News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

@jon357
The US isn't distracted, and Poles wont be distracted when the US threatens retaliation, or actually retaliates in the event Duda doesn't veto. This is another example of complete incompetence in Polish politics. The idea of making everything Polish in an open society is never going to happen long term. The idea that Poland could survive as an isolationist country is completely laughable. Russia, with all its people and all its resources is a disaster, and this is where Poland is headed under PiS.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

@Korvinus
PiS will bow to the EU. The judicial chamber will be disbanded in order to get the recovery money. The country is in deep trouble without it, and every PiS social giveaway program is in trouble without it. The socialists will cave, they always do. PO will be PO, one evil or the other really in Poland, and thats what is the most disappointing.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

PiS will be the ruin of Poland. Just had a family meeting, and we will likely be leaving if this is signed by Duda. There is too much riding against Poland now, and PiS is not smart enough to recognize they will go down in history as pathetic losers.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

@mafketis he will be JK's fall boy as the man who ruined US relations for the next decade. Biden will not hesitate to flex his muscles on pitiful Poland if it happens. Remember US just backed Poland in how they handled Belarus. This will come all the way around if Duda signs it, and will all but end PiS as the public will revolt. The only way for PiS to start a recovery in the poles is through Duda being a man.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]

If Duda is dumb enough to fall in line with JK on this, Poland will suffer swift retaliation from the US. Biden, (captain idiot) has already promised this would happen. Probably the only real promise he can keep and will keep when pressed by all the money in political circles. You will see a withdraw of US troops be threatened, and sales of military equipment canceled. Poland is pissing in the wind on this one and Duda has a chance to actually be a man here as a lame duck president. Lets see if he has the balls to do it.

History / Amazing Stalingrad footage and images [13]

@Novichok
Always tease the family that Poland comes in first in one important category. World Wars lost. lmao

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@Alien
These are employee support products I purchased. We do not sell products and no price increase to customers

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@pawian
I just ordered some products for employees to use while working. Cost of product was $900 cost for shipping $1900. Same product last year $600 and $1200. This is the supply chain bottleneck and inflation. Seeing the same drastic swings in other products as well.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

Today the zloty is 4.10 to USD. Five months ago it was 3.6. This is a huge swing, and now the worst value since the pandemic hit the first time. That was the worst rate since 2016. This is as much about policy as it is about inflation.

UK, Ireland / Moving To Poland - Cost Of Living compared to the UK [65]

@sportbilly
60K euro is about 240K in Poland where the average wage is about 5K per month. Big difference in standard of living with that kind of money.

News / CO2 emissions in Poland. Should Poland go nuclear or stick with clean coal technologies? [93]

@johnny reb
The coal and trash burning have begun pretty heavily already this year. The smell while strangely a comforting reminder that Christmas is near, is really quite nasty. Getting into clothes and it can creep into your home if you leave a window cracked for air flow. Poland really has to implement a plan.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@johnny reb
Electric vehicle green push has been going on since before Obama. Lets not just throw things into the discussion that are needless.

Trump did not have the US energy independent. The US was coming out of a recession where people were not driving and not using gas, which pressured oil prices down and gas prices down. This allowed the US to build up strategic reserves and forced other countries to sell at really low prices. This was great for the economy and the people. Trump received the benefits of this, and he used it to further other agenda items, all great political moves. Really very well schemed.

In Poland though, even under similar circumstance PiS controlled state owned business, did not lower prices. The gouged everyone. Now at 6 pln per liter, and the country experiencing record inflation, the money that people could have saved is in the state owned corporations and not with the people where it could have done the most good.

So, if PiS is all for the people, why didnt gas prices come down like they did in the rest of the world? PiS like to paint the picture that they are for the common man, for the poor. When in fact the policy they implement other than 500+ and other give aways does nothing but hurt those same people. Policy has and will continue to strip Poland of potential growth, and no matter which Party is in control, the current fiscal policy needs to be flushed down the toilet. Combine fiscal policy with the EU politics, the Polish Deal and now the political unrest in the country and you have a disaster.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@johnny reb
I would say the same about the policy regardless of who put it in place. Again, its bad policy. The Obama argument? I thought Trump had the country perfect and the Biden is screwing it up. Either trump fixed it or he didnt. Financial policy didnt skip over Trump from Obama to Biden. Again you want to argue party, not policy. I agreed with a lot of Trump policy, like I agree with a lot of PiS policy. But fiscally its like handing a box of crayons to a kindergartner and telling them to create a Picasso. Not going to happen for a multitude of reasons.

