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Civilization Is Built on Borrowed Capital
The historical dynamism and resilience of Western civilization bespeaks both the Christian faith that laid its foundations and its ability to transform the families, institutions, and cultures of the world into which it grew. As faith wanes within its realm, cultural revolutionaries vie for control over the estate and the distribution of its assets. The prospect of recovery or renewal of the West depends on the character and courage of its heirs to restore a depleted heritage. The following article is drawn from the first two sections of “Cultural Vandalism: Lust to Rule, Road to Ruin,” Wokeshevism: Critical Theories and the Tyrant Left, ed. Augusto Zimmermann and Joshua Forrester (Connor Court, 2023) 221-37. Reprinted with permission. More
Workshop Dedicated to Science Journalism and the Relations between Academia and the Mass Media, in an Era Full of Pressures Put on the Intellectual Climate and Informational Quality
“To know>knowledge>news: How to navigate through the socio-politico-economic relations in the post-truth and fake news era” [RO: „A ști >știință >știre: cum navigăm prin realitățile socio-politico-economice în epoca post-truthși fakenews”] is the aegis under which the Advanced Research Institute of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (BUES) organised the workshop with the same name on November 8, 2023, a programme included among the activities subsumed in the “BUES excellence research development and promotion through the strengthening of the RDI processes, maintenance of the visibility of the results and impact on the economic sphere in the context of Open Science” [„Dezvoltarea și promovarea cercetării de excelență din ASE prin consolidarea proceselor de CDI, susținerea vizibilității rezultatelor și a impactului asupra mediului economic, în context Open Science”] – CNFIS-FDI-2023-F-0499. The debate started with the idea according to which the ultimate purpose of scientific research is, besides the maintenance of certain standards of excellence, that of contributing to the democratisation of the access to knowledge, while avoiding elitism and hermeticism in relation to the general public. This aspect is critical in the field of economics, which is found in the infrastructural area of general and civic education, as opposed to other areas that involve hyper-professional/specialised/technical knowledge. In addition, this approach/endeavour is made more and more difficult by the trends that relativize the truth and spreads misinformation (infodemics). In an international context, burdened by overlapping, asymmetrical and asynchronous crises (related to the management of climate change, migration, the post-pandemic society, security, resource accessibility, supply chains etc.), informed decisions, both public and private, become crucial. More
The Median Disposable Income in the EU
In 2022, the median disposable income was 18.706 PPS per inhabitant in the EU, one-third of it was received as social transfers from governments (e.g. pensions, social benefits, etc.). Compared with 2010, EU’s median disposable income in real terms increased by 20% in 2022. Romania was first among the member states, with a 126% increase.EU median annual disposable income per inhabitant stood at 18.706 PPS in 2022. It varied considerably across the EU Member States and ranged from 9.671 PPS in Bulgaria and 9.826 PPS in Slovakia to 33.214 PPS in Luxembourg and 25.437 PPS in the Netherlands. The highest levels of income per inhabitant were recorded in Central and Nordic EU Member States. Romania was placed third place from the rear (10.033 PPS), although the level of GDP per inhabitant is currently above the ones in other six European countries. This signifies an increased inequality in relative terms. More
Sustainability, Cause It’s Better than All Else
The Brundtland report – Our Common Future (1987) – represents the catechism of durable/sustainable development, defined as that type of “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Sustainability puts two disciplines/social sciences to work, in a deliberate debauchery: economics (preoccupied with the efficient satisfaction of subjectively arranged individual needs, with the social stock of available scarce and, thus, precious resources) and ethics (preoccupied, amongst other things, with the moral validation of the exercise of violence/coercion, knowing that the scarcity of resources generates conflicts in a society). Therefore, economic sustainability is based on the ethical axiom according to which it is the responsibility of each and every generation to “preserve”/”conserve” an amount of “capital” goods deemed necessary in up-keeping a “level of income” sufficient enough for the future ones. More
The Regionally Relevant Romania
The Romanian Economic Forum (Forumul Economic Român), whose first edition took place in 2018, represented a first, pioneering approach on the events market in Romania, showing that our country, through its strategic position, can play a nodal geo-political-economic role in the regional/European/global landscape, a role it can not only build, but also communicate intelligently.Finmedia imagined and implemented an event that served as a platform for discussions on the current key issues of the Romanian economy, such as European integration, attracting foreign investments, the development of new industrial and technological sectors, realistically realizing the impact of both global challenges and opportunities in their dynamics and complexity. More
Breaking the 3SI Piggybank: Wages, Inflation and Real Values
