SOCIALISM'S GREATEST HOUR?:

Polish Privatization Will Narrow Budget Gap: Treasury Is Planning to Raise $12.8 Billion by Selling State Assets (MALGORZATA HALABA, 9/28/09, WSJ)

Poland's government, faced with a 2010 budget likely to include a ballooning deficit and heavy borrowing, has little choice but to proceed with its ambitious privatization plan while hoping for a quick recovery, economists say. [...]

In late July, the Polish Treasury presented an updated privatization plan aimed at raising 36.7 billion zlotys ($12.8 billion) by the end of 2010 through the sale of state-owned assets. The ministry expects to sell 25 billion zlotys in assets next year, effectively drawing Poland's privatization process to a close 20 years after the end of communism.

"In the short term, accelerated privatization is the only way -- privatization, a fast economic recovery and a strong zloty," said Radoslaw Bodys, an economist with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London. "If not, it will be impossible to avoid tax increases in the long term."

When capitalism has a "crisis" we respond with more capitalism and folks wonder whether this is really the End of History?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 28, 2009 4:51 PM