The latest mention is in the political journal The New Statesman, which urges its readers to spend this coming Christmas, otherwise:
Such pessimism endangers the economy and would even be a criminal offence in Latvia, where a university economics lecturer, Dmitrijs Smirnovs, was arrested last month for telling his students, in a Darlingesque kind of way, that things were arguably pretty bad. Happily, Mr Smirnovs was released after two days and, while we do not condone enforcing economic optimism, it would be good to see a little of it here. For, paraphrasing Keynes, it is our gloom about the future that risks bringing about the very result we all hope to avoid.
The full article can be found here.
Meanwhile, Nadeem Walayat, writing in the British-based The Market Oracle financial website echos some of my feelings:
The whole post can be found here.
The prestigous French newspaper Le Monde has also published a story about the detention of Dmitrijs Smirnov.
Poland's Gazeta Wyborca also has a story, though what exactly it says, I have no idea :).
Meanwhile a Norwegian portal, Hegnar Online, puts it bluntly (loosely translating its headline about Latvia): Here it is forbidden to ask questions about the economy.
I recently talked to a well-informed source close to Latvia's ruling circles and asked this person whether anyone cared about the disgrace that the Security Police actions had brought upon Latvia. My source essentially said that they were completely clueless and didn't think it mattered. Anyone suspect this country is run by provincial dimwits or worse??
