Artistry and reality.
Posted 9, August, 2012

The living souls
of silent stars unfurl their aureoles
to greet the warm
mid-autumn night that comes before the storm.
Through distances that are un-spannable
these stars have watched the wars of Hannibal,
and now they see me, standing, barely dressed,
behind my window, here in Budapest.
What has happened to me, that’s hard to know.
It seems, a shadow flew above my head,
my childhood, that I’d given up for dead,
and buried long ago.


By and by,
among the stunning treasures of the sky
I see a secret wisp of lightness, oozing
a hue of dawn, and blushfully perfusing
the levitating stars. Out in the east
light beams are released,
a sparkling palace fills the heavenly sphere,
a chandelier
is glowing in a blaze,
until the guests disperse and go their ways.
Out on the lawn the shadows of the night
are floating on the castle’s candlelight.

By

“Hajnali részegség”, by Kosztolányi Dezső, translated from Hungarian by Peter Zollman (Lines 54-77)

6 notes
Posted 24, January, 2012

Polish Bi-Partisan Support for Hungary's Government, Orban..

Polish PM Donald Tusk (left), and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban (right)

I think this is a good sign that provides perspective to broaden the debate about the changes in Hungary. Both the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the main opposition party leader in Poland, Jarosław Kaczyński, have written to the EU President Jose Baroso that the criticism of Hungary’s recent economic and financial laws have been too harsh, while cautioning that the recent talk of Hungary rolling back democracy is exaggerated. 

Before any Hungarian critics get upset with me, let me add that I too am concerned about the recent moves Orban’s government has made regarding freedom of speech and media censorship. I too would be mad.

Yet I think it’s important to note that the Orban government was elected democratically with a clear mandate from the people in 2010. Orban was not a newcomer to Hungarian politics, this is not like it was going to be a mystery what his attitudes and ideas were going to be. Therefore, he has more legitimacy to impose these measures than the awful farce that was forced on the Greek and Italian people this past Autumn. 

Specifically, both Papandreou and Berlosconi, two incompetent yet democratically elected leaders, dared to use seek referendum and electoral support for the austerity “aid” packages that were being floated around at the time, so that the Greek and Italian people might show actual support for austerity plans that would further crush their standard of living and increase unemployment. Instead, the elites of the EU Troika helped get both leaders ousted and replaced by unelected puppets.

If the Hungarian people are truly outraged about these new laws, they have an opportunity to vote against Orban and his Fidesz party in the next election. Maybe they will, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Regardless, the show of support for Hungary by Polish leaders helps show how complicated the situation is, which is not what the Western media and the EU would like us to see. They wish for us to see things only in black and white, that all of Orban’s policies are wrong and only EU dictates are right.

In my opinion, obviously as just an outsider, I think I’d largely agree with most of Orban’s economic and financial reforms, such as changing the mortgage exchange rates and reasserting control over the Hungarian Central bank, while I would hope that the new media laws are reversed. But that is for the Hungarian people, not Brussels, to decide.

Thoughts?

7 notes
Posted 1, December, 2011

Talking Hungary: “The Economist” Apparently Doesn’t Know what Debt Deflation Is

Not paid in full

A new mortgage law annoys the banks, but will do little for the economy

…goes the title for a piece from The Economist back on October 1.

I’ll be focusing a big on Hungary’s economic situation this month and from now on in general.

So, a major development in early October was the decision by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government to allow homeowners who took foreign currency mortgage loans (mostly in Swiss Francs) to repay them in Hungarian Forints at their previous exchange rate (before they depreciated during the course of the economic crisis.)

The article author for The Economist claims the new reforms “will do little to help economy”…

But apparently is unaware that the more money that Hungarian families are using to pay down inflated mortgages, the less money they can use on goods and services in the real economy.

This is the essence of debt deflation..Irving Fisher knew all about it over 80 years ago. But mainstream economics, which is what The Economist practices, still doesn’t get it.