Friday, June 08, 2007
The Baltic 'Sea of Plenty'
I took out subscriptions to TIME and NEWSWEEK a couple of months ago, as I reckoned they were the best way to keep in touch with what's happening in the US Presidential Primaries. Sadly NEWSWEEK has failed to send me a single magazine yet. However, TIME is proving to be a great read. In this week's magazine there is a great ARTICLE by Andrew Purvis about the success of the Baltic States. I've never been to Scandinavia or the Baltic but this article has certainly awakened my interest in what is going on there.
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13 comments:
Time and Newsweek are mostly lightweight pap held together by corporate advertising - not a patch on the economist and usually a stream of statistics poorly analysed and not put into context. High growth rates sound impressive but mean nothing if you are starting from a low base. Equally booming forestry, textiles and shipbuilding may sound good, but they aren't really the industries of the future. South East Asia sounded more sophisticated than that fifteen years ago.
If you want the most honest commentary on the US debates and pre-election buildup, watch the Daily Show on Comedy Central.
The most shocking thing about this entry is that you admit you've never been to Scandinavia. Never been to Stockholm or Copenhagen Iain? You should get on the phone and book flights now. They're fantastic cities and illustrate a very different way of structuring a society. Even if you're not Polly Toynbee, they need to be thought about carefully.
I see that more and more of Britain's money is going East - our NET contributions into the EU are going to DOUBLE in the next few years according to the Telegraph's website. - thanks to the brilliant deal our Dear Leader got in Brussels when he was comprehensively out-manoeuvred by Chirac. Maybe that explains at least some of the Balts' success. Not that they are the worst subsidy junkies in E Europe by any means.
I am amazed that someone with their own blog has such a touching regard for the American media. I dont believe you have examined the American political blogosphere otherwise you would not have said that.
America does not have a free press which is why the neocons managed to lie the US into the mess in Iraq. I aint all about oil, Iain, believe you me.
Read Antiwar.com and WhatReallyHappened.com, both very popular (paleo-)conservative websites, and if you would like to have the inside scandal on the candidates, Wonkette.com, offering a picture of Guiliani in normal transvestite mode gratis.
Go to Malmo and see multiculti Sweden
Whatever you do - don't watch Fox News!
But this is definitely worth a watch
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428&q=outfoxed
Iain the Baltics are great too for a visit- I have fond memories of wondering round a deserted soviet factory in Tallinn a couple of years ago. I'd agree with your other commenters about hte magazines as well- the New Yorker or people like Kos or the Corner are much more interesting.
Riga's a great night out at this time of the year. In 1994 Mart Laar introduced flat tax to Estonia. He is recognised as a visionary politician. As you can see he has a blog. I liked the quote
"Many companies, including his own, already treat Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as a single market"
Many individuals do too and manage not to be tax resident anywhere.
Thec success of the Blatic states, particularly Estonia, by going for serious free market low business tax policies, has been a similar example to the older Scandanavian states as Ireland should be to us.
It certainly played a apart in Sweden electing a non-socialist government. On the other hand in Britain the Tories are ignoring Ireland's lesson & committing to no serious cuts in such taxes.
Neil that is a bit simplistic - there's nothing to stop taxes being reformed and flattened without being cut overall.
If you ever go to Tallinn, make sure you visit the television tower. It's a lillte way out of the city, so easy to miss out, but nice restaurant at the top with good food (at least a few years ago), great view, and a stained glass display on the ground floor like you've never seen before.
Ed I was being simplistic since I wouldn't want to do a full article. However to achieve Baltic or Irish style growth the most important reform seems to be cutting business taxes (ie corporation tax). There is a case that high personal taxes don't have an adverse effect so long as the government uses the money competently. However for growth what is needed is for investment to be rewarded. The economy could actually do pretty well if personal taxes went up & business ones down though I think that would be politically imposssible.
While the Tories haven't quite said they won't cut business taxes their "sharing the fruits of growth" certainly suggests that any such cuts would be pretty nominal.
In some ways I can more easily see the "dour & Presbyterian" Brown being willing to cut business taxes rather than personal ones (good Protestants think that if the medicine doesn't taste bad it can't be doing good) than the openly populist Dave. In which case, if he did it early enough & it was seen to work before the election a lot of Tory supporters in business would face a dilemma.
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