Thursday, October 1, 2009

Do we really wish we were Moldovans?

Since Moldova escaped the recent crisis Jeffrey Tayler concludes:
“I feel sorry for people in the West,” he said. “Their financial system worked well for decades, and now it’s collapsed. You know, I feel blessed to have been born here.”
Blessed to have been born in Moldova? Few would have uttered such words a year ago. Now, sadly, they make sense.


Really? Why not Sudanese or Maldivians?

But Moldovans are not without resource:
“We never think of going to the bank for a loan or using a credit card,” Roman told me. “We operate on a cash-only system here.” ... “I keep all the money I have in a drawer. What I have is mine. We spend only what we have. And so I sleep well at night.”

And perhaps here is the seed for the next Moldovan crisis:
The one speculative operation most people engage in involves buying dollars and euros as hedges against the anemic local tender, the Moldovan leu. On almost every street corner in the city center stands a booth marked Schimb Valutar (currency exchange).

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