The last lecture during the Cracow International Summer School was given by Prof. Andrzej Wojtyna from Cracow University of Economics, former member of Polish Monetary Policy Council. His speech was build up uppon 10 main questions for Polish economy. Knowing that he is closing the Summer School, he started with an anegdote: "Who are economists? They are people that take something that works very well in practice, and they prove that theoretically it cannot work.". This joke was not only to warm up this rainy morning, but also to go smoothly not only to the topic of economic crisis but also crisis of economics as a science.
First few questions were touching the problem of resilience of Polish economy to the crisis and the pre-crisis speed of growth (also potential rate of growth). What happened during the slowdown is also important: hoarding labour force by companies, high inflation, weakening of polish złoty. Of course there had to be question about the 55% limit for public debt in Poland. Some political issues also appeared like idea of dismantling of the Polish pension system or the probability of structural reforms forced by the threat of the crisis. There was also difficult question if the banking sector supervision should return to NBP. The last question was the most general and philosophical about the future of capitalism. Wojtyna asked altogether 13 questions trying to give some hints rather than answers. Presented issues are most current challenges for Polish economists and politicians.
During Q&A session Wojtyna used another joke to explain troubles that economics as a science has: "There was a professor at some university that in each year asked the same exam question. The difficulty was that each year, correct answer was different."