Emigres return to offer expertise, but meet with indifference
That doesn't mean they're always greeted with open arms. Some Poles who stayed put during the difficult days are suspicious of returnees - perhaps resentful of the "easy life" they think emigres had in England, the United States, Australia, Canada, France.
But Warsaw University recently gave an honorary doctorate to express its gratitude to Columbia University economist Stanislaw Wellisz, who emigrated in 1939 and returned in 1989 just as the new Solidarity government was being formed.
He didn't come alone: he had rounded up four other bright lights among Polish emigre economists, including the London-based Stanislaw Gomulka, who has played a continuing high-profile role here as an economic adviser and sometimes official within the Finance Ministry.
The other three were Janusz Ordover of New York, Henryk Kieszkowski of Geneva and Peter Mieszkowski from Rice University in Houston.
"I thought this was a group that could be of small help," as experts on trade, antitrust, and macroeconomics. "But nobody knew what to do with us," he said.
Within weeks, however, they had been adopted by Leszek Balcerowicz, just beginning as finance minister, whom Wellisz had met once in 1984 and Gomulka knew somewhat better. The Western academics stayed for varying lengths of times, played varying roles. Wellisz was a conduit between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Finance Ministry, among other things.
Did they make a difference? He is skeptical. "By and large, I don't think so. But it was important that the reformers didn't feel isolated, that there were others from the outside saying 'you're doing the right thing.' "
He recognizes the ironies, that Vaclav Klaus had held underground economic seminars in the Czech Republic on Milton Friedman's libertarian economic principles - and then as prime minister put in place policies that outsiders say were so flawed they derailed the economy, whereas Poland's "shock therapy" reforms were shaped by Balcerowicz, on the spot, and gave the country a foundation for its economic vigor today.
"Vaclav Klaus has a totally gigantic ego so he beat his own drums - and then gets blamed when things go wrong. I doubt that all the failure is his fault. Balcerowicz knows his value but he is not an egomaniac like Klaus," Wellisz said.
He says Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs, who played a role in both the Polish and Russian reforms (and is now being blamed among those U.S. advisers who "lost Russia") probably has overstated his role in Poland. "He ended up thinking he did all the reforms. Not true. But it was important to have him here."
The Warsaw University citation also noted Wellisz' post-1990 work on upgrading economic education in Polish universities. This included working with young scholars who were studying and writing about the Polish reforms; attempts to replicate the honors programs in U.S. universities, with professors from Columbia, and, with Warsaw University economists Wojciech Maciejewski and Janusz Beksiak, holding summer schools for economics teachers from the ex-Soviet bloc "to teach them principles of economics so they'd know what they are teaching."
"There had been no (contemporary) economic literature in Poland at all. Now they have translated almost all the undergraduate textbooks," Wellisz said.
"But there are no graduate institutions in economics. There is nobody to do it. And today it's worth less than ever being in education. You might get zl. 1,000 a month after getting your doctorate and the peak you can hope for is zl. 2,500 a month as a full professor."
"You can start in business with five times that much," he said. He's at a loss to figure out a solution. Sending young Poles for graduate economic degrees abroad boomerangs because "either they don't come back or they go into business."
• • •
So why won't the new French hypermart Carrefour in Praga take back the returnable beer bottles they sell? Especially when they charge a fee of zl. 0.42-zl. 0.45 on each "returnable" bottle they sell? Gillette's Alf Hicks and his wife Penny want to know. They were impressed by the store but flabbergasted by the returnable bottle policy, which they discovered on their second visit, prepared to return the beer bottles they'd bought on their first trip.
They don't buy the store manager's story that they don't take back returnable bottles for health reasons. "That's nonsense," says Hicks, since nearly all the competitors, including Geant, accept back the bottles they sell. "They shouldn't charge a deposit if they're not going to take them back," he said.
• • •
So, asks headhunter Vera Hartford of Bank of America Country Manager Stanislaw Popow - how will the big BofA merger with the giant North Carolina Nation's Bank affect you? Not clear, replied Popow. But, BofA probably will play a lead role in the overseas expansion that had been underway - simply because it's been around already and the North Carolina guys had been so busy gobbling up U.S. competitors they hadn't done much abroad.
And, Vera noted, he was sitting pretty compared to if he'd remained at Bankers Trust which has been bought up by one of the largest German banks.
Too late to get his German in shape for that.
