Friday, May 8, 2009

Latvian politicians only want to fill their pockets so far

The Republic of Latvia is experiencing the worst economic crisis. Almost half a year the topic of devaluation has whirled in academic circles and media. There is consensus that slimming of the burgeoning red tape and cutting wages by 50% would serve as an alternative form of devaluation. In the meantime odious former prime minister openly questioned ability of the present government and the Bank of Latvia (BoL) to contain the economic crisis, and speculated after the need to devalue the national currency - the lat.

Today the governor of BoL Mr Ilmārs Rimšēvics openly confronted the former PM and concluded that the irresponsible calls for devaluation are due to the fact that former politician wants to earn money on devaluation! It is the first time when the high ranking official in Latvia indirectly questions moral standards and wish of someone from officialdome to earn money from manipulating the state economy for his private profit. Would there be additional brave revelations similar to Mr Rimšēvics?

11 comments:

Wannabe Sorosieši said...

One of the more egregious examples is the appointment of Kalvītis to the Lattelecom board. Ironically, other potential appointees have, quite ethically, refused their appointments because of conflicts with other responsibilities. We could really use people like Jānis Bergs on such a board, but they act reasonably, unlike people of the ilk of Kalvītis.

Jānis Bērziņš said...

Why Skele wasn't arrested by our KGB?

Anonymous said...

Is there a contradiction?

Mr Berzins or what ever is his actual name previously nominated Mr Rimsevics for Nobels stupidity prize. Now Mr Spolitis calls Mr Rimsevics a brave confronter to Mr Skele and Mr Berzins quite agrees..

Or is it just Mr Spolitis who positively describes Mr Rimsevics while Mr Berzins still thinks that Mr Rimsevics is rather stupid?

Jānis Bērziņš said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jānis Bērziņš said...

Dear Anonymous (beautiful name yours!):

My name IS Jānis Bērziņš. Come to RSU to drink a coffee with me. Visit my blog: blog.janisberzins.lv. About Mr. Rimsevics, I don't think he's stupid. I think I rather nominated him to the Ig Nobel Prize of Economics (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize).

Although he could avoid this mess we have now, he didn't. He even described the structural problems of the Latvian economy very well. But he've chosen to do nothing, shielding his choice with the concept of 'Impossible Trinity' and with the erroneous notion that 'liberal economy' means 'market anarchy'. Interesting that in Latvia this distortion is often used by the authorities to justify the fact they're doing nothing to make real reforms to promote economic development. Let's not discuss here the exchange rate regime he's chosen... Only to remeber the practically all papers on monetary policy deal with the idea that fixed exchange rate is the worst. Remember Asia in the 1990's?

Finally, I don't see how to ask "Why Skele wasn't arrested by our KGB?" may means that I agree that Rimsevics is a brave confronter to Mr. Skele. I was referring to the fact that our KGB arrested a poor guy, that Smirnovs, only because he gave the opinion that tha lats would devaluate. Skele is an influential leader. His opinion counts. Why he wasn't arrested? Because still there isn't in Latvia the right to exprerss yourself freely. There isn't freedom of speech. You maybe arrested, or fired, or whatever, if you tell what you think wide openly, and you're not a big journalist or politician or whatever. In this sense, Latvia still a totalitarian country. In resume: my question is clear. Why Skele wasn't arrested by our KGB?

Veiko Spolitis said...

Tom:

Kalvītis example is just an onslaught on common sense, if you are a democrat. For traditionalists in Latvian governing sysem it seems normal however....And "professionalism" of JL Olafs Pulks in Riga Freeport Board is no better....

VS

Veiko Spolitis said...

Jānis:

First of all SAB nd Security police is not KGB:) If you are still chatting with me and not called by them then it would be a gross mistake to call them KGB like, because if they be KGB, then I suspect that I would not go out for a beer or two with you anymore:)

Jānis Bērziņš said...

Ok, ok. I'm not calling them KGB anymore. I'll call them DOI-CODI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOI-CODI).

Anonymous said...

Time to have another president of Bol as mr. Ilmārs Rimšēvics. Where nobelprizewinner Krugman pleaded months ago for a devaluation, i can only say the comments of mr. Ilmārs Rimšēvics are nonsense and stupid as is the economic policy of the latvian goverment now. Nothing to do with corruption, only with common sense. See http://balticeconomy.blogspot.com/.
Svieki

Australian Chamber of Commerce in Latvia said...

Is it possible that these people occupying leadership positions for their own profit will one day be imprisoned?

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