Final Word from Wednesday, January 30, 2008
In the debate in the Senate with Jan Švejnar yesterday, Václav Klaus admitted that the "transformation costs" of the Czech economy could have reached about Kč 300bn. According to other estimates, twice this amount was actually misappropriated, and in this respect Klaus's surprising admission seems to fit a new pattern that's forming. The old argument that everything was kosher in the 1990s didn't fly, so the tactic has changed. There's a new effort underway to convince the public that although there were some truly nefarious bastards running around in the 1990s stealing left and right, other privatization billionaires from the period were actually fine fellows who didn't nick anything. (See MFD, for example.) Given that these fine fellows are increasingly in control of the media, there's little doubt about which version of the truth about the high-rolling 90s will be entered into the history books.[Czech Republic MF Dnes ČKA]
Glossary of difficult words
Kč 300bn - Klaus said that the transformation costs could have amounted to twice the EUR 5bn that was lost at Société Générale recently;
to misappropriate - to take, steal;
did not fly - was not accepted, was not a success;
nefarious - wicked or criminal;
bastard - scoundrel, villain, rogue;
left and right - on all sides, all over the place;
to nick - to steal;
high-rolling - denoting that large amounts of money are at stake.