Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Salute to Romania
Polistra salutes Romania. Not for any special event, but simply for being amazingly competent. I had stupidly ASSumed that Romania had fallen apart after the end of dictatorship, like so many of its neighbors.
I was dead wrong. Some news item led me to look at this Wiki summary, which is highly illuminating.
Ceausescu was the nastiest ruler in Europe, but his austerity policies left Romania with a clean financial slate. No debt. Its new rulers have taken full advantage of that clean start, resulting in a well-balanced economy (automobiles, agriculture, oil) with the lowest unemployment in Europe and an annual surplus instead of an annual deficit. They privatized the old state enterprises and made the privatization work for the people, instead of leaving industry in the same hands with slightly different names, as happened in Russia.
Compare with Greece. Night and day.
So I deeply apologize to one of the very few competent nations in the modern world. Maybe Romania needs to toot its own horn a bit more.
= = = = =
Artistic footnote: Mr Sun is not trying to be a hipster. His unshaven look is just a GIF artifact.
¶ 4:03 PM 
Polistra salutes Romania. Not for any special event, but simply for being amazingly competent. I had stupidly ASSumed that Romania had fallen apart after the end of dictatorship, like so many of its neighbors.
I was dead wrong. Some news item led me to look at this Wiki summary, which is highly illuminating.
Ceausescu was the nastiest ruler in Europe, but his austerity policies left Romania with a clean financial slate. No debt. Its new rulers have taken full advantage of that clean start, resulting in a well-balanced economy (automobiles, agriculture, oil) with the lowest unemployment in Europe and an annual surplus instead of an annual deficit. They privatized the old state enterprises and made the privatization work for the people, instead of leaving industry in the same hands with slightly different names, as happened in Russia.
Compare with Greece. Night and day.
So I deeply apologize to one of the very few competent nations in the modern world. Maybe Romania needs to toot its own horn a bit more.
= = = = =
Artistic footnote: Mr Sun is not trying to be a hipster. His unshaven look is just a GIF artifact.
¶ 4:03 PM
