Rubrics » Bridging News
REER – Romania in a Decent European Position
No. 50, Nov.-Dec. 2024 Romania occupies a depreciating but relatively decent position in the regional context in terms of the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER), an indicator that summarizes the evolution of the exchange rate and consumer prices in relation to the main actors in international trade. The indicator is critical for the chronic and growing trade deficit, reaching at over 18 billion euros in the first 7 months of this year. More
Timothy Dexter: A Mind Filled with Gaps
No. 50, Nov.-Dec. 2024 America was going through a tough period during the 1700s. The constant fight against British oppression led to the Revolutionary War, which ended on the 4th of July in 1776, after many casualties on both sides. The economy was devastated and many Americans were left in great poverty due to these events. However, one young man from Massachusetts would find himself constantly “failing upwards” into a life of luxury, against all odds. More
Habemus POTUS!
No. 50, Nov.-Dec. 2024 After a decisive showdown that defied our expectations regarding the use of legal battles and allegations of fraud, Donald Trump emerged victorious in the US presidential race, becoming the second President of the United States (POTUS) to take a break between terms. The outcome was an anti-climax, as the vote went the way many polls and betting markets had predicted, with Trump winning by a clear popular and electoral college majority that could not easily be challenged. The financial disparities between the two candidates in favour of the Democrats could not compensate for Trump’s ability to communicate freely and charismatically with the crowd, and the Democrats failed to fully utilize the new campaign weapon, the political podcast, which surpasses traditional media in terms of audience. I don’t know if we can hope that this experience will make the Democratic Party rethink its flirtation with identitarian and economic extremism, or the way it let party cabals play games in removing Biden (who would have been a better presidential candidate) and selecting Harris, but Donald Trump managed to win record support from minorities and improve his score in absolutely all American counties. Kamala Harris has not managed to surpass Biden’s performance anywhere. But what will happen from 2025 on the external front? Will we witness a new Pax Americana or will the pessimism of the elites in the Euro-American mainstream come true? More
Liber Amicorum in Praise of Amfiteatru Economic
No. 50, Nov.-Dec. 2024 I shared the following thoughts before and they have already been printed in the pages of the book that tells the story of the most appreciated Romanian magazine of economic science. I also recommend the other testimonies collected between the covers of the volume edited by Professors Vasile Dinu and Laurențiu Tăchiciu, Amfiteatru Economic și dimensiunea colectivă a prieteniei intelectuale [Economic Amphitheater and the collective dimension of intellectual friendship]. Because, yes, beyond any metric, writing-for-communication endures only when it becomes writing-for-communion. More
Event-debate “European Citizens’ Agora – The European Union Enlargement Process, a Catalyst for Progress”
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The EUROPE DIRECT Bucharest Centre, hosted by the European Institute of Romania, in partnership with the Faculty of International Business and Economics, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, organized on Thursday, October 24, 2024, the event-debate entitled “European Citizens’ Agora – The European Union enlargement process, a catalyst for progress”. More
The Draghi Report: Whatever It Takes to Increase European Competitiveness
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 It is often said that by declaring that he would do “whatever it takes”, the then President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, saved the Eurozone from the financial and sovereign debt crisis of 2012. His solutions for reviving the growth of the Union’s competitiveness European (EU) are presented in a much larger document (400 pages), published last week, but the general principle is the same: “whatever it takes” must be done. This organization needs, he claims, a “new industrial strategy” to stimulate economic growth, which involves additional investments of 800 billion euros annually. The amount represents 4.7% of GDP, more than double the American aid received by European economies through the Marshall Plan. But it is an “existential challenge”. More
The Missed Colossus
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The $20 decillion ($20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!) fine imposed by Russia on Google (The Washington Post, 2024) is largely symbolic but reveals the arbitrary and absurd despotism into which the Russian Federation has gradually transformed—a stark contrast to the 1990s, when Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin appeared to foster a spirit of friendship, and discussions of Moscow joining NATO were not (yet) laughed out of the room. More
Behind the Reaction and Counter-Reaction in the Middle East
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The US announcement of an imminent Iranian attack on Israel has sparked fears of a long-awaited escalation to open warfare in the Middle East. However, that attack was similar in size and intensity to the one in April 2024, came at a time of day when casualties were minimized, and was calibrated not to pose very great challenges to Israel’s layered missile defense system, assisted by American and, it seems, British forces. More
