Although Mateusz Morawiecki (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development) often says that his plan would be based on the idea of both governmental and private saving and investing, the programme itself shows quite the opposite: the government just wants to spend money immediately on certain investments and branches.
Economic slowdowns are always challenging for the state authorities. Expenditure cuts and search for new sources of income often lead to imperfect policy changes. In 2012, KGHM became a victim of a government’s hunt. As a result, the company was forced to pay a new silver and copper extraction tax.
Taking a loan in a foreign currency puts both borrowers and banks at risk. At the time of signing the contract, both providers and takers neglected the possible weakening of Polish zloty, believing in its further strengthening. Besides the fact that one can easily learn about it from various sources, the majority of borrowers knew that such a danger exists.
“Inequality” refers to very important aspects of social life. But the debate on equality is full of confusion because of its many meanings, methodological and empirical errors and very strong emotions which “inequality” evokes. Conceptual confusion includes the lack of precise distinction between the inequality of situation and the inequality of opportunity.
As for the parliamentary elections, I felt much more uncertain. Like many others, I took the possibility of a coalition around the Law and Justice Party into account. In this variant, the president’s office in the hands of Komorowski became strategically important to prevent various anti-reforms (e.g. lowering the retirement age). I also did not rule out a weak coalition around the Civic Platform.
Is a ghost airport a symbol of economic nonsense or financial mismanagement? These terms have been used to describe Radom-Sadków Airport located in Central Poland. In the last few years, the investment of the city local authorities has become a jeering synonym of wastefulness and megalomania of Polish public sector.
We should open our minds to the notion of individual responsibility and entrepreneurship. We have to take responsibility and the costs of our mistakes. The recipe for growth is no technocratic engineering. Growth goes through entrepreneurship, mistakes, reactions to mistakes and risk-taking. These elements are critical.
Many people, both in the West and in the former socialist countries, display an attitude which I call—somewhat pointedly—“a mentality of Soviet official”. It is a generalized belief: “whatever problem there exists, only the state can solve it.” The state is perceived as a deity, i.e. an omniscient and benevolent being with unlimited resources.
