Kalousek's pot of gold

If Chair Martin Pecina of the antitrust office wants to meet with businessmen, wrote Tomáš Němeček of HN on Fri., minutes of the meetings should be taken. Sounds reasonable, but why limit it to Pecina? Imagine the revelatory value of being a fly on the wall when Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek and Premier Mirek Topolánek met in Prague last Oct. with the U.K.'s richest man, Lakshmi Mittal. This nearly forgotten encounter set in motion negotiations that resulted in an out-of-court settlement in the dispute over Vítkovice Steel. Mittal came out of the brawl with an incredibly sweet deal. In agreeing to sell 11% of ArcelorMittal Ostrava to Mittal for Kč 6.8bn, the Czech side left at least Kč 6 billion on the table, according to an analysis by MFD. Kalousek has been able to do amazing things in the past with much smaller amounts. Drawing attention away from this pot of gold is no doubt one reason he's making such a spectacle of attacking the "buffoons" at Kroll.