"1848 and Beyond"

If Petofi were living today, he would aspire to be a gold trader. After all, the year is 2005 and in looking at the world at large, Petofi would state for his countrymen, to his friends, that the time to trade gold in Budapest has arrived. The time has come and the opportunity is here.

As a matter of fact, Hungary has never been in a better position in international relationships and international opportunities. The formation of the European Common Market created some fifteen small states, and another fifteen or so that were spun off from the former Soviet Union. You have, therefore, some thirty states that look for a leader in oil exploration, in natural gas distribution, but also in merchant banking so they can pool their resources and show independence and leadership.

Hungary is probably the best organized, most stable and best educated country among the thirty. This is recognized by the United States, which is looking for every way to support, help and promote the interests of the emerging states among the emerging countries. Signs are clearly pointing out that Hungary is one of them, if not the number one in this category.

President Bush selected as ambassador his cousin, Ambassador Burt Walker, a highly successful businessman, intimately known in the world of finance and investments. I categorically state that Ambassador Walker did not come to Budapest to read every night the Treaty of Trianon and Versailles, and spend his weekends contemplating the modification of the Trianon Treaty. No insult, but 95 percent of Americans don't even know what Trianon means.

I have agitated for five years to strengthen the Budapest Stock Exchange and to create a merchant banking activity in Hungary. I have heard all the difficulties. Let us, however, pick on one subject which has merit and which is feasible. I am talking of the gold market. The gold market is international. Gold trades in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Frankfurt, London, New York, around the clock. The greatest gold banker, the late Edmond Safra, was a close friend of Mr. F_________ and the late Mr. Aros. Mr. Safra in the top floor of the Republic National Bank Building in New York, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, sometimes ran around in pajamas late at night, trading gold.

His was a one-man stop in the international gold trade. Now, Hungary can organize itself to be a factor. From a headquarters in Budapest, it can create direct lines to the other twenty or thirty so-called smaller nations of Europe and Asia. These countries were all spun off from somebody, and after fifty years of oppression, they, too, want to live well. They, too, want to make money. This is what a central all-trading department in Hungary must understand. Hungary has friends. Hungary has what is most important in our business -- potential clients.

Simultaneously, trading gold futures, gold stocks can be listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange. If there is interest in the Central European gold trading, it has an interest in gold mining shares as well. Now, that is the strengthening of the current and future of the Budapest Stock Exchange.

It is very simple today to connect the growing gold market to the major markets in the world. Well, of course Hungary has to be, the Hungarian gold market has to be to some extent, the best in the world. We have to have the best securities analyst; we have to have the best traders, the best merchant bankers, the best writers in a field so that the world would turn to trading gold in Hungary. Everybody knows that Budapest is an hour before London, and if we trade gold, if we want to be an international gold trader, it is not going to be a hardship if you open the gold market even an hour earlier so we are two hours before London. We can buy in Budapest, stop in London, sell in New York, all for the same price.

A nation that sincerely wants to be rich, important, international, recognized, cannot remain passive and say this would be too difficult. President Roosevelt said at the outset of the Second World War, "Let no man say it can't be done. It can be done, it will be done."

We have emerged from the reconstruction of the fifty years of communist rule. It is up to us to excel in a field which would bring up the inherent intellectual and organization ability of ten million people. There was a story in the U.S. that in the Middle Ages, a flying saucer fell on South America, and now waits for resurrection. The flying saucer did not fall in South America. The story says it fell on Hungary. In the 1930's, five Hungarian scientists came to America and totally changed the American way of life.

We have done it in nuclear physics. Surely it's more attractive and easier to do it in gold. Never in the history of Hungary has the most powerful nation, the United States of America, through its president, taken an interest in the progress, welfare and the future of Hungary. Never in the history of Hungary has our country been in a position to have the U.S. as its logical partner. We have, however, the duty to take advantage of these opportunities. Petofi was 160 years ahead of his time. Now or never.

(Article 1 - posted August 4, 2005)

e-mail: mlikar@aol.com

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