Prof. Krastyo Petkov’s Blog

Press Release No. 10/321

August 30, 2010

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today expanded and enhanced its lending tools to help contain the occurrence of financial crises. As part of the efforts to enhance the institution’s crisis-prevention toolkit, the Fund’s Executive Board decided to increase the duration and credit available under the existing Flexible Credit Line (FCL) and to establish a new Precautionary Credit Line (PCL) for members with sound policies who nevertheless may not meet the FCL’s high qualification requirements.

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Dear Friend,

In response to the current crisis, governments around the world have stabilized their economies with taxpayers’ money http://europeansforfinancialreform.org/en/glossary#term72.

Now, the financial sector should pick up the bill! A global financial transaction tax of only 0.05% could yield revenue of about 1% of world GDP per year. Progressive
forces have been advocating the creation of a global financial transaction tax for decades. At the European summit of June 17, EU leaders have put the transaction tax back on G20 agenda. The next G20 summit will take place in
Toronto on June 26-27. Let’s remind them: we want a global financial transaction tax!

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A.J. (from USA) send me a letter in connection with my publications in this blog. Because of the important issues, raised in this latter, and undoubted competence of it’s author in Bulgarian and American economic and political relations, I decided to post the letter in my blog.

My dear Professor:

Reading your excellent letter to the newly elected Bulgarian premier, I had to ask myself: “Could Bulgaria be an island of prosperity in a sea of troubles?” You may, or may not recall this phrase, but its originator set the stage for the global economic conundrum we find ourselves today. His statement was negative, he was predictably wrong, and he was talking about the United States.

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Presentations of prof. Krastyo Petkov in the ILO-ITC international seminar on “Employment and Informal Economy”

March, 2009

• The role of social dialogue in addressing the problems of informal economy

• Policies and measures to formalize the informal economy

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Detroit is dying. Yes, I know that there are lots of books on "The Death of. . . ." That word sells books. But Detroit really is dying. It is the first metropolis in the United States to be facing extinction. We have never seen anything like this in American history. It is happening under our noses, but the media refuse to discuss it. To do so would be politically incorrect. Two factors tell us that Detroit is dying. The first is the departure of 900,000 people – over half the city's population – since 1950. It peaked at 1.8 million in 1950. It is down to about 900,000 today.

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According to the “Dictionary of Foreign Words in the Bulgarian Language” the word “missionary” stands to mean “a spiritual or worldly person, who is being sent to foreign nations with a religious mission… and most of the time, is assigned to do secret political tasks…”.

Does Simeon Dyankov, the Minister of finance off Bulgaria fit to this description?

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The Belgo-Bulgarian association is a registered not-for-profit organisation. Its aim is to contribute to the further development of the relations between both countries, taking advantage of the extensive Bulgarian-Bulgarian network previously developed by the Best2B founding members.

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Political comments by Prof.Krastyo Petkov, PhD

If the rating of politicians was indicated not by the emotional, but the scale of professionalism, Ahmed Dogan would have topped the rating-scale in December/2009 with the option to stay there in 2010, as well. The event, which elevated him on the top of this rank, was the National Conference of DPS. The catapult for him was the strategic speech, addressed to the delegates and guests of this superior forum of the Turkish ethnic party.

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OPEN LETTER

Prof. Krastyo Petkov, PhD
Chairman of the United Labour Block

Dear Mr. Borisov,

I turn to you on behalf of the United Labour Block, which supported numerous initiatives and good policies of GERB before and after the political elections in July/2009. I highly appreciate the fact that GERB managed to consolidate the electoral support of the majority of Bulgarian voters and it removed from power the corrupted three-party coalition in a democratic way. I take into account the heavy burden, which your Government inherited – a crisis situation, which does not have historical analogue in Bulgaria. I comprehend the massive campaign you lead to reveal misfeasance of power of the former political leaders and your attempts to identify irresponsible persons, related to political corruption.
I do believe that you are about to agree that this position is well-intentioned, and is charged with positive appreciation of your first actions as Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria.

However, my Open Letter is devoted to another topic: Budget and Financial Policy – Anti-Crisis Measures. In this field, unconditional support is neither beneficial to the new Government, nor to the Bulgarian people.
I am to try to explain what my worries are based on, and why I appeal to change the course of the already chosen economic strategy you implement.

Budget-2010 is a highly-risk and in any case – non-executable budget!

The situation we are in is a paradox. The bill of the Budget was passed on first hearings in the Parliament with no debate in essence. This is a historical precedent for the last 20 years. In the meantime, two alternative budgets were announced outside the parliamentary doors: one version was suggested by some market fundamentalists; the other – by former left socialists.

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