2008 in review
Analysis published during 2008.
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St Nicholas Day, 19 December 2008
The night when something small appears under a pillow.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Holodomor Remembrance Day, 22 November 2008
A remembrance message in the seventy-fifth anniversary year, and a note on why the anniversary mattered.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Autumn 2008: how the peg broke, and who paid for it
Steel prices collapsed, foreign funding stopped, and a currency held at 5.05 for four years went to eight in a matter of weeks. The mechanics were entirely predictable…
Economy & Macro -
Ukrainian Language Day, 9 November 2008
A language day greeting from someone still at the stage of being corrected in shops.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Ukraine Market Report — Q3 2008
Steel prices fell by more than half, international credit markets closed, and the three exposures assembled over the previous three years began moving at the same time.
Quarterly & Annual Reports -
Knowledge Day 2008
The first September in twenty years that I was not going back to a classroom. I had graduated in the summer and was working, and I missed it…
National Days & Anniversaries -
Independence Day 2008: the last good summer
Ukraine marks seventeen years with WTO membership secured, steel prices at record highs, a war in the neighbourhood two weeks old — and a credit structure that will…
National Days & Anniversaries -
Ukraine Market Report — Q2 2008
WTO accession completed, tariff schedules bound, and a permanent improvement in the country's trading position — achieved in the same quarter the conditions underlying its growth were quietly…
Quarterly & Annual Reports -
Ivana Kupala, 7 July 2008
A midsummer greeting, and the observation that the holiday never quite agreed to become Christian.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Constitution Day, 28 June 2008
A greeting for Constitution Day, without entering the argument.
National Days & Anniversaries -
WTO accession: what fourteen years of negotiation actually bought Ukraine
Membership took effect on 16 May. It binds tariffs, opens services, subjects trade policy to a dispute mechanism — and removes the last legal obstacle to a deep…
Trade & Investment -
Vyshyvanka Day, 15 May 2008
A greeting for a day that was still small then, and what it looked like before it filled the streets.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Easter, 27 April 2008
An Easter greeting, and a word about the queue outside the church at six in the morning.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Ukraine Market Report — Q1 2008
Inflation above thirty percent, an economy running well beyond capacity, and a policy response that was still expansionary. The quarter is the textbook description of an overheating economy.
Quarterly & Annual Reports -
Bucharest 2008: a promise without a date, and what it cost to price
NATO declared that Ukraine and Georgia would become members but declined to offer a Membership Action Plan. The formula gave Kyiv the political exposure of a commitment without…
Politics & Governance -
International Women's Day 2008
My first eighth of March as an employee rather than a student, and the discovery that the day has workplace choreography.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Ukraine Annual Review 2007: the last good year, and why it was the most dangerous
Growth near eight percent, record investment, a booming property market and a banking sector expanding faster than any in the region. Everything that made 2007 look successful was…
Quarterly & Annual Reports -
Day of Unity, 22 January 2008
A unity day greeting, and a note on the bridge the chain is usually formed across.
National Days & Anniversaries -
Ukraine Market Report — Q4 2007
The strongest year since 2004 ended with inflation in the mid-teens, an external deficit at a record, and a credit structure entirely dependent on funding conditions that were…
Quarterly & Annual Reports -
Christmas 2008
The seventh of January in a hard winter, and the twelve dishes that are a fast rather than a feast.
National Days & Anniversaries -
New Year 2008
The last New Year before the crisis, spent entirely unaware that it was the last of anything.
National Days & Anniversaries
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