Into the end game on the current government's only policy drive that pits a reformist agenda against special interests. Time to update the scorecard.

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Need an update on progress towards Poland's recently stated goal of entering the euro zone in 2011? We all do. The story started with a bang, moved quickly to the whimper stage and, well, has anyone seen it since?

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Here’s a question going into the global recession: What are Poles like in the face of such dramatic headlines as we’ve had out of the world’s financial capitals?  >>

Amongst the things you can hear in Warsaw from banking leaders and banking regulators as they watch the financial system melt down in the US and now Europe following excesses on the sub-prime mortgage market and elsewhere: >>

Unsurprisingly, I am again inspired by government talk of privatization. I shouldn't complain about this government specifically. My gut instinct is that the last government was worse on this matter and the government prior perhaps worse still. But it proves something: retaining state ownership of firms and, thus, putting politicians directly in charge of business, leads directly to question: who are they kidding?  >>

So they finally did it. They broke a campaign promise to drive even me over the edge. Not an easy task. I, thanks to hard-learned intense cynicism towards politicians, am the last person to hold politicians to their campaign promises. But even this government, comparably devoted to not offending anyone even at the cost of inaction, finally managed to do it. Not surprisingly, on an issue that could affect me.  >>

Several items in the press this past week suggest that a pending reform is set to miss its mark and gives an opportunity to press a familiar call for changes to pension saving rules. The market regulator reports that voluntary pension savings accounts, IKEs, are falling out of favor. Not only are Poles not opening new accounts, they are liquidating some existing accounts despite the penalties. What is more, Poles with accounts are making smaller annual contributions: PLN 1719 in 2007 and below that level to date in 2008, versus an annual contribution cap at PLN 4055 for the year. Only 876k Poles have accounts.  >>

I stand by what I wrote in "Old School - New School." Not that then-deputy Finance Minister Gomulka doesn't fit the government. Too easy (he was later canned). >>

Poland has put up two weeks of notable headlines in equity markets, specifically in M&A and fights over dividend payments. And while there is nothing new in M&A and fighting over dividends might seem normal in an age of tightened capital markets, the current round of news is showing a new stage in the evolving role that Polish institutional funds can play in dealing the cards when the big deals are dealt. >>

Sexy headline? Very unsexy topic, although it does touch on how customers sometimes feel they are getting ****ed. I have just ended roughly six weeks of doing battle with a domestic satellite television operator (despite my justified frustration, to remain anonymous) to cancel an ill-fated subscription and, as it turned out, to highlight a new measure of where Poland is on the economic development map. >>

A rising tax debate in Poland should be giving the Polish press a good opportunity to prove a penchant for sniffing out the influence of special interest groups and decrying the servility of a government to its narrowest base constituency. >>

Deputy Finance Minister Stanislaw Gomulka is old school. Omnipresent in the mainstream press, he lays out fiscal and tax policy vision with detail usually saved for boring professional journals. The man even speaks openly about what social groups might pay the price and fund his policy projects. Prime Minister Donald Tusk is new school, having learned the hard way.  >>

Check the history of blogging to find the quickest ever justified use of the phrase "I told you so" or "You read it here first." Just over two weeks after I wrote in my second-ever blog entry Old School, New School that deputy Minister of Finance Stanislaw Gomulka fits the current government like a square peg in round holes, he is out, ousted from his job for the very reasons named. I'll try to be more careful when I write about ministers in the future. >>