Final Word from Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The Aesop fable about the hardworking ant and the frolicking grasshopper hasn't applied to the CR, because winter has never set in here, other than some chills in 1997. Without having hit bottom, the Czechs haven't had to pick themselves up and put their house in order. Central Bank Board Member Pavel Řežábek said yesterday in MFD (disguised as CEO Pavel Kavánek of ČSOB) that this is just what the CR should do with its public finances in the coming years, instead of rushing to adopt the euro. The urgency applies to many other facets of society too. Czechs, for example, are dying needlessly on unsafe roads, because too much highway-construction money is being stolen. And the number of foreign tourists visiting Prague is starting to decline, because they're tired of being cheated. The good news is that it's not too late to begin the ant-like work needed to set all this straight.[Czech Republic Czech National Bank currency crisis tourism MF Dnes]