37 posts
Latvian Lessons
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video The Baltics are growing after austerity—and they resent Mediterranean bail-outs READ MORE...
Did Latvia really lose that much competitiveness???
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Please think of this as a supplement and a slight challenge to Ed’s fine 23 May 2011 piece on Latvia. Besides giving us the most interesting (or weird? ) title for a long while, he raises some very important questions: Is the Latvian internal deval...
Cross-border story quoted widely
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Two journalists, one story – but how to achieve impact? In the story about the Latvian Brides, cooperation of journalists from two countries led to research so thorough, that the story was quoted in various European countries. Aleksandra Jolkina fr...
"Latvia and its Internal Devaluation" by Monika Gonser
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How does a government get by with up to 35% cuts in public sector wages and mass school and hospital closure? Latvia’s troubles started with the onset of the financial crisis when, as a result of the...
And for my next trick...
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Latvia's new government faces awesome problems. Luckily it has an awesome record...
Latvia: The Demographic Price Of Procrastination
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One of the things I think we can safely say about the impact of the current economic crisis is that the face of Macro Economic theory will never be the same again. Quite what the macro economics of the future will look like is too early to say, but w...
Latvia: Living in the Land of Extremes
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Here in Latvia the internal devaluation continues and the debate is whether the economy is flexible enough for this experiment. I say perhaps it is, Edward says perhaps it isn’t but one thing is for sure: the Latvian economy is (possibly perversel...
EU: Convergence programme Latvia
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Stability programmes for eurozone countries on the one hand, convergence programmes for member states still without the euro; you can start by reading the background remarks on economic policy coordination in the European Union, in the blog post EU:...
Will Latvia get BEREC? - updated
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Update (28 May 2010): Council Document 9880/10 mentioned below has been published - and, as predicted, the winner of the seat of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) is Riga, the capital of Latvia. The EU needs many...
Latvian hacker exposes fat cats: News24: Sci-Tech: News
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Latvian hacker exposes fat cats: News24: Sci-Tech: News...
Too Soon To Cry “Victory” On Latvia?
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“Doom-mongers” - the Economist tells us - “are licking their wounds”. And why exactly are they licking their wounds? Well for two years now (apparently) they have been telling us that “the struggle to save the lat’s pe...
Latvia Is Back In The News, And Expect More To Come
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The Latvian government is getting nervous about the level of lending coming from Swedish banks. According to the Financial Times, “Latvia’s prime minister has warned Swedish banks they risk choking off recovery in the Baltic state’s crisis-...
Was President Klaus right? Pessimism, part II.
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Do you know what does it mean “stipend” in Latvia? It is minimal state support given to rising numbers of unemployed people. It is 100 lats, approx. 140 euro and is given only to people who participate in municipal or state public works.
Why Latvia Is In Such A Mess
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Hat Tip to Aleks Tapinsh - “No wonder this country is in such a mess. Someone posted this video of a payday at the Elkor electronics chain in Latvia. The paycheck as you can see comes in an envelope, in cash. No one pays any taxes. And everyon...
Brief Latvia EU Loan Update
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Well, there is still effectively no word from the IMF. But The EC did today release an addendum to its memorandum of understanding with Latvia identifying a number of economic and fiscal policy measures it wants the country to enact before it receiv...
Wanted: a better EU policy on Latvia
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My editorial in Aftonbladet deals with the crisis in Latvia and ECOFIN discussions about this subject today. A Fistful of Euros has described the situation excellently. The dogmatic refusal to devaluate the Latvian currency is worsening the situat...
Is the Latvia intervention team assembling?
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So we’re in the new era of the Swedish presidency of the European council. Insh’allah this will be the last country presidency under the rotating system once all that Lisbon messiness is sorted out. The Swedes have the advantage of ta...
Latvia`s EP election observations [Marta CERAVA]
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EP elections in Latvia have passed silently. The most attention was taken by local municipal elections and especially of the intrigue who is going to be the next mayor of Riga city. We have elected eight candidates from six different parties. Latvia...
Latvia | To be or not to be
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Concerning our nationality we have no choice. The exception proves the rule. Nearly 400.000 Russians in Latvia are the exception. 17 percent of the whole population. They are non-Latvians. Non-citizens. Stateless. Or at least faceless. Latvia´s go...
Slump: See what kind of nerves the Latvian Prime Minister has?
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The latest GDP growth numbers in Central Europe are a tragedy, but the general situation is not so bad, as The Economist writes. Czech -3.4 % is quite modest result in comparison with Hungary (-6.4%) or poor Latvia (-18.6), both in year-to-year comp...
European Parliament elections 2009 (105): A volunteer's look at the elections in Latvia
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Since I plan to go to Daugavpils in Latvia for the European Parliament election day, I was interested in how others might look on the situation in the country.A German volunteer working in Latvia reports on Youthreporter.eu from Latvia in an article...
The Agony Continues - Latvian GDP Falls By 18% (Updated)
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Latvia’s economy shrank by nearly a fifth (year on year) in the first quarter, according to the latest flash estimate from the national statistics office. Obviously this is a dreadful state of affairs, and illustrates just how difficult the cou...
EP elections activated in Latvia`s social network [Marta CERAVA]
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At last or for a change there is a reason why to congratulate Latvia for having done something important, interesting, useful and maybe even innovative. Latvia`s social network portal draugiem.lv has created a possibility to get more involved in co...
Latvia has it`s European party`s deputy candidate [Marta CERAVA]
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Last week in Latvia has been rather exciting as EP elections are approaching. More and more lists of candidates have been announced and the probable Latvia`s member list in EP is getting clearer. There are not many surprises as most of the top member...
A Dog’s Life In Latvia
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From Vyacheslav Dombrovsky: Just when you thought there is nothing that can surprise you anymore in this country, comes this. LNT’s “Degpunktā” reports that Valmiera state prison had four special guards dogs shot as part of the &#...
Latvia’s Government Resigns
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Latvia’s four-party coalition government resigned today after two of the coalition partners called for Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis to step down. President Valdis Zatlers told a news conference in Riga today that he had accepted the resignation a...
La Crise Claims Her Second Victim
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The Latvian government has become the second European administration to fall as a result of the global economic crisis, following the collapse of Iceland's government last month. Latvia's prime minister resigned today and the government folded as a r...
Why Latvia Needs To Devalue Soon - A Reply To Christoph Rosenberg
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IMF Senior Regional Representative For Central Europe and the Baltics, Christoph Rosenberg, recently took me to task on RGE Monitor about my Latvian devaluation proposal (as did RGE’s own Mary Stokes), and I would like now to take a closer look...
Riots in Latvia: the Violent Side of the Crisis
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A rally organized against the Latvian government turned into a violent protest. An when some hundred people tried to break in the Parliament, many did not seem suprised.
Referendum in Latvia failed
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Yes, there are still referenda in the European Union that are not EU-related:In Latvia, a referendum that aimed at giving the population the right to dissolve the parliament has failed due to low turnout (39% instead of >50%).But since 97% voted in f...
