Trust has a price. The most discussed news of the last days in the business community was the statement of the Prosecutor General’s Office on the initiation of criminal cases against bankers, who, having received loans at the Central Bank, spent them on the purchase of dollars. This step, the legitimacy of which is very doubtful, thoroughly undermines the trust between power and business
The Prosecutor General’s Office opened criminal cases against bankers after it turned out that banks, having received on absolutely legal grounds, loans in the central bank (or deposits from the Ministry of Finance), bought (again on a completely legal basis) dollars in the foreign exchange market. It seems that the General Prosecutor's Office still preserved people who remember how to properly apply the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 1, 1961 “On Strengthening Criminal Liability for Violation of the Rules for Currency Operations”. At the same time, no complaints were presented to the managers of one large state bank, which received about a quarter of all the funds transferred to the banking system last fall, and which acted as one of the most active buyers of the currency in the market.
The most sad thing is that the thesis about the supremacy of the state over the law was supported by the Central Bank, which stated that he would distract the cities and weights of its controllers - to check how banks are lending to priority sectors of the economy, although it does not have such powers by any of the laws or even according to its own instructions.
Do not win alone
This situation sharply contrasts with another event last week - the adoption of the anti -crisis plan of Barack Obama. During the discussions in the Congress and the US Senate, many critical arrows were released into it, and its “cost” changed several times. Criticism, sometimes very justified, still pours to the “Obama plan” from all sides. As its main disadvantages, it is noted that about half of its volume is a decrease in taxes, and those government departments that are included in the bill are “smeared” in time and are far from always leading to the creation of new jobs. Nevertheless, the American president, almost every other day speaking with various public statements, does not tire of repeating: “America needs to accept this plan! Every day of delay worsens the situation! "
Obama understands: it is impossible to win the fight against the crisis alone. It is no accident that he constantly talks about the need to restore the destroyed institution of trust, since he is looking for this trust from society. It is no accident that he is not afraid to directly and frankly talk about the difficult crisis that America faced, about the growth of unemployment and the loss of housing by many Americans. It is no coincidence that he supports the provision of the media to the most complete and adequate information about where and under what conditions budget funds are spent, including full texts of agreements with recipients of funds for 200–300-600 pages. It is no coincidence that he creates the Economic Recovery Advisory Board council, which includes prominent representatives of business and science. And which should be no less than a counterweight to a counterweight to its own anti -crisis brain center (Summers -Geter -Bernanke -Rommer) when discussing the economic situation and in the development of specific anti -crisis proposals and steps. 1 In one word, President Obama is trying to expand the circle of those who are ready to provide him with trust and support. Whether he will succeed or not - time will tell. But what he does a lot for this is difficult to challenge!
The direct opposite of this is the actions of the Russian authorities. The very concept of "trust" does not fit into the modern Russian economic doctrine. “What trust are you talking about, in Russia there should be faith in the government” - this is how it can be interpreted by the presentation of news about domestic anti -crisis measures that comes from TV screens. Listening to the ongoing stream of praise addressed to the “wise authorities”, which sequentially saving the auto industry, then banks, then the “oil industry”, the author involuntarily catches himself that he had already heard all this 25–30 years ago. It sounded, however, a little differently, and praised a completely different person. How then it ended is well known.
Words and deeds
Obviously, the Russian government does not believe in the ability of the economy to independently overcome crises and transfers it to the “manual control regime”, paralyzing the effect of incentives and economic interests. And therefore, today businessmen and entrepreneurs who were able to create and deploy their projects in the difficult 90s stand in line with an outstretched hand, hoping to get a handout from the state. There is a reason in this behavior: why “resting with a horn”, cut costs, increase efficiency, if you can simply ask “right” people and you will be given money. Moreover, they really give. As a result, it turns out that your competitor has already received a “handout” from above and it becomes impossible to compete with him, because in the modern Russian economy the administrative resource (in any form) is much more important to win in competition than personal efforts, ingenuity, and enterprise.
It is obvious that the Russian government does not believe in its people, he was intensely feeding his “chewing gum” regarding the fact that there is no crisis in Russia, but it is in the West, or rather, in America. Sharikovs of various stripes crawled onto the screens of TVs, which curse the American economy, predict the collapse of the dollar and talk about how our authorities are acting correctly, counteracting the manifestations of the American crisis in our country.
“All actions to mitigate the negative impact of the global crisis on the Russian economy were transparent and public,” Prime Minister Putin said after the government first introduced an article to the budget law that canceled the remnants of parliamentary control over the budget, and then completely refused to fulfill the adopted law.
He says these words after the state issued more than $ 10 billion (in other words, 2000 rubles from each resident of our country) to the Russian oligarchs to save their property, and the same amount to save the collapsed (and sometimes simply plundered) banks, in every possible way closing the topic of responsibility of management and shareholders of these banks.
Trust is one of the basic institutions of a market economy. Without trust in the words and state affairs, the population will continue to prefer the American dollar to the Russian ruble, despite the apocalyptic forecasts of “experts” regarding the fate of the dollar and the threat of prosecutors. Without confidence in power, business will not think about how to overcome the crisis, expand your company, increase efficiency, but about how to sell your business, there is still such an opportunity, and take capital outside Russia.
So far, unfortunately, the state has done practically nothing to overcome the crisis of distrust that has developed in the economy and society. If this state of affairs is preserved, then the exit from the crisis will become longer, painful and expensive. This means that after the crisis, the Russian economy will become even less attractive to productive capital, and Russia's dependence on the market of raw materials prices will only intensify.
The US Economic Help (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), developed by the Barack Obama administration, on February 10 received the approval of the American Senate. As a result of the amendments, the Obama Plan costs $ 838 billion. Of these, about 500 billion - infrastructure expenses, the rest - tax bones.
The plan provides for the creation of 4 million new jobs. The main articles of the expenditure of the plan: reorganization of the energy sector, unemployment and vocational training reduction programs, assistance to the states to compensate for medical insurance costs.
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1 The New Times spoke in detail about the economic team of President Obama in No. 50 of December 15, 2008.
