How Politics Relates to Economics
The coincidences in life are amazing. I was a young economics student when the Soviet Union began to collapse, and it was fascinating. We had a visiting professor from Moscow teach a class on the economics of communism, which was one of the best classes I took in college. I was so fascinated that I accidently ended up with a minor in international studies. During my last semester I did an independent study on how former Soviet states should transition from the command economy to a free economy. I argued that they should follow the Polish model, which, put simply, was the rip-the-Band-Aid-off approach. My professor did not like my conclusion, but history did, and that explains why I pursued a career in investment management over academia. In my world one gets rewarded for being actually correct, versus politically correct.
In my early career this focus was little more than an interesting talking point. It certainly did not help me get my job at Invesco. Then one day, almost a decade after writing that paper, my boss stormed into my office and told me that I was going to Poland. What are the odds?
