Nostalgia for Dafina

The glasnost that popular Yugoslav National Bank (NBJ) Governor Dragoslav Avramovic introduced into the mysterious field of state monetary policy and the strength of the dinar have dazed the entire superstructure of the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS) and Yugoslav United Left (JUL). Suddenly their favorite toy, the Belgrade mint, is in "foreign hands". And the political and national leader is silent instead of dismissing the stubborn guardian of the dinar and finding a suitable personnel solution to place "our man" in charge of the money traffic.

Try to imagine how Avramovic could be reconciled with the SPS idea of an NBJ governor, how he could be supplemented with constructive traits and fit the portrait of an SPS governor.

First, he would have to wear the kind of suit Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic wears and try to understand that it's OK to say he won't print money without backing but that's it not OK for him to keep just 9% of "this year's estimated social product" in circulation as cash when inflation is only 7% a month, when the republican ministers don't have the money to pay for the sowing of state owned land, pay workers in state companies and play with imports that no buyer will pay for in advance. Along with all that, he would have to lower the escrow rates of the NBJ, in view of the stable dinar, since it's probably damaging to keep the currency stable or does that stability seem too expensive to Marjanovic. Why is instability cheaper?

That governor would then have to acquire the imagination of Vlatkovic, Tomic and Djonovic to understand that the constantly inflated state budget in real terms can be called restrictive and non-inflationary, that the central bank's decision to write off loans, and the purchases of agricultural combine bonds (420 million) can be done without printing more money but from "real income" from the interests paid by business banks, from the incomes that they don't have and that there are five ways to finance exports although none of them includes a way of buying time with empty foreign currency reserves until more hard currency comes in which won't happen.

The treatment for Avramovic would enter the final stage with the transfer of huge national worries from Kosta Mihailovic and when a letter to the IMF would be written saying that "the people are prepared for sacrifice" for the sake of "Yugoslav continuity". Actually, the letter should include that intention but without the IMF noticing.

Despite all that, none of the Socialists are sure whether Avramovic would look like Dafina Milanovic, the banker who directed monetary policy several years ago keeping the wolves happy and sheep shorn. She was quick to grasp the concept of socialist economy. You invest 100 DEM, get 15 DEM in interest, live off that for a whole month without working. And the future comes under the iron laws of historic Marxism.

So why should anyone bother to re-educate Avramovic when Dafina is alive and well and her bank still hasn't been liquidated, although Marjanovic said two years ago that the bank would be consolidated and restructured.

Dragoljub Milanovic is still here to give her TV support, Belgrade is still here to sell buildings, offices, parking lots and China-town, there are railroads under construction and Europolis. The pensioners who always inspired Dafina's speeches after calls from Radoman Bozovic for loans to the pension fund are still here. But something isn't the same. The problem is that the regime and SPS are still here only thanks to a stable dinar and memories of worse times. Avramovic is protected by the fact that Dafina or someone like her is the alternative.

Requirements for the new national bank governor according to the Serbian authorities:

1. He has to recognize the continuity of old foreign currency savings

2. He has to not recognize the IMF and know Radoje Kontic

3. He has to enjoy the trust of the population

4. He has to preserve interest without original debt

5. He has to keep the sowing in a safe