What Poland can teach the U.S. - Granite Grok

What Poland can teach the U.S.

Did you know that Poland is “the only country in the European Union to avoid recession in 2009 and has been the fastest-growing EU economy since”? Wanna know why?

In a Wall Street Journal essay today, it is explained that Poland has an economic and political leader named Leszek Balcerowicz. He notes that markets don’t “fail,” they are messed up by politicians and their bad policies: “Generally in the West, intellectuals like to blame the markets,” he says. “There is a widespread belief that crises occur in capitalism mostly. The word crisis is associated with the word capitalism. While if you look in a comparative way, you see that the largest economic and also human catastrophes happen in non-market systems, when there’s a heavy concentration of political power—Stalin, Mao, the Khmer Rouge, many other cases.”

“This idea that markets tend to fall into self-perpetuating crises and only wise government can extract the country out of this crisis implicitly assumes that you have two kinds of people. Normal people who are operating in the markets, and better people who work for the state. They deny human nature.”

Balcerowicz “loves James Madison’s ‘angels’ quote: ‘If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.'” He also likes the Tea Partiers in America: “Their essence is very good. Liberal media try to demonize them, but their instincts are good. Limited government. This is classic. This is James Madison. This is ultra-American! Absolutely.”

The entire article appears in The Journal HERE.

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