Final Word from Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Few Czechs have noticed the financial crisis going on outside their walls, and most of those who have noticed are harboring the belief that the CR will somehow be spared. George Soros throws cold water on this by saying that everything since the 1980s has been an aberration that has created a super bubble. At fault, he says in his new book, is the misconception that markets can correct themselves, no matter how much we abuse them. (Are you listening, Mr. Klaus?) Soros's time frame coincides with the CR's own post-Communist development. The country has spent these 19 years rushing pell-mell into the very world financial system that is now coming unglued. Soros argues that a new paradigm is now needed, not just a rearranging of the deck chairs. Czechs can't fix the world's problems but, as MP Michal Doktor of ODS suggested in MFD, they can spend more time thinking about what comes next.[Czech Republic Václav MF Dnes A New Paradigm for Financial Markets]
Glossary of difficult words
to harbor - to keep in one's mind;
George Soros - the title of the book is, "The New Paradigm for Financial Markets";
aberration - an unwelcome departure from what is normal, usual or expected;
pell-mell - headlong, at full speed, hastily;
to rearrange the deck chairs (on the Titanic) - to make cosmetic changes that do not remove the inherent risks.