Hey, got a watch? (source)
Item One: A gang has robbed a luxurious shop with watches in BTC, Ljubljana’s shopping area. They’ve used mace to knock out salespeople and stole some € 80.000 worth of wrist watches.
Item Two: Prime Minister (an avid golfer) has seen it necesary to visit Croatian president (not prime minister) Stipe Mesić. They met during finals of Umag ATP tennis tournament. Janša apparently didn’t mind tennis, and their tete-a-tete seems to have been very important as its content have not yet been leaked to the press.
Item Three: Croatian Prime Minister (not president) Ivo Sanader is both a political rival of Stipe Mesić and an avid collector of rate wrist watches. His rather expensive hobby has recently drawn some extremely bad PR, as he sported watched worth several 10k euros, whereas people in Croatia are faced with increasing costs of living. Croatian oppostition has repeatedly told Sanader that “it is about time you resign” 😀
Item Four: Croatian Prime Minister and his Slovene counterpart, Ivo Sanader and Janez Janša have met yesterday during a football match between NK Domžale and NK Dinamo Zagreb. Again, the content of their confabulation remains confidential. But both PMs seem to have learned their lesson and have stopped talking shop over the phone. Dinamo Zagreb won 2:1.
I know rhese are just coincidences (more or less), but I can totally picture Janša giving Sanader one of the stolen watches saying “Sorry honey! I know I shouldn’t have been with Stipe. Here. I brought you a little something…”
But on a slightly more serious note: Inflation in Slovenia has risen a staggering 2,9 percent from January to July inclusive. In period from July 06 to July 07 there was an even bigger jump in prices – 3,8 percent. At the same time Ministry of Finance has said that everthing is cool and that public spending is being decreased. Which is in stark contradiction with a decision reached a month ago, to increase the budget deficit. So, who’s lying, eh?
It’s just amazing how incompetent aparatchiks can fuck up what others have put together for a decade and a half.
Just curious about the watch heist…but was it late /early in the day when it happened? (i.e. not many people around) It sounds like quite a few people were around when it happened from your description…and if all the robbers had was mace I would think they probably could have been stopped.
Thanks God the prices weren’t gonna rise with € :). How’s the 6 month inflation level so far?
@Michael N.: I agree… Apparently there was only one saleswoman in the shop, and another person was attracted by the ruckus and they took him out as well… Other than that the shop was apparenlty empty and the perps left on a couple of motorcycles.
@Disablez: Riiight 😉 As I said: 7-month inflation was 2,9 percent. And it all statred six months after adoption of the euro 🙂
Well, it was the same here in Germany. Politicians claimed, that there was no inflation due to the Euro. Some people just believed them. Others said, they were right, as some stuff that cost for instance 3DM before costs 3€ now. Prices stayed exactly the same, what inflation? Hmm, maybe Janša is both WATCHing the prices and his neighbours?
If Janša was really watching the prices he’d have noticed that something fishy was going on. Instead he’s snowing us with his Dolenjska-drawl saying that all is well and that we’ve never had it better. All thanks to him, of course.
One of these days I intend to show that the current administration is in fact an exact replica of socialist governments of the 70’s – like Brežnjev in Soviet Union or Milka Planinc in Yugoslavia.
I’m so fuckin’ angry about this inflation thing… Motherfuckers….
Maybe they made a deal yesterday. They win the match, we get Piranski zaliv. 🙂
No sale… They would have won the match anyway
I didn’t spend much time on this topic, but AFAIK there is also one thing you didn’t mention. Besides saying “all is well” they’re also saying that the main reason for inflation is the increase of prices of raw materials (oil, metals, cereals etc.) for which they don’t have control over. If this is true that does change the picture a bit.
On the other hand, increasing the budget deficit is IMO one of the stupidest things among many, many stupid things they already did. 🙁
Ah, but the government does have control over those prices. Especially oil and cereals 😀 In fact, government can impose a time limited cap on prices as it sees fit.
But even if they couldn’t cotrol the prices, isn’t it oddly suspicious that mounting deficit, suspiciously high GDP growth and staggering inflation coincide?
Dietmar & Co. I wonder if the inflation was due to the introduction of the Euro or rather the true inflation surfacing with a delay after being suppressed or rather covered up with creative moves in order to secure the agreed conditions for the introduction of the currency.
I wouldn’t mind the higher prices if my salary got seriously inflated as well 😀
I meant the real one… my wallet is emptying much more than 2% faster 🙂
But yes, as dr. fil says my salary was calculated exactly till the 200th decimal.
Much of the “inflation” due to the Euro is that some companies chose to take more money, as most people aren’t that used calculating with the new currency and get used to the higher prices. Fortunately currency changes don’t happen that often. Maybe it’s difficult to determine, how much of the inflation is from this effect and how much “real” inflation. From some point of view it isn’t such a difference for most of the people, if you get less goods for more money it’s bad – and if you haven’t too much dough you probably don’t care at all what’s the reason for your little money losing value.
Ah yes, I do remember the stories about currency changes my grandfather used to tell. How people would lose their savings on account of the conversion. From the Austro-Hungarian empire to the SHS, to the Kingdom of Jugoslavia, to SFRY, etc… the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
One thing that might be strange for Slovenians could be that you probably have to use coins more often than with Tolar. I can imagine, that this might cause a misleading feeling regarding the value of all the money (especially coins) in your wallet. I still can’t see too much sense in the Tolar-coins. This (possible) effect in addition to inflation doesn’t make things better…
Dietmar, think you’re right.
Disablez, Mrkaic just wrote an article for us.
The last one out, turn off the lights?
I’m not sure if I even want to read what Mičo Mrkaič wrote… This guy gives me the creeps.
Well he’s written the same thing a few times before so it won’t shock you too much.