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From a total of 34 OECD countries, 29 of them have a minister for regulatory reform – Slovakia is not one of them. 33 OECD countries have a permanent institution for overseeing regulatory policy – Slovakia is not one of them.

The Centre for Economic and Market Analyses published a study about the shadow economy in the Czech Republic. The study deals with the theoretical aspects of shadow economy, methodology and definition, it includes international comparison, determination of driven factors as well as provides a further analysis of chosen industries.

The selection of administrative nonsenses listed every year gives a perfect overview of how many obstacles entrepreneurs must overcome if they want to run business in Slovakia. Feel free to nominate a nonsense that bothers you most – visit www.byrokratickynezmysel.sk and submit your suggestion until this Sunday.

Hopefully, PiS will moderate its economic programme after the election and renounce some of its harmful pre-election promises. If the new government decides to choose the “Orbánisation” path it will be harmful for Poland, the region and the EU

On October 28, Colleen Bell, American ambassador to Hungary, pointed out the dire political and social problems Hungary faces today – problems it must solve. The speech, delivered at a university in Budapest, is not the first criticism Hungary received from its Western ally.

After years of being ignorant to the ICT and the digital economy in general, the Czech Republic has now changed its position and declares its full support to the digital agenda as well as the EU Digital Single Market Strategy. The problem, however, is that the actual implementation of these promises has been lagging behind for a long time.

Security is the biggest challenge for our economy. To counteract a similar challenge, Israel, for example, is entirely militarized, regardless of the fact that numerous international lobbyist groups assist it, including financially. A country facing such security challenges might have armed forces three or four times stronger than Georgia and a defense budget 10 times larger.

The more powers, functions and mechanisms concentrated in the hands of a government, the more etatistic its policy with the people more restricted by, and subordinated to, the government. And vice versa, in a country where the government has very few functions, people live, act, study and work more freely.

Despite the likely win of the PiS, the Polish election is going to open large space of uncertainty. Minority government of the Law and Justice might be the outcome. However, such government would not be able to rule the country for long and the next early elections could be expected as early as in 2016.

Soon after the outbreak of Volkswagen scandal, it was found out that not only Volkswagen, but also many other, and potentially, all car producers which release diesel cars have the same problem. Their management, who cheated their way around the strict emission limits, eats humble pie at the press conferences.