Leszek Balcerowicz is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Poland (1989-1991; 1997-2000) and a former President of the National Bank of Poland (2001-2007).
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Leszek Balcerowicz
Commentaries by Leszek Balcerowicz
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Ukraine’s Own Goal
KYIV – Politics and sports are often an incendiary mix, as the controversy now swirling around the Euro 2012 football championship, to be co…
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The Bailout Bias
WARSAW – The seemingly never-ending debate over the eurozone’s fiscal problems has focused excessively on official bailouts, in particular t…
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A More Perfect Monetary Union
WARSAW – The eurozone is often considered an experiment – a monetary union without political unification. Those who make this claim seem to …
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Trial by Crisis
WARSAW – Episodes like the current financial crisis seriously disrupt economic growth. But the question that we should be asking concerns s…
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Lessons from the Kaczyński’s Poland
The defeat of the Kaczyński twins’ Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Poland brought sighs of relief across Europe. But, as Donald Tusk’s new go…
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Liberty’s Revolutionary Muse
Great social thinkers almost always start out as polarizing figures, admired by some and scorned by others, until their radical challenge to…
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How Can the New Members Catch Up?
Of the ten new EU member states, eight have undergone a transformation whose speed and scope has been unprecedented. Wherever one looks in t…
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Why Wait for the Euro?
Although the EU's eastward enlargement has not yet happened, the debate is already shifting to ask what will follow: when should the new, pr…
Ukraine’s Own Goal
Jan Chudzynski: Exactly 23 years ago, on 4th of June 1989, first post-commust general elections were held in Poland. Without any loss of unbiasedness of my comment, I claim that Mr Balcerowicz's supposed 'clear sepa…
Ukraine’s Own Goal
Frank O'Callaghan: A key question is: can any of the pure systems be democratic? Pure socialism becomes authoritarian and pure capitalism becomes Fascist. The mixed model of many of the Nordic countries has generated th…