Meanwhile, from the same datasets we can observe that, even though most of the 3SI countries increased in this period their minimum hourly pay rates (on average by a quarter), an issue that dragged the rest of the brackets with them (as there is an inverted cascade into the median and high-end salaries), these actions did not necessarily translate into an overall prosperity growth, with even the hours needed to exit the poverty line increasing by approximately 10%. Despite this fact, the redistribution brought them closer to their Western counterparts, with respect to the minimum wages expressed in purchasing power standards, with the region growing faster than France, Germany, Italy of Spain in this timeframe. In turn, labour costs have grown at the same pace, while remaining lower than the EU averages, with some practitioners arguing that this can strain the operational capabilities of companies, particularly SMEs, since every minute worked by the employees is more valuable. More
The Rich Dynamic of Faith in Action
One of the most incisive analyses of the secular transformation of America’s – indeed the West’s – ruling ideology was published a century ago in 1923 by a Presbyterian theologian, J. Gresham Machen. James Kurth would later describe its evolution as “the Protestant Deformation.”[2]During the so-called Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy which began before the First World War, Machen was the most articulate critic of a theological movement known as Modernism or Liberalism: a secular religion of sentiment poached from Christianity. His critique begins as follows: “The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meaning, will never stand amid the shocks of life. In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which we are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight. More
The 18th International Conference on Business Excellence
Business excellence is about achieving superior business results in relation to the competitors by means of developing and strengthening the management systems and processes of an organization; it is targeted at improving performance and delivering value for all the stakeholders, in a three-dimensional space characterized by uncertainty, complexity and dynamism.The first goal of this international conference is to reunite specialists from the triple-helix fields: university and research, consultancy and business, and policy making pursuant to optimizing the business added value by providing a stimulating environment for knowledge and knowhow business excellence transfers and alliance formation.The second goal of this internat More
Romania, the Highest Share of Children in Poverty or Social Exclusion in 2022
Among the EU member states in 2022, the highest share of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion was recorded in Romania, according to Eurostat data. The percentage of 41.5% (same as in the previous year) was well above those for Bulgaria (33.9%) and Spain (32.2%). On the other hand, the lowest shares were reported in Slovenia (10.3%), Czechia (13.4%) and Denmark (13.8%).Children who grow up in poverty or social exclusion encounter difficulties in doing well in school, enjoying good health and realising their full potential later in life. They also face a higher risk of becoming unemployed, poor and socially excluded as adults. More
Azimuth, Romania
The political-economic phrase “regional cooperation mechanisms” is dry enough that it brings in tow a serene attitude, which neither Romania’s voluptuous imaginaries, nor its immanent vicinities seem to pan out. Central and Eastern Europe, extruding towards the South East – the softly symbolic geographical notion which includes Romania –, has always possessed a lively geopolitical tectonic, prone to extremely brutal outbursts and worldmaking shifts (i.e., featuring as some hotspot for the two world wars), and a latent geoeconomic magnetism too (i.e., due to its fine resource pools and in spite of its dire infrastructures). These traits have remained somehow unchanged for centuries, only to be recurrently re-evaluated. More
Time for Diplomacy
On Ukraine – and on many other issues, such as how to deal with China –, the G7 members showed unprecedented unity in the consultation process organized by the Japanese Presidency in the spring. It has become clear that the Western powers do not expect Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia in order to achieve a ceasefire, and are even prepared to support it not to do so. And they have also made it clear that China is seen as a rival and challenge in many areas, but not an enemy like Russia. The G7 underlined that they intend to work with China both economically and in building a new world order. More
BRIC(S) by BRIC(S)
The East vs. West dilemma that has characterised the latter half of the twentieth century was put on hold following the collapse of the Soviet Union, only to be brought again into the mainstream following the Russian annexation of Crimea (and the subsequent invasion of Ukraine in 2022). However, the situation is complex and constantly evolving, the invasion itself managing to shake the way we perceive geopolitics. A paradoxical organisation is making bold announcements (in light of the recent summit), pushing rhetoric meant to represent the “Global South” as an actor, in opposition to the West, or as an up-to-date version of the Non-Aligned Movement. All this, while the Global South looks like a lucrative market for Russian exports, amidst the Western-imposed economic sanctions. Will East vs. West become North vs. South? More