My employees who moved here have all there moving expenses paid for if I force a move. Simple. I meet with them weekly during these crisis and keep them updated.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

Actually just waiting for passport pickup date. Citizenship confirmed thanks for asking. That doesn't mean I will be staying for much more of this though.

It has nothing to do with PiS or PO or any other set of initials. It has everything to do with bad fiscal policy, bad fiscal management and not thinking things through completely.

The Polish Deal is a great idea. Really great idea. But PiS is going to pi$$ all over it because they don't know how to pay for it without killing the middle class and local government incomes. These are facts supported by many independent analysis.

You want to argue party, I argue policy and there is a big difference. The policy in poland for economics is terrible.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@johnny reb
When people have three or four board appointments due to their relationship with the PM, Pres, or JK, then yes, its more than fair to blame PiS. Trump wouldnt have ever even attempted something like this, even Biden isn't that stupid. They are fleecing the country and real people are paying for it. Gas to me at 4 pln or 10 pln per liter doesn't matter. But to most people gas at 4 pln per liter would have saved them at least 100 pln per week and that puts an awful lot of food on the table. This is a real problem that effects PiS supporters more than anyone. This is nothing but paying the right hand while stealing more from the left.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]

@Cojestdocholery
You are one funny man. Even the elderly in Poland support EU membership. Leaving the EU is not even a real option. The EU and Brussels are going to back down once the disciplinary branch is gone. France now challenges EU primacy over fishing concerns and Brexit, and Germany has already bucked the EU primacy argument. This is Brussels with a Napoleon complex.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@johnny reb
Yes. Orlen and Lotos are state owned corporations, they do their own refining and have the largest network for sales and distribution. Independent companies like BP and Mobil are less than 20% of gasoline sales and distribution. 6 billion in profits this year is serious money. When you look at what the PiS appointee's are being paid to run these companies and how many have multiple seats collecting multiple salaries on multiple boards of directors, then you start to get the croneyism picture.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@johnny reb
We can blame the supply chain which around the world is broken. Do a little research on that and you will find it is not a simple fix, its going to get worse for the next few months unless drastic measures are taken. Cost in Poland have been on a very sharp increase for more than a year, some prices have doubled. Supply chain is a direct result of how lockdowns were implemented, and every government is responsible. Someone needs to only look at Long Beach California to see how absolutely stupid these shipping delays are. More than 150 cargo shipping boats sitting in the bay, and hundreds of trucks lined up for up to 12 hours each to pick up a container. Idle time is wasted money, and wasted money is raising prices.

PiS though is enjoying record profits on gasoline sales for nearly two years at the expense of the people. This is not supply chain, this is price gouging. Over 6 pln per liter today to fill up. 10% increase in the last 90 days. While just a little more of a rise than inflation, the fact that these prices did not fall at all when oil was at record lows and now is rising is simply the government profiting off its people through state owned gas companies. 6 billion in profit this year, and that 6 billion from gas alone would have done much more good for the recovery in the hands of people who would be spending it on local business.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@gumishu
You may be right. No one knows what the NBP is thinking with this move. Lending metrics go to the policy of the banks making the lending decisions. Credit tightens automatically when rates go up that quickly by that much.

@johnny reb
Even if trump was re-elected, the US would be in much the same position. This is a supply chain issue in the US as much as it is a policy issue. With ships stuck out in the bay in California for a month with cargo can not get in, and trucks can not move, prices start climbing quickly. This all began before Trump left office. The product of that beginning is in Bidens lap now.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@gumishu
In theory to you and I 1.25 is nothing really. To banks who were at .5 percent it is a big jump in what money will cost them. And in order to maintain profit margin a one million loan just went up about 10K in initial cost, and the commission for the loan also climbed. With commercial loans in the tens and hundreds of millions that adds up quickly and the risk also adds up from and insurance underwriting view of the loan which cuts off a lot of commercial money. This has a similar impact on mortgages.

Credit is market reactionary, and that finance move was a big one.

The income tax and the Polish Deal will in its current state be soul crushing. When you look at how commercial loans are done for small business, those people making more than 85K are in the no mans land. They make just enough to have a nicer life, and now make too much for tax purposes, and their income actually becomes less attractive to lenders because they are not taking home as much of it.

