Alexei Vlasov exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
A speech by President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Astana Economic Forum was a big event for the world expert society. One of the leading politicians of the post-Soviet space touched on a huge complex of problems and his ideas and suggestions were so numerous that could be a subject for several international forums. And this is not an exaggeration.
Summing up the presidential speech, we can see an unpleasant picture of the world financial and economic management. “The crisis is not over, it continues,” Nazarbayev is sure. He sees reasons for this in obvious weakness of the system and psychology of the world business – striving for easy money, ineffectiveness of the global financial management, selfishness of people who manage the global economy. As the result the global crisis is turning into a new stage.
According to Nazarbayev, even actions which are justified for one country lead to worsening of the financial crisis – for example, protectionist measures by national countries lead to falls in cross-border trade volumes. Everyone tries to be safe, considering their own interests and available instruments.
But the most important thing, and we can totally agree with President of Kazakhstan, is that the financial crisis became a chronic illness of the whole social system of the society – drastic worsening of social conditions is obvious; systemic decrease of spending on education and healthcare system.
“The future looks at us in dismay,” President of Kazakhstan noted. Four last years were spent on nothing by the global management. The system of the world monetary administrating should be changed. But which world reserve currency is reliable? Non-transparency of global finances should be prevented. But how can we avoid double standards in this complicated process? The Cyprus experience showed that simple decisions lead to complicated consequences.
Thus, President of Kazakhstan gave “D” to the world financial managers. But it wasn’t an appraisal of their competence, but a simple fact: there is no trust and there is no an anti-crisis plan. Everybody says we need a new model, but in fact everybody is fixing holes. It can be really dangerous – loss of time, loss of pace, loss of population’s trust.
Will the call by the Kazakh leader be heard? Considering speeches by powerful economists and European politicians, Nazarbayev is understood. But is he accepted? I believe the trust crisis is much deeper than it seemed in 2008-2009. The problem is not only in ineffective tools and greedy managers. Feeling the depth of the crisis, key players turned to the tactics – “Everyone for himself!” In this context numerous anti-crisis meetings resemble sessions of investment banks boards who rely on an illusion that in a critical moment their banks would be saved because they are too big to be failed.
Of course, Kazakh President didn’t use such tough metaphors, but we should remember the fate of Lehmann Brothers.