And, is it true the state treasury had been looking at BofA to put in a bid for the Pekao Group, since they seemed to want to go beyond Citigroup? "It's bad timing for us," said Popow. "We are reviewing several situations, including Pekao but it's probably either too late or too early.
But Warsaw University recently gave an honorary doctorate to express its gratitude to Columbia University economist Stanislaw Wellisz, who emigrated in 1939 and returned in 1989 just as the new Solidarity government was being formed.
He didn't come alone: he had rounded up four other bright lights among Polish emigre economists, including the London-based Stanislaw Gomulka, who has played a continuing high-profile role here as an economic adviser and sometimes official within the Finance Ministry.
The other three were Janusz Ordover of New York, Henryk Kieszkowski of Geneva and Peter Mieszkowski from Rice University in Houston.
"I thought this was a group that could be of small help," as experts on trade, antitrust, and macroeconomics. "But nobody knew what to do with us," he said.
Within weeks, however, they had been adopted by Leszek Balcerowicz, just beginning as finance minister, whom Wellisz had met once in 1984 and Gomulka knew somewhat better. The Western academics stayed for varying lengths of times, played varying roles. Wellisz was a conduit between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Finance Ministry, among other things.
Did they make a difference? He is skeptical. "By and large, I don't think so. But it was important that the reformers didn't feel isolated, that there were others from the outside saying 'you're doing the right thing.' "
He recognizes the ironies, that Vaclav Klaus had held underground economic seminars in the Czech Republic on Milton Friedman's libertarian economic principles - and then as prime minister put in place policies that outsiders say were so flawed they derailed the economy, whereas Poland's "shock therapy" reforms were shaped by Balcerowicz, on the spot, and gave the country a foundation for its economic vigor today.
"Vaclav Klaus has a totally gigantic ego so he beat his own drums - and then gets blamed when things go wrong. I doubt that all the failure is his fault. Balcerowicz knows his value but he is not an egomaniac like Klaus," Wellisz said.
He says Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs, who played a role in both the Polish and Russian reforms (and is now being blamed among those U.S. advisers who "lost Russia") probably has overstated his role in Poland. "He ended up thinking he did all the reforms. Not true. But it was important to have him here."
The Warsaw University citation also noted Wellisz' post-1990 work on upgrading economic education in Polish universities. This included working with young scholars who were studying and writing about the Polish reforms; attempts to replicate the honors programs in U.S. universities, with professors from Columbia, and, with Warsaw University economists Wojciech Maciejewski and Janusz Beksiak, holding summer schools for economics teachers from the ex-Soviet bloc "to teach them principles of economics so they'd know what they are teaching."
"There had been no (contemporary) economic literature in Poland at all. Now they have translated almost all the undergraduate textbooks," Wellisz said.
"But there are no graduate institutions in economics. There is nobody to do it. And today it's worth less than ever being in education. You might get zl. 1,000 a month after getting your doctorate and the peak you can hope for is zl. 2,500 a month as a full professor."
"You can start in business with five times that much," he said. He's at a loss to figure out a solution. Sending young Poles for graduate economic degrees abroad boomerangs because "either they don't come back or they go into business."
• • •
So why won't the new French hypermart Carrefour in Praga take back the returnable beer bottles they sell? Especially when they charge a fee of zl. 0.42-zl. 0.45 on each "returnable" bottle they sell? Gillette's Alf Hicks and his wife Penny want to know. They were impressed by the store but flabbergasted by the returnable bottle policy, which they discovered on their second visit, prepared to return the beer bottles they'd bought on their first trip.
They don't buy the store manager's story that they don't take back returnable bottles for health reasons. "That's nonsense," says Hicks, since nearly all the competitors, including Geant, accept back the bottles they sell. "They shouldn't charge a deposit if they're not going to take them back," he said.
• • •
So, asks headhunter Vera Hartford of Bank of America Country Manager Stanislaw Popow - how will the big BofA merger with the giant North Carolina Nation's Bank affect you? Not clear, replied Popow. But, BofA probably will play a lead role in the overseas expansion that had been underway - simply because it's been around already and the North Carolina guys had been so busy gobbling up U.S. competitors they hadn't done much abroad.
And, Vera noted, he was sitting pretty compared to if he'd remained at Bankers Trust which has been bought up by one of the largest German banks.
Too late to get his German in shape for that.
And, is it true the state treasury had been looking at BofA to put in a bid for the Pekao Group, since they seemed to want to go beyond Citigroup? "It's bad timing for us," said Popow. "We are reviewing several situations, including Pekao but it's probably either too late or too early.
