Rubrics » Bridging News
Markets and Robots
No. 54, Jul.-Aug. 2025 Robots have become an active part of our economic life. They are already present on the stock market where they act almost independently, buying and selling assets and resources although they are still following the requirements previously given by an entrepreneur who shoulders the risk for its actions. The development of sufficiently complex models that are able to predict and alter the conditions under which they operate will lead us, at some point, to question the role of man in the whole economic mechanism. More
The Limits of Complex Systems: The Power Outage in the Iberian Peninsula
No. 54, Jul.-Aug. 2025 On 28 April 2025, a power outage affected the entire Iberian Peninsula and border areas of France, as well as Andorra. Reports of outages in other countries turned out to be false or unrelated to the events in Spain and Portugal. The power outage affected all of the mainland parts of the two countries. The islands were not affected, as they had independent power grids. By the next day, power had been restored in almost all of the affected areas. Damage was estimated at 4.5 billion euros, but even more important in the long term is the erosion of confidence in the reliability of European critical infrastructure. Politically, there could be major consequences, including increased risks of populism, since the European Union has in recent years been moving strongly (and often self-defeatingly) towards decarbonizing energy production, electrifying important areas of the economy such as transport, and increasing the share of renewable energy in the European mix, under the auspices of the dual digital and green transitions (and, ironically, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council was talking about the triple transition, including the social one). While it is too early to have definitive answers about the root causes of the incident, the blackout was a shock to Europe and perhaps a wake-up call about the weaknesses of a strongly ideological and political approach to pragmatic and technical realities. More
Energy Infrastructure Development in Romania and Bulgaria – A Strategic Necessity for the Energy Security of Central and South-Eastern Europe
No. 54, Jul.-Aug. 2025 In the extremely unstable geopolitical context of recent years, marked by armed conflicts, sabotage of energy infrastructure and the deliberate decoupling of Russian natural gas supplies to Europe, the need for a fundamental reconfiguration of the gas supply route becomes obvious and urgent. The suspension of Russian gas transit through Ukraine, the shutdown of the Yamal-Europe pipeline and the compromise of the Nord Stream pipelines have led to the collapse of the old traditional delivery routes, putting countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Austria in difficulty. The only remaining functional route – TurkStream/Balkan Stream – crosses Bulgaria and has a limited capacity, which shows the vulnerability of the European energy system. In this tense context, the joint initiative of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania to create a “Vertical Gas Corridor” takes on vital strategic importance. This initiative, discussed since 2014 but reactivated in practice after the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, proposes a complete reversal of the gas transport paradigm: instead of north to south, gas would flow from south to north – from the LNG ports and terminals in Greece, through Bulgaria and Romania, to Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Ukraine, and further to the rest of Central Europe. More
The Tariff War and the Future of the Dollar
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 The chaotic decisions of the Trump administration, the unpredictable tariff measures that are likely to affect even the most important economic partners of the US – Canada, Mexico, China and the EU – as well as the equally disorderly reconsideration of American geopolitical interests in relations with Russia, Ukraine and Europe have triggered a new series of debates on an old issue: the role of the dollar in the world. More
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Collapse of Colonial River Governance
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 The Nile River has long been governed more by politics than hydrology, with its control imposed by foreign powers, not equity. The Nile Water Agreements, signed in 1929 and 1959, were negotiated by colonial powers who deliberately excluded upstream-state Ethiopia, giving Egypt control over 66% of its waters and effective veto power over upstream development. On the contrary, Ethiopia, whose highlands supply approximately 85% of the Nile’s volume, has been relegated to the margins of a system designed to entrench dominance, not foster shared control. Now, after decades of foreign monopoly, Ethiopia’s construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has shattered the status quo, a move viewed by Egypt and Sudan as destabilizing, though long seen by Ethiopia as a necessary correction to decades of imposed marginalization. More
Romania, Second Among EU Members Regarding Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 In 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU (21.0% of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, which means they lived in households experiencing at least 1 of 3 poverty and social exclusion risks: risk of poverty, severe material and social deprivation, and living in a household with very low work intensity. Compared with 2023, there was a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points (21.3% of the population, 94.6 million people). More
Trade War: Between Populism and 5D Chess
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 As President of the United States and leader of the free world, Donald Trump has pursued a radical agenda of institutional reform, reevaluating and recalibrating America’s relationships with both the international community and its formal allies. Although he faces pressing global security concerns—such as the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, the looming prospect of a confrontation between Israel and Iran, and even rising tensions between India and Pakistan—Trump’s focus has remained firmly on his populist agenda: illegal (and legal) immigration, foreign trade, and the internal culture war. More
The Modern Complex Economy: Symphony or Cacophony? Cosmos or Chaos?
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 The overarching question concerning complex modern economies is the following: are they symphonic systems, harmoniously coordinated for the smooth functioning of the human economy and society and the fulfilment of human needs? Are they, also, compatible with virtue, beauty, honesty, character and, in general, with the life well lived and human flourishing? Or, are they rather huge arenas of vice, profiteering, greed, impersonal cold human interrelations, instability and recurring economic crises and cycles etc.? More
Mathe…magicians’ Superpower…lessness
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 I don’t know if Bertrand Russell, the famous and fabulous logician and philosopher, writer and civic activist (arrested, at 89, at an anti-nuclear protest, foreshadowing the roughing up, some 13 years ago, of a Romanian mathematician at an anti-real estate developer protest), would have liked the play on words in the subtitle. No more, no less, the Briton sought to rebuild mathematics entirely, emptying it of the rubble of overly specific notions, such as “number” or “square root”, in favour of pure concepts, such as “proposition” or “class”. The Russellian, logical reordering of mathematics follows the Newtonian, mathematical reordering of the natural sciences, but the logic of the physicist-mathematization of the social sciences is much shakier ground, despite its spread. From the arithmetic of the modest merchants to the econometrics of the modern mandarins, something makes it so that neither derivatives nor integrals automatically produce economic growth nor balanced budgets. Mathematical sciences are still exhibiting a quite majestic incapacitation. More
Rethinking Tariffs: A Critique Through the Lens of Strategic Trade Theory
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 In recent years, particularly during the Trump administration, we’ve seen a revival of protectionist policies that have sparked lively discussions about the role of tariffs in a nation’s development strategy. While people often support these policies as a way to boost domestic industries, protect jobs, or address unfair trade practices, classical economic theory—especially David Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage—provides a thoughtful critique of this approach. Yet modern trade dynamics captured in New Trade Theory, Global Value Chain analyses, and theories of Weaponized Interdependence suggest that today’s policymakers face a far more complex environment than Ricardo ever envisioned. To unpack the modern logic behind these tariff strategies, we must bridge historical trade theory, modern strategic trade models, and insights drawn from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal. More
Hala Fatigue! Real’s Crown in Crisis
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 Wait—what? Bigger than politics? Yes. Because this isn’t about some passing political scandal. This is about the club. The biggest, boldest, most-decorated institution in the most beautiful game of all: football. It’s about Real Madrid. The Real Madrid. More
Romania, Largest Increase in Labour Cost Last Year
No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 In 2024, compared with 2023, hourly labour costs at whole economy level expressed in euro rose by 5.0% in the EU and by 4.5% in the euro area. Within the euro area, hourly labour costs increased in all countries. The largest increases were recorded in Croatia (+14.2%), Latvia (+12.1%) and Lithuania (+10.8%) and the lowest in Czechia (+1.3%), followed by Finland (+1.8%) and Luxembourg (+2.1%). More
