Final Word from Friday, September 22, 2006
Thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest to protest against the admitted economic lies of the socialist government, but all's quiet in Prague. Well, not exactly. Finance Minister Vlastimil Tlustý is getting worked up about the "crisis" in public finance and took out paid ads today to accuse the old Paroubek government of intentionally distorting the deficit. Tlustý received indirect support yesterday from Jan Sýkora of Wood & Co., who told Czech Radio that he fears that only the tip of the iceberg has been exposed in Hungary and that investor nervousness will spill over into the CR. Tlustý's concerns are real, but they're mainly political. He, Václav Klaus, Miloš Zeman, and perhaps Miroslav Kalousek will likely use the deficit to justify some kind of grand coalition, opposition agreement or government of national unity. After all, we wouldn't want riots in the streets, would we? [Czech Republic finances debt Jiří ODS ČSSD KDU-ČSL advertisements advertising]