"In August 2000 a speech by Brigadier General Zaw Tun, Deputy Minister for National Planning and Economic Development in Burma's military regime, was circulated on various mailing lists on the internet. The speech -- online on this website at http://www.ibiblio.rg/obl/docs/zaw_tun%2007-07-2000.htm -- which had been delivered a month earlier at a seminar on Burma's economy at the Institute of Economics in Rangoon, demonstrated, in the words BurmaNet, 'a frankness and grasp of economics not generally displayed by a ranking member of the regime'. The purpose of this note is to re-examine Zaw Tun's speech in the light of recent economic developments, and against what might be considered a consensual view of sound economics for a country such as Burma. Finding that Zaw Tun's grasp of economics is rather less than first appears, the note concludes that Burma's economy is also in a far worse state than he suggests. Turning this around, moreover, will not come from mere tinkering with economic policy in the ways he indicates, but will require the profound reconstruction of the country's political economy. The note is organised according to the same categories that were employed in Zaw Tun's original speech. They were: 1.Growth and GDP; 2.Investment; 3.Trade Policy; 4.Taxation; 5.Currency; 6.Interest Rates; 7.Open Discussion."