On Seraph's article:
I'll read that article properly tomorrow - it's quite interesting. I just skimmed it.

But yes it's true. These countries have been partly exploited by corporations in Western Europe. Rather shameless. But I think everyone knew this was going to happen as early as 1991-92.

The point about banks was particularly interesting. Romania was the most extreme example. Every big European bank is there; Raifeissen the best example, their ads were everywhere in Romania. Trying to get people to borrow money they can't really afford in the first place so that they can join in with the consumption hysteria. In reality they don't have the cash - that type of consumption is unrealistic in in Western Europe too.

In Romania, older people were really disillusioned with what capitalism had offered so far, and younger people were just totally disillusioned in general.
I was given several examples of how Britain for example, had treated Romania poorly in different ways, and tried to preach about percieved wrongs in Romania and generally take the moral high road while ripping off the country. They felt they were the trash can of the EU, literally, in more ways than one and several people even went as far as saying that a lot was better pre 90s (hard to imagine, the Ceaucescu regime seems to have been the worst in Eastern Europe).
Nevertheless, the Romanians were nice and warm people.

I could see that the foreign banks were making inroads in Ukraine too, including several Swedish banks.
Belarus had a lot of banks, but all the names were unfamiliar to me - I assume they were local, or Russian.

Latvia has all the big Swedish banks represented. It seems they may actually be the main banks in the country. These banks overexposed themselves by trying to lend money in the Baltic States, against insufficient guarantees. They were so keen to quickly get a footing in this untapped market that they basically dropped all normal safety precautions. The Swedish economy actually took a big hit at the same time as Latvia and the state had to go in with money to keep two of the banks afloat. Latvian consumers lose, Swedish tax payers lose but - surprise, surprise - the banks keep on winning and paying out their bonuses to the 'clever' directors who took this leap.

I think that the Latvians negative stance against Russia is probably costing them a lot of money. For example - if they could chill with the rhetoric against Russia, they could have benefited from being transit countries for gas and oil. And that's just the beginning.

Quote Originally Posted by Basil77
I guess you see it right as it is:
That is really surprising. I actually would have thought that Latvia would do better than Belarus! But the Belarussians are a really cool people. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Lukashenko have done quite a few things right, I think.
While I was there, I kept thinking "it just LOOKS great, in reality the state has no money". I thought that the devaluation was a big failure. Be that as it may... The whole country LOOKs rather fixed up and you don't see unemployed people hanging around, or any excessive boozing or antisocial behaviour. They are extremely quality conscious there in terms of education, and keeping everything to a some 'certified' standard. And they certainly know how to clean!

In Latvia on the other hand, there is a lot of boozing, and no, it's not particularly the Russians that booze.
That can only be bad for peoples health.
The Western European lifestyle is much more present here - compared with Belarus. People are cruising around in cars, playing super loud techno music at any hour of the day or night... People have a hard time finding a job. In the hotel where I stayed first, one of the waitresses (a Russian speaker) had a degree from an engineering college in Riga (the course was in Latvian, and she had struggled for a year). The course cost money and she had some kind of debt to pay off. She said she couldn't find a good job and had been unemployed. She was considering moving to Denmark.

People in Liepaja are healthy, cycling and with a great sun tan and fashionable dress sense. Kids are rollerblading. Along the coast they have made a really good cycling / walking lane so people can commute by bicycle. Very cool it's got multiple lanes.

@Nulle --- Interesting points and it's good that you know that credit is a bad thing in most situations. Construction workers buying BMWs... hm...!

And you are in the right sector (same as me), obviously none of the problems will affect you, and if they do you could easily just leave the country..

I'd like to see Latvia as a strong economy in it's own right, finding a unique niche in the EU and making up with Russia. Neoliberalism leads to the weaker countries being exploited, or even tricked or practically robbed, as happened a bit in Eastern Europe. European subsidies are not the way to go long term either and if I am not mistaken, it puts you in a weaker negotion position. Likewise IMF loans. Latvia as low cost area for textile work or IT outsourcing is probably not the way you want to go in the future.
Quote Originally Posted by nulle
in the US you can hardly find incomes less than $30-40 an hour
I think all the people working on the US minimum wage of ~7.50 would like to know where to find these jobs 30-40 USD jobs. I think people in the Baltics have a much higher view of the US than it deserves. What did they ever do for you?