Bogdan C. Enache

Political scientist, former business journalist, book reviewer; interested in politics, economics and the art of living

Inflation: Old Wine in New Bottles

Inflation is rapidly rising at present across most of the world. This happens in the aftermath of a first pandemic year during in which the fears of deflation that have characterised the decade following the 2008 financial crisis resurfaced in earnest. The new inflation wave is commonly blamed on the pandemic supply shock to global supply chains, as well as on the negative effect of Russia’s war in Ukraine, particularly with regard to grain prices. These aggregate supply rationales are real and correct as far as they go, but insufficient to explain the phenomenon. The pandemic affected both supply and demand, whence sustained efforts in large consumer-driven economies such as the United States to preserve the latter. Less financially constrained consumers accumulated large cash balances at the height of the pandemic which have been reinjected into the economy since the most draconian restrictions have been gradually lifted. And excessively cautious monetary policies, oriented towards recovering lost growth from years past, have reinforced the inflationary effect of post-pandemic spending. More

In Memory of Romania’s Last King: His Royal Majesty Michael I (1921-2017)

Bogdan C. Enache

The life of King Michael I (Mihai I, for Romanians) embodies almost perfectly the tormented and tragic destiny of Romania, his country, in the 20th century. His quiet and reserved personality, almost a monument to stoicism, was testimony to a man who, in the face of great adversity, always tried to do everything right, but in the end to no avail. More

The European Significance of the War in Ukraine

Bogdan C. Enache

The all-out war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022, after months of Sitzkrieg (a play on words between blitzkrieg – lightning war – and sitting around) on its North-Eastern borders, is obviously of primordial concern for European security and politics. However, its fundamental significance for the continent’s contemporary political project has not been clearly recognized to date. More

The Iron Laws of Romanian Politics

Bogdan C. Enache

The 26th of May European elections have produced a mixed picture across the European Union, where Eurosceptic, populist or non-mainstream parties have consolidated their gains in some of the largest Member States (such as France, Italy and, for what it is worth, the UK), while suffering losses in some medium sized and small states (such as Romania, the Netherlands and Austria), with no notable change occurring in most countries (such as Poland, Hungary, Sweden or Germany). Still, even a country now hailed as a bulwark against right wing populism, such as Spain, will feature a far-right party in the European Parliament for the first time. More

The Romanian Electoral Spleen

Bogdan C. Enache

The European and presidential elections to be held this year in Romania will be heralded as a turning point, but despite their importance – particularly for the broader European context, where populist parties might tip the political balance – they fall into a familiar post-communist pattern: a battle between a corrupt, populist, but highly effective governmental force and a fragmented, noisy, but often equally tarnished, incompetent and amateurish opposition, not very capable to govern either. Although Romania is usually classified as a relatively new democracy in international political analyses, because of the totalitarian and authoritarian interlude, this pattern runs deep in the country’s history, sociology and institutional make-up, encompassing pre-communist as well as post-communist elements, despite the superficial novelties of one-time electoral contests. More

The Coronavirus Epidemic in Romania: A Government Failure All-Along (II)

Bogdan C. Enache

When vaccination began simultaneously in all 27 EU states, in late December 2020, Romania reported for a short while some of the highest figures in the bloc, but it quickly became the second least vaccinated member country. It is now customary to attribute this dismal performance to rampant anti-vaccine sentiment among the Romanian population, even though some survey evidence pointed to more pronounced vaccine skepticism and vaccine hesitancy in Western countries such as France in particular[1]. On closer inspection, however, the finger pointed at anti-vaccine ideas and groups by high government officials in Romania constituted – without denying in the least the deleterious effects of anti-vaccination propaganda and activism – more of an abdication from responsibility which obscures the serious blunders of the government itself in vaccination matters. This was particularly the situation with the much-publicized case of some anti-vaccine Christian Orthodox clergy. For 30 years, many Liberals in the country decried the absence of a government-independent Church, and one was to believe that it emerged all of sudden in the midst of the pandemic! In the end, it was not the spread of anti-vaccine ideas which determined the vaccination rate in a country, but the actions or non-actions of public authorities. More

The Coronavirus Epidemic in Romania: A Government Failure All-Along (I)

Bogdan C. Enache

More than two years after the start of the coronavirus epidemic, the real magnitude of the disaster it has wrought in Romania is plain for everyone to see. Although it entered into lockdown as one of the least affected countries, at least according to official statistics, in March 2020, it currently occupies a hard to believe 9th place worldwide in terms of coronavirus deaths per one million inhabitants, one notch above Brazil whose epidemic disaster has received more attention in the world’s media[1]. Furthermore, commonplace stories about rampant vaccine skepticism, anti-scientific thinking and bigotry among the Romanian population obscure the fundamental cause of the catastrophe: a failed government run by even more failed politicians. More