and he believed Australian iron ore producers were well placed to continue to meet Chinese demand in the long term.

"We've got lower demand overall from a global perspective and that means supply conditions in some products are clearly different from what they were in September of last year," he said. "But customers are continuing to perform. I just looked at our overdues. They are extremely low . . . which means that customers are continuing to pay."

Earlier, Mr Kloppers told a Perth business breakfast that Australians' reluctance to move to work in the mining industry was just as important to the nation's economic future as the debate over boosting productivity.

He believed Australians were less likely to leave their families to work in the mining industry than Americans and Canadians.

The debate over interstate migration erupted last month after billionaire Gina Rinehart won government approval for an Enterprise Migration Agreement to import up to 1700 foreign workers for her Roy Hill iron ore project in the Pilbara.

Mr Kloppers said BHP had not yet needed to use an EMA, but he believed policymakers should examine why Australians were unwilling to move to work in the mining industry.

"People are simply not willing enough to move to Western Australia and to Queensland," he said.

Mr Kloppers said there was no single solution to addressing the issue of declining productivity in Australia. "We often think there is one silver bullet that is going to change the overall course of competitivity," he said. "The reality is it's a mosaic of things interacting."

Democrats Grab a Chance to Speak With One Voice

If there was any doubt that the White House strongly supports legislation to make it easier for women to sue over unequal pay, clarity was provided on Monday by President Obama himself. He jumped on a routine conference call with reporters to push the measure, known as the Paycheck Fairness Act, saying, “I don’t have to tell you how much this matters to families across the country.”

One of his key deputies, Valerie Jarrett, also made the conference call rounds and appeared to open a Twitter account Monday for the purpose of promoting the bill.

It was an unusual example of all-hands-on-deck coordination between the White House and Congressional Democrats in advance of a key procedural vote on the paycheck legislation set for Tuesday. It also represented a serious effort to develop a consistent message at a time of increasing economic turmoil and mounting political anxiety.

By contrast, Congressional Republicans — even those who are something short of elated about Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy — have managed to coordinate with his campaign on the major issues of the day, centered on Speaker John A. Boehner’s catchphrase, “Where are the jobs?”

For instance, while Republicans in Congress virtually unanimously support a vote to continue the Bush-era tax cuts for all earners, the White House has called for higher taxes on households with more than $250,000 in income.

But Congressional Democrats cannot seem to decide whether they favor Mr. Obama’s threshold or a $1 million cap first proposed by Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York in 2010.

Republicans are almost wholly unified on the push for an extension of the Keystone XL pipeline — something Mr. Romney has also supported — but Democrats are divided over the issue.

While Republicans are gaining unity in their fight against looming cuts to the Pentagon, it is not clear that Democrats are working together to maintain the cuts, which Mr. Obama has said must stay in place in the absence of an acceptable compromise on taxes and spending.

A bill to ease regulations on start-up companies, one strongly supported by Mr. Obama, divided Democrats.

Further, while Congressional Democrats have created a legislative agenda that revolves around women — taking on domestic violence, contraception issues and paycheck fairness — they have also begun to complain about Mr. Obama’s focus on that very agenda, saying it should be more concentrated on jobs and the economy.

“Obviously there are choices to make,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, when asked about the paycheck fairness bill, which he supports. “I don’t feel that you pursue this setting aside other concerns. I continue to make the case to the administration that they ought to be pulling out all the stops for tax reform,” adding that it appeals to both parties.

The White House is clearly aware of the problem. Mr. Obama tried on Monday to frame the issue of paycheck inequity between men and women as one that has direct impact on the economy. “This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class,” he said. “Congress has to stand up and do its job.”

Republican unity of course has not been a theme of the 112th Congress. The party continues to fight over its support for things like the continuation of payroll tax breaks and student loan bill rate extensions and transportation financing. But when it comes to pushing an overarching message with their presidential candidate, they may be ahead for now.

Sometimes, this is accomplished with this Congress as much as by what members do not say as by what they do.

For instance, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who has led the charge to build a more conservative Republican Senate presence, opposes an extension of a lower student loan rate. But Mr. DeMint recently praised Mr. Romney for remaining supportive of the loan-rate extension, arguing that it kept him from getting mouse trapped by Democrats.

Democrats have been relying on legislation concerning women’s issues as an anchor all spring, jamming Republicans on votes concerning domestic violence, contraception and other matters. Republicans have scrambled to respond, forming a Republican women’s policy caucus or trying to cobble together their own counter legislation.

The paycheck legislation seems to have vexed the Romney campaign — Mr. Romney will not state clearly whether he supports it.

“Of course Governor Romney supports pay equity for women,” said Amanda Henneberg, a campaign spokeswoman. “In order to have pay equity, women need to have jobs, and they have been getting crushed in this anemic Obama economy, losing far more jobs than men.”

The idea of paycheck fairness legislation — which builds on the Equal Pay Act of 1963 — would bar employers from retaliating against women who seek to learn their co-workers’ pay and opens up more pathways for seeking punitive damages against employers found to discriminate, by way of the paycheck, against women.

Why hasn't the world's largest retailer cracked online sales?

Some 14,000 Walmart employees and shareholders gathered last Friday for the annual meeting of the world's largest retailer in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but the biggest presence at the gathering was a man who has been dead for 20 years.

A huge mosaic of Sam Walton, Walmart's founder, flickered on a giant screen in the Bud Walton Arena, home to the University of Arkansas's basketball team. Retired and current employees told stories of how they had pleased or irked Walton, while his children – including Walmart's current chairman Rob Walton – recalled how their father had put them to work in the first store he opened in neighbouring Bentonville in 1962.

