The spiralling Euro

The continuing sharp upward movement of the Euro must arouse diverse emotions. To the majority of businesspersons it is surely not the most exhilarating experience but for those whose loans are denominated in the European common currency it approaches tragedy dimensions. The Euro exchange rate of 4.9 PLN 9 (6 February) is apparently still not too expensive for politicians since they do not hesitate to quarrel publicly against Polish Economy Minister Jerzy Hausner's plan to improve the national financial situation and, thereby, painting a very dim picture of Poland's future for investors. I sense, very strongly, a lack of responsibility, responsibility for words, decisions, behaviour and, ultimately, responsibility for Poland. They surely know the word but seem to have forgotten what it means. And we are the ones who have to pay for that omission. Luckily, "Eurobuild" focuses on business (though that is also influenced by politics) and the people in it. Eugene Golub of Golub and Company is a man who has survived many political storms in the US and Europe. He was recently awarded a CEE Lifetime Achievement Award. We talked to him not only about his achievements in real estate trading but also his experience with literature (see p. 8). The failure of two Polish close-ended real estate funds have not scared others from establishing similar products - new fund managers are learning from the experience of these pioneer companies and we are helping them in so doing with the article "Learning by trial and error" on p. 16. "Eurobuild" supports the idea to improve and create a better image of Poland at international property fairs, which emerged following the last Expo Real in Munich. A number of volunteer companies want to set-up a non-profit association to do just that.