The interest rate hike is a short term bet a hedge if you will. And it is not working, the zloty is closing in on 4 to 1 USD again already. The pull back did not even last a day.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@gumishu
The 30,000 tax free deal for poor and retired is acceptable for me. The problem I have is with the additional 32% on anything over 85 K. My reasoning is simple.

PiS and possibly the old leadership as well want traditional families. More children, more women in what they think are traditional roles. Ok. So if an entrepreneur is making 100K or more per year while his wife stays home with the kids, he gets clobbered for being more successful and having the "ideal" family.

Another entrepreneur wants to start another business, but his post tax income doesnt allow for him to invest more without putting his pre tax investment at further risk.

Business growth requires liquidity. The national banks just raised interest rates, making access to credit less likely and it was already less likely for entrepreneurs to begin with. While it wont effect state owned corporations because they have been gouging the consumer during the whole crisis.

I think both sides have no clue what they are doing and saying when it comes to the economy. I think it will take a centrist to get things on track. Tax the rich. Those making more than 250K per year should pay more, and there are enough of them to make a difference. You do not tax the people who are trying to become rich because they wont get there. But once there, they will understand its time to pay.

This is all quite easy to see in demographic studies.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@Novichok
I am not saying there has been change or no change. I am just pointing out the problem at current. The Polish Deal is going to make things very bad if it is not scrapped or changed dramatically. PiS is in charge, if PO were in charge and making these decisions I would say the same things. Party means nothing to me. Policy is what is supposed to set party's apart from each other.

This fiscal policy is an economy killer. Coupled with the potential loss of EU recovery money it will get very bad, for a very long time. It is bad enough to have me thinking of leaving simply so I don't have to watch it happen. As much as I prefer the lifestyle here for the last few years, that lifestyle for many is changing and will continue to change, which will impact everyone eventually.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

PiS poliicy contributes to general inflation. Hyper inflation is global, yes, though the PiS policy has accelerated this in Poland. We will be at 8% before the end of the year, and that is considerably higher than anywhere else in the EU and much higher than US.

The taxation proposed in the Polish Deal crushes the middle class and does next to nothing to the very wealthy, while not giving much to the poor. The Polish Deal destroys local municipal tax bases and forces the cutting of services locally. When entrepreneur's are getting killed with taxes, there is less business growth at the grass roots small business level, and this is what kills economies like a slow cancer.

These policies, coupled with the insane global approach to the virus will send many in Poland into financial crisis within 12 months. More business will close under the Polish Deal and less will be opening. Cities will cut services, and people will suffer.

Meanwhile gasoline is still at crazy costs compared to oil, and state profits are filling coffers and pockets of people who have multiple party appointed positions. Interest rates were just raised again, and the government same out and said it had an immediate impact on the zloty. It did, the exchange rate changed by one grosz. And this is something to brag about?

Now the head of the central bank is afraid he will not get a third term. Rightly so because he is inept at his job. The question is does his ineptness cause these bad fiscal policy or does political policy contribute to his ineptness and cause even worse fiscal management?

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@johnny reb
Not commercial real estate either. Thats just a hobby. Apology accepted lol

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

@Atch
Excellent points! In Poland though, there is no referendum, laws are simply jammed up peoples behinds based on ideology. If there had been a referendum it would be simple and PiS could not be blamed, but this is not the case here.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

@Cojestdocholery
"holy" phrases? Not me. No place for religion in an intelligent conversation about having control over your own body and your own right to live. No different than those who make the choice to not get or to get vaccinated.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]

@Miloslaw
The EU will be forced to change and recognize each country can govern in its own was structured around the treaties. The primacy issue is one that I think will lose in their own courts.

News / Poland highest inflation in 20 years [319]

@pawian
Maybe he appreciated the argument, and good post does not mean he agrees with everything in it. Appreciating opinion and intelligent thought does not mean changing ones own mind. This is the difference between emotional argument and discussion.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

@Cojestdocholery
You sir are the stupid zealot. Maybe men should be forced at 15 to have a vasectomy since they are reversible? Then when they are deemed ready or capable of having children or we are assured they will not rape, the procedure can be reversed upon marriage. Sounds brilliant and absolutely in line with those against women having control of their bodies.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]

@jon357
Actually jon, fines can not be deducted from recovery money and they are not being paid. Now France takes issue with EU primacy of law regarding fishing rights. Based on this I see a compromise quickly in order to keep France on the "right side" of things according to EU.