Obviously I am much less knowledgable about Spain’s situation than you are, but I honestly doubt that any modern, first world nation-state will break up within the near term, with the exception of Canada (if a vote for Quebec’s independence ever comes up again). I would love to see more seccession going on though.
That’s exactly what he’s saying.
I don’t think that necessarily follows. He’s talking about macroeconomic aggregates in the above.
For Krugman to say that the workers of the world must take a pay cut is hypocritical.
País Vasco and Cataluña are similar to Quebec. I believe that País Vasco had a vote some time ago, although not serious (it is unconstitutional to secede from the State) and it was just over 50-percent for those who wanted to remain part of the Spanish State. Cataluña is probably fairly similar in terms of people who want to secede and people who want to remain as part of Spain. That said, the overwhelming majority only support secession through peace. The independence movements died largely under the administration of Aznar, but were refueled by Zapatero, as he used it as a platform to win the 2004 elections (he built a coalition with the regional nationalist parties). With the ongoing recession, there have been more powerful radicals speaking up.
Secession is not very likely. There’s just a small possibility, assuming everything goes wrong (bankruptcy, et cetera).
I don’t understand. He may be talking about wage levels as a whole, but the specific wage level will be microeconomic in nature. This applies to all industries, including those which pay minimum wage. If we agree that high real wages must be cut, then that easily applies to minimum wage, as well. It seems to be as if he’s contradicting himself (apart from the fact that he disagrees with cutting nominal wages, but he agrees with inflating the money supply).