RIGA – You remember this guy? He is back. According to an article in Ventas Balss Dmitrijs Smirnovs said,
The unemployment level will reach 50 percent in the fall. Many people will leave the country to work as servants. They can shoot me for my forecast. I don’t even know if I’m supposed to be talking about this. For Latvia to survive at the current management levels, it will need $7 billion to $10 billion every year [...] It all will end in default. Bankruptcy. It will be worse than it was in the 1990s.
Back when he was first quesioned/arrested I remember thinking that his opinions were more than a bit….. out of the mainstream, shall we say? Just because someone is an economist doesn’t mean they are bright.
Ubfortunately the authorities increased his fame by arresting him…does anyone know when the trial will be? Or what will happen with that case?
No, at that time, it wasn’t his brightness that was the problem, Tom. It was the reaction of the authorities. Which as about as bright as Smirnovs’ pronouncements.
GA, there won’t be a trial. The last thing I heard the criminal investigation has been closed, but he just cannot leave the country.
Alek,
Of course it was the authorities reaction that mattered. But, as I remember, some of his stuff was more than a bit strange. I wish I could remember what struck me as strangest about what he said. I will hunt a bit.
As Tom says, he is more than a bit wacko. Thanks to the security police, he’s now prominent, quotable wacko rather than a normal, obscure one.
But he is a timely reminder that just because your job title is ‘economist’ or ‘lecturer’ and you have the certificates to prove it, doesn’t mean you can’t be a raving loon.