Three words that shook PPF's world

Except for perhaps Tomáš Baťa, there will never be a Czech John D. Rockefeller. Czech privatizers who stole their start-up capital and have been hoping ever since to go legit, or at least to appear so, will never be able to replicate the transformation of Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt or Morgan. Those American robber barons made their fortunes in an era of enormous growth and used the passage of time and good PR to become industrial statesmen and philanthropists. The window for Czech oligarchs to do so was simply too narrow. The world is a mess, and it takes just three words - Vekslák bourá Prahu in the case of Petr Kellner, Knihovna Václava Havla in the case of Zdeněk Bakala - for the past to come screaming back. Self-righteous Czech billionaires will no doubt think it unfair, but the more good deeds they try to perform, the more they will highlight the misdeeds that brought them to where they are today.