It is a myth that nobody knows what to do about this country’s economy. As should be obvious from this week’s interview with Viktor Pynzenyk, he knows precisely what ought to be done. And the point is not the brilliance or sophistication of the learned economist’s analysis, because it is neither: what he is (and has long been) saying ought to be painfully clear to anyone with even a couple of undergraduate economics courses under their belt. And it is even more painfully clear that he will continue to be ignored because the changes he recommends are not in the bureaucratic interests of those in a position to implement them.
Pynzenyk was a singularly ineffective Deputy Premier for the economy. Near the end of his tenure it was clear to all that his actual influence on economic policy was close to nil and that his main task was to assure the outside world that someone really committed to straightening out this country’s economic mess remained in government. This was not his fault; it was due to the fact that the ministries ostensibly under his jurisdiction have structural interests in maintaining precisely what is dragging the economy down — the bloated bureaucracy the country simply cannot afford, over-regulation that strangles the productive business activity which is the only possible generator of material wealth, “privatization” carried out in such a way as suits bureaucrats and managers rather than creating real owners, and keeping inefficient de facto bankrupt enterprises afloat by protecting them from the competition that fosters economic efficiency. Most of what he was in charge of probably ought to be abolished outright, and nobody will allow that to happen. It is so much more pleasant to take out bigger and bigger loans, which nobody seriously believes will ever be paid back.
Viktor Pynzenyk is one of the best and the brightest to have served in the Ukrainian government. The fact that he is no longer there is yet another indicator of why this country is drifting ever farther away from the developed West and ever closer to the Third World.