The Visible Hand: The Case for Government Enterprises in Ensuring Fair Competition and Market Stability
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The phrase “invisible hand”, famously coined by economist Adam Smith, refers to the self-regulated nature of a free market. The notion suggests that individual pursuits of self-interest, when left unchecked, will guide the market toward efficiency and the collective good. However, history and modern economics have demonstrated that this “invisible hand” is not always adequate in fostering fair competition or preventing market abuses. When monopolies form, price fixing occurs, or firms seek only to exploit arbitrage opportunities, the market can fail to protect consumer rights, ensure price stability, or promote overall economic growth. This is where the “visible hand” of government enterprise and intervention becomes crucial. More
The Industrial Revolutions of Art
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The bonds between cultural studies and economic science – timeless, as they endure “materially” married, yet peripheral, as they seem “spiritually” divorced – need to be revisited and reviewed with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0). It is in the midst of the debates on the future of “humanity” (understood as species and spirit) – given the new technologies that affect and alter micro-/meso-/macro-/mondo- business organizations, production processes, consumption habits – that this research endeavour unfolds. Both cultural facts and economic tools are subject to an intricate intellectual “stress test”, therefore scrutinizing the “4.0” cultural concepts/definitions and attitudes/behaviours, observable in markets’ as well as in policies’ deliverables will help us to fairly (fore)see what we might risk losing or stand to win, culturally, as communities, nations, human kind.Industrial Revolutions (IR) remain at the crossroads of several binomials: intellectual design and spontaneous emergence, institutions and technology, necessity and fortuity, and so forth. The shifts from mechanised production (IR 1.0) to mass production (IR 2.0) then to automated production (IR 3.0) and to the ascending scale/scope of digital transformation (IR 4.0) – with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as flagship technology – triggered mode(l)s of development, devised profound societal upheavals and fuelled worries about freedom and fairness. Culture(s) too host(s) such civilizational twists and turns – as spots of reflection on social disruptions, as sites of refuge from own uprooting, as spaces of sharable hidden energies – and IR 4.0 excites and upsets them via novel ideological biases, vanguard niche markets, public versus private spaces trade-offs, or geo-cultural/-political/-economic resets. More
The Three Seas Initiative: A Key for Enhancing Connectivity in Central Europe to Make EU More Resilient and Cohesive
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is an original regional cooperation format among thirteen EU member states of Central Europe. The 3SI focuses on improving connectivity between the north and south of the eastern part of the EU, mainly through developing transport, energy, and digital infrastructure. It also aims at strengthening the resilience of the region by ensuring secure supply chains and by developing better access to regional ports and connections with eastern neighbours of the EU. So far, the geographic and infrastructural conditions have hampered the unleashing of the full potential of the region to strengthen the EU economy and innovativeness. There are 4 strategic partners to the 3SI: the European Commission, the USA and Germany, Japan. Two states have the status of associated participating states to the 3SI: Ukraine and Moldova.Central Europe has been developing dynamically in recent decades. To maintain the pace of development toward a highly innovative, interconnected, and resilient region, much more focus should be placed on regional cooperation. Thus, the aim of the conference was to present the 3SI concept of overcoming the indicated challenges and strengthening the EU. The conference brought together participants from different areas: politicians, scholars, experts, journalists and diplomats to discuss the results and prospects of the 3SI. This conference presented research findings of scholars and experts on the 3SI, adding our knowledge of regional cooperation and discuss its current status and serving to popularize scientific knowledge on regional cooperation. The main questions revolve around the up-to-date results of 3SI cooperation and its prospects. More
The Excessive Deficit of Romania – Context and Possible Sanctions
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The excessive deficit procedure is a major factor in fighting the fiscal deficit for Romania, which is expected to rise to approx. 7% of GDP this year. Due to COVID-19, the EU suspended its budgetary rules for all Member States between 2020 and 2023 by activating the general escape clause. As of 2024, the general escape clause is no longer in effect. The EU has therefore relaunched the deficit-based EDP process under the new rules of the revised economic governance framework. More
