A lull in the battle

I have not had much to write the last few days. There appears to be a lull in the battle. Not of course for the Agriculture minister Mr Roze who got his marching orders after the Government caved in to protesting tractor driving farmers invading Riga to the tune of 22 Million lats. It will not do much except keep the protests at bay for a while longer.

I sat in on a meeting with the head of the national bank yesterday. He did not give a sterling performance but that is probably understandable. he is in deep trouble and everyone knows it. he talked about where the government intends to place the loan, devaluation and Euroisation. Conclusions were hard to find but he did stress the need for stability. What was not clear was how much the shortfall will be in the national budget next year. He seemed to have few real solutions except hope.

I was interviewed by a remarkably bright young Swedish freelance journalist this morning. It was interesting because his questions showed that he, and clearly others in his country see Latvia as a modern democracy with similar values to their own. My Latvian colleague soon put him straight as to why this crisis was so bad and whose fault it was. Examples of corruption and inefficiency were on the tip of his tongue. I just listened and understood again the depth of contempt in which PM Godmanis and his government, including the President Zattlers, are held.

Another small bit of evidence of the growing recession is that now at the supermarket checkouts there are always small piles of unbought goods that have been left at the till or even in the baskets. These piles are growing noticeably larger each visit.

Tomorrow I am going to talk to some investors about making a new business web portal. Might be interesting.