Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (16153)	1/12/2002 5:35:22 AM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 281500

have unbelievable regulation of business I visited a relative in the Ukraine a few months ago. One of the things I was told about the Ukraine is a bribe gets around most of the paperwork. It keeps things simple. Trouble is anyone who opens a business is already breaking some rule somewhere, and is already a "criminal". The authorities can make things hot if they so desire.

To: LindyBill who wrote (16153)	1/12/2002 9:03:20 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 281500

This shows that fixing the peso against the dollar will not work if you don't open up the economy. Currency pegs are absurd. You do it and meanwhile the rest of the world changes, and your own circumstances change, and with the peg have forbidden yourself to adapt. Try to open up a hot dog stand in Argentina and you will see what I mean. Spanish speaking countries tend to have unbelievable regulation of business. Still a holdover from the days when Spain ran things, I suspect. The mercantilist tradition and customs of feudal entitlement by the powerful, which were very strong in Spain, continue to exist in its old colonial sphere. Thus you have protectionism and over regulation and a truly horrible justification of pillage/mordita coupled with patronage on a scale unimaginable in North America - gigantic numbers of government "employees". The huge amount of money existing in the world now compared to older times amplifies difficulties when crises arrive. It's possible to survive protectionism (Japan) or wide spread corruption (Italy) but, apparently, not both. Similar problems, (worse actually) exist in the middle east and parts of Asia. The waste [unexpressed potential] of human effort is tragic.