There are hardly many people who would not accept free consumption of goods or services. However, free should be in quotes, because someone always pays the price in some form. It does not have to be paid in money, it is possible that those who consume do not realize that they are paying, it is possible …
More »"They are not inclined to normal work"
The title is a quote from the Report-Analysis of Quality, Defects and Complaints at the Electric Transport Plant "6th September" - Sofia. The document dates from the second half of 1961. It is an internal attempt by the plant to identify organizational, technical and other shortcomings in the production of electric forklifts. With the help of authentic archival sources from the end of …
More »How did the first bankruptcy of the People's Republic of Bulgaria occur?
Mass industrialization under central planning In his memoirs published after the fall of the Bulgarian Communist Party regime, Todor Zhivkov wrote that his government returned the gold reserve back to Bulgaria. This is perhaps one of the most notorious lies of the communist dictator. Contrary to Zhivkov's claims, in the 1960s …
More »Does government price control help the poor?
One of the most frequently applied economic regulations is state intervention in pricing. This is easily explained. The increase in prices of essential goods creates social tension. The authorities try to bring calm by subjecting prices to administrative control. It is believed that this helps the poor and the disadvantaged. Elementary economic …
More »Other victims and victims of World War II
The number of Bulgarian victims and victims of World War II (1939-1945) was relatively small. After its beginning, the authorities sincerely tried to maintain neutrality, but on March 1, 1941, they joined as allies of Hitler's Germany, and at the end of the same year they declared a "symbolic war" on the USA and ...
More »4 reasons why limiting the bread markup is a crazy idea
Over the past week or two, the main topic that has been worrying the Bulgarian public is the expected increase in bread prices during the winter season, due to the poor harvest this year and the increase in gas prices. Although this increase is due to completely objective economic realities that cannot be changed at the moment, and …
More »What is worth knowing about Bulgarian socialism III: Industry
Industrialization is one of the visible dimensions of the economic and social modernization experienced by developed capitalist societies in the 19th century. The process of the emergence of industrial structures is a complex result of relative spiritual, economic and scientific freedom, security of private property and appropriate institutional structure. Communists put industrialization among their main economic …
More »The market as an unrealized alternative for the Bulgarian economy
The emergence and spread of socialism, national socialism and fascism is not simply the result of an unfavorable combination of circumstances. These ideologies and their mutations in the conditions of various crises have the dangerous charm of convincing part of the masses of their rightness. In addition to being inhumane, they are also anti-market. When after September 1944 the Bulgarian …
More »Ep. 8: Are Viktor Orbán's economic policies right-wing?
00:40 - How and why did Viktor Orbán manage to be re-elected as Prime Minister for the third consecutive time in Hungary? What is his popularity due to? What are the nature of the economic policies he pursues? What are the similarities between the governments in Poland and Hungary in this regard? 42:50 - The conflict between …
More »The First Bulgarian Five-Year Plan
Five-year plan is the abbreviated name of the five-year plans, through which economic development is centrally controlled and planned under socialist conditions. That is why the socialist countries of Eastern Europe are often called countries with central planning, although five-year plans also exist outside the Eastern Bloc. The implementation of the economic goals set by the political leadership …
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EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion