Viktor-less summer

Except for a few exceptions, such as today's front page of E15, it was a summer bereft of Viktor Kožený. The "Pirate of Prague" has been a headline-topper in most previous silly seasons but has now faded into the Bahamian sunset. The major privatization heists of the 1990s are now mostly just fodder for interesting debates between the likes of Ladislav Jakl and Jiří Pehe on Z1, where Pehe can be heard saying that Václav Klaus was the guru of those operating in the gray zone and Jakl responds with "bunkum and balderdash." Statutes of limitations have largely rendered this debate academic, but for Kožený it remains real, because he never succeed in turning his deeds into a virtue. Compare him with Petr Kellner of PPF who, according to an early supporter, Štěpán Popovič, was able to wipe out all his competitors by anticipating exactly what was going to happen legislatively. Klaus, it seems, couldn't have wished for a better student of the invisible hand of the market.