Talk:Balcerowicz Plan

My English is too poor to directly improve this article, but there are plenty of non-truth psedo-information given here: Among others:

"No protection of domestic entities was ever implemented."

This is not true - the market was opening gradually, and many protection mechanism were enabled during the implementing the programme. (among others: high border duties for selected foreign products, high, direct financial support for coal and steel industry, etc.).

"Most profitable businesses were sold first, often without tenders, leaving weaker ones under the government managment and unable to compete on open market. E.g. Philip Morris paid in 1996 about US$ 200 million for Krakow factory, including its 1/3 share of US$ 5 billion a year Polish tobacco market (investment paid off in just a few days)."

This is also not true. First of all at the beggining it was difficuilt to judge which companies are indeed profitable and which are not. The privatisation started about 1 year after the implementing Belcerowicz Plan. Balcerowicz Plan started in 1989 and was finished in 1994... In 1996 the goverment was ruled by former communist party (SLD), which was officially saying that they do not continue the Balcerowicz Plan... And the estimation of the value of Polish tobacco market is around US$ 1 billion a year - not a 5 billion. The Krakow factory (formely part of Polish Monopol Tytoniowy - Polish Tobbacco Monopoly) holded only formally 1/3 of market. In fact it was declining due to the poor management and lack of investment funds, and in 1996 it was around 1/4-1/5...

"Initial managment of Polish finance system from 1989 by LB resulted in hyperinflation."

This is also not true. In fact the hyperinflation started at about 1986 (still under cummunist party led goverment) and the main target of Balcerowicz Plan was to end this process. Indeed, the financial reform of Polish banking system, and severe cuts in govermental spending, as well as reform of taxation system - which was a core of the Balcerowicz Plan, ended the hyperinflation after three years of implementing the programme:

Table of inflation in Poland:

1986 - 117.5%
1987 - 125.3%
1988 - 161.3 %
1989 - 343.8 %
1990 - 717.8 % (the begging of Balcerowicz Plan)
1991 - 171.1 %
1992 - 142,4%
1993 - 134,6%
1994 - 93.2%
1995 - 73.2% (the end of Balcerowicz Plan)
1996 - 34.5%

"While the local currency lost value daily, the foreign currency exchange was subsidized from the state treasury."

This also not true. The foreing currency exchange hasn't been subsidizied in any way. Quite the opposite - first the foreing exchange rates were made more realistic but stable. Under communist goverement the official currency exchange rates were much more lower then the black market exchange rates - and Balcerowicz inreased the official rates to the black market level, making polish currency - zloty - "internally freely exchangable" which meant that every one can change zloty but only in real cash (no electronic transfers) and only inside Poland. This did not cost the state treasury a penny. The World Bank established 1 billion US$ "stablisation" fund - to keep foreing exchange rates stable - but it was never used, simply becasue there wasn't such a need, and this stabilisation fund had mainly psychological importance.

"State social security pension system was privatized in such a way, that the government ended up not only without steady income to pay retirees but actually owns foreign banks millions of dollars for privatization (sic!)."

What??? State social security pension system hasn't been fully privatisied until today... Morover it has nothing in common with Balcerowicz Plan. Once again - Bacerowicz Plan was finished in 1994. The reform of social security pension system has been performed in 1999-2000. And it wasn't privatisation, but much more complex process - during which only about 1/3 of the system was let to be controled - but not owned - by private funds. The govermental debts to this funds are due to the problems with computer system - which was found unefective at the beggining of the reform, which caused some losses to these funds.

"All the state owned banks were sold to foreign banks to pay off World Bank and IMF debts taken by Mr. Balcerowicz. Credit Unions were forced out of business."

This is not true again. First of all - Mr. Balcerowicz did not take any debts from World Bank or IMF - quite the opposite - during long talks with this institution the debts taken by former communist goverments (mainly by Gierek goverment) have been reduced by about 50%, and the time of paying back has been elongated up to 2005.

Not all the state owned banks were sold, but only part of it - and even those sold - are not sold in 100% - but the goverment still holds from 25 till more than 50% of shares of most of these banks. Finally - it has nothing in common with Balcerowicz Plan - the first privatization of larger Polish Bank (Bank Slaski) took place in 1995. Actually, two largest Polish Banks - PKO S.A. and P.K.O BP are still state owned (the goverment still holds more than 50% of their shares).

"Privatization, similar to Argentine experiments, brought domestic ruin and spectacular profits to foreign speculants both on financial markets as well as in direct investments."

What??? A ruin??? Actually the real GNP per capita is about 15% higher than in 1986 (despite the huge decline of GNP between 1986 and 1990). From 1994 till 1998 the GNP growth was at the level of 5-6% per year - which in fact was direct result of painfull Balcerowicz Plan. From 1998 till 2002 it was smaller (1-3%), but actually is getting up again (3.2% in 2003, and probably about 3.5+4% this year)... The real personal incomes are getting up slightly slower - but they also follow this path. Well.. yes.. there are many negative effects of Balcerowicz Plan (high unemployement for example), but it is hard to say it was a ruin... It was rather rebuilding the country from really poor situation inherited by 30 years of Communist party rulling...

"As a result, within a decade the majority of food in this half-farming country was imported, and is controlled by a handful of supermarket chains."

What??? According to statistics Poland export-import of food balance is about 0. There are years with slightly higher export and slightly lower import and years with slightly lower export and higher import. For example in 1999 Poland imported food for 2537.3 million USD and exported for 2328.1. In 2003 it was 2342.9 million USD + import and 2745.5 + export... And another thing - Poland is not half farming country. Actually food production stands for 8.3% of GNP. Around one third of Poles live in villages but only less than half of those are involved in food production. Others works in small family non food production companies or work in neigbouring cities.

Polimerek

After you inserted these comments into the article itself, I had no choice but to revert them. Regardless of whether your English is good or bad, you violated the proper procedure for editing articles. If you want to change or correct something in the article itself, then CORRECT IT. Don't worry about making mistakes because of poor English. What you're NOT allowed to do, however, is to simply delete the entire text of an existing article and replace it with your your personal comments. --Sheldon Rampton 23:15, 25 Nov 2004 (EST)

I see that the same anonymous has once again altered this article, replacing it with his personal commentary. As I stated above, this is not allowed. FIXING the article is allowed; deleting it and replacing it with personal commentary is not. If this happens again, I will have no choice but to ban this individual. If he wishes to discuss this with me directly, I can be contacted through my user talk page. --Sheldon Rampton 17:15, 27 Nov 2004 (EST)