Veteran observers of the annual gatherings say the company has long invoked Walton as an attempt to connect the now vast retailer – with operations stretching from China to Asda in the UK – to its roots in rural Arkansas. The focus on Sam Walton may have been even stronger than usual because the meeting also marked the company's 50th birthday.

But it was no surprise that many of this year's references to the founder came spiced with an ethical flavour. The meeting came in the wake of allegations that Walmart paid more than $20m (13m) in bribes to Mexican officials to accelerate its expansion in the Latin American country. "Our governance is rooted in the set of values that dad put in place," Rob Walton told staff and investors. The company is investigating the allegations.

Although the corruption scandal dominated the headlines from the gathering, historians of Walmart say it is another of Walton's traits – the ability to innovate – that the company is in urgent need of as consumers increasingly do their shopping online. Walmart generated less than 2pc of its sales on the web last year, according to Kantar Retail. The company still generated $443.9bn of sales and $15.7bn of profits, but analysts say the pressure on Walmart to increase its online muscle is intensifying.

Online shopping in the US is forecast to grow substantially. Sales over the web will reach $279bn by 2015 compared with $152bn in 2008, research group Forrester predicts. Worryingly for Walmart, that growth should offer online specialists such as Amazon the opportunity to compete with it on price – the retailer's strongest and, to its critics, most controversial selling point. And given the rapid growth of smartphones more of the retailer's customers, typically lower income families, are able and willing to shop online.

"To me it's an incredible area of vulnerability," says Charles Fishman, the author of The Wal-Mart Effect, a history of how the company changed retailing. "Online retailing has been there 10 years. What's going on? Why haven't they figured it out?"

The company used the gathering in Bentonville to remind everyone of its ambition to add another 100 supercentres this year to the more than 3,000 it has in the US, but it was also evident that Walmart recognises the need to get to grips with online.

Marissa Meyer, a senior executive at Google, was elected to Walmart's board in a sign that it recognises it is short of people who can help the company navigate the digital map. At a session between analysts and executives following the main event, chief executive Mike Duke encouraged analysts to direct questions to Neil Ashe. The former head of digital at US national broadcaster CBS, Ashe was hired by Walmart in January to run online retailing. "We're in the process of acquiring a really talented team in Silicon Valley," he said.

Showcasing the best of Jamaican art

Works are by a wide variety of Jamaica's greatest artists, both the older masters whose works fill the important collections and the younger generation that is carrying the torch onwards. Jamaica's art world is a fascinating place, filled with wonderful characters, stories and bursts of genius. This exhibition manifests all of this.

Highlights include a series of works by great artist Carl Abrahams. These works include a romantic seascape 'Island in the Sun', one of his glorious angel paintings, and a set of pencil and watercolour sketches that are intriguing, collectible and affordable. Carl Abrahams was a pioneering genius of Jamaican art. He began as a cartoonist and studied with the Welsh painter Augustus John. Lyrical, luminous and brilliant, Abrahams is rightly regarded as one of the founding fathers of Jamaican art.

Jamaica's great landscape painter Albert Huie is represented by two glorious landscape works and a number of portraits, including 'The Man with a Hat', 'The Golden Boy' and a female nude. Considered by many to be Jamaica's most prominent artist, Huie was part of a group of artists that started their careers in the 1930s under the instruction of Koren der Harootian. He is noted for his highly accomplished impressionistic style, with little dabs of oil paint that coalesce and form at a distance, yet his themes are wholly Jamaican.

The magnificent surrealist Colin Garland has a number of romantic works, including an ethereal Madonna and a pair of noble horses, male and female. Although born in Australia, Garland made Jamaica his home and his work is filled with the light and magic of the island. In the words of Jamaican art historian Petrine Archer-Straw "Inspired by both Haitian and Jamaican self-taught painters such as John Dunkley, but underpinned by a taste for the fantastic, in the works of artists such as Botticelli, Bosch, Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Richard Dadd, he brought a wry, intellectual humour to his depictions of life in the Caribbean."

Edna Manley's classic lithographs include 'New Moon', 'Sunrise', 'Sunset', 'Wind and Rain', 'Into the Sun', 'Horse of the Morning', and 'Moses'. This limited edition is rightly revered by many collectors as an outstanding body of work by an artist who did much to shape and form modern Jamaican art. Although nearly 30 years old, these works remain fresh and strong.

Individual works that shine very brightly are Seya Parboosingh's 'My Mother at the Beach' and a glorious 'Mother and Child' by Nelson Cooper that captures the loving intensity of a mother's bond with her child. The 'Ancient Sawyers' by Gaston Tabois is a bright, dramatic mosaic of Jamaican life and colour. There are also two magnificent sculptures by Winston Patrick that are part of a limited edition. Laura Facey's deep and delicate piece 'Salt Kilns' is a beautiful reflection from her time living in Salt Island.

The collection is rounded out with outstanding works by Kapo, a striking male nude by JudyAnn MacMillan, Milton George, Christopher Gonzalez, Osmond Watson, three excellent David Boxer paintings, Roberta Stoddart, Eric Smith, Gloria Escoffery, Fitz Harrack, Eric Cadien, David Pottinger, Aubrey Williams, Phanel Toussaint, Nelson Cooper, Cecil Baugh, George Rodney, Allan 'Zion' Johnson, Roy Reid, and Alexander Cooper.

Of the younger generation, there is Khary Darby's magnificent 'Leda', a beautiful and slightly disturbing image referring to the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, Oliver Myrie's 'Dark Rider', a powerful work by Michael 'Flyn' Eliot and one of Tricia Gordon-Johnston's Genesis Series.