Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of February 25, 2014?

Article Excerpt

Recent events in Ukraine leave me with a pleasing sense of déjà vu. This goes back to the early 1960s. I had a number of friends back then who had left Hungary as refugees after the failed revolution of 1956. I had read about conditions in the communist world, of course. But hearing about it from friends who had lived through it made it much more tangible. With those memories in mind, the Eastern European revolutions of 1989 seemed like a wonderful thing. When the Eastern European revolutions broke out, I often stayed up until the early hours of the morning, watching live CNN coverage of events then going on in the former Soviet bloc—the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the non-violent crowds standing up to the dictators, and the on-the-scene discussions of political changes that were likely to follow. I felt a strong personal connection to the changes. But I also had a professional interest. The collapse of communism…