A number of countries have resorted to 'windfall tax', or a tax on the extraordinary profits of companies that have achieved excellent financial results due to the crisis. The focus is mainly on energy companies, but some are going broader. Croatia has opted for a model that fills the budget and empties the companies’ cash registers. More than two hundred million kuna per month, or about 2.5 billion kuna per year, oil traders in Croatia will earn less due to the Government’s decision to limit fuel margins to 65 lipa. According to expert estimates, this will result in oil derivative traders earning less than one kuna per liter of fuel. Antonija Knežević writes about the new Government measures that will take away 2.5 billion kuna from oil companies.
Who are the losers and who are the winners of inflation, found out Ksenija Puškarić in the topic of the week. The luxury sector has the least reason for concern, as it should pass through inflation and a potential recession relatively unscathed, and products perceived as offering the best value for money could become more attractive, reflecting consumption patterns typical of certain social classes. Thus, the wealthy continue to spend as if nothing is happening during times of crisis, the poor save wherever they can, and the middle class tries to maintain their lifestyle as much as possible with smaller sacrifices.
The free market has been dismantled for two and a half years. Whether planned or just intentionally, certainly foolish, probably even David Icke would not be able to decipher it. The fact is that the pandemic and war have fiercely and grandly returned – the state. Money printing, care for all those whose work has been banned (and for those whose work has not), universal income, refugee accommodation, green promises, and expensive transitions… these are all stories that can only be financed by the state (with fictitious money). And with it – the left. Reading the media and social networks, it is clear that we are in global hostile camps on all topics and dilemmas, but when it comes to the left and the right, the gap is at least a spear deeper. So, no matter how much liberals claim that there is no real left that respects and fights for freedom, the fact is that the rise of the state revives it, whatever it may be. However, the left in Croatia has not had much luck for some time: We Can! is not doing well on the Zagreb test, the SDP is collapsing, and the Workers’ Front more often provokes ridicule than understanding. If the left and the state are indeed rising globally, under what name can we seek it in Croatia? Who could strategically design it first, then strengthen it? Does it really make sense? What will we do with the global relationship between states and the private sector? And what about the idea of a few who shape the world according to their own measure? There are many questions to which we sought answers from Gvozden Flege, a philosopher, politician, and leftist interviewed by Gordana Gelenčer.
