

- Bracing for Hurricane Democracy Alexandru Georgescu
- Zombified Finance and the Walking Dead Economy Alexandru-Ștefan Goghie
- Romania’s Recovery According to the World Bank Dan Pălăngean
- The 2008 and 2020 Global Crises – Differences and Similarities Grațiela-Denisa Iordache
- Europe’s Paradigmatic Dilemmas amidst Pandemic Woes: How the COVID-19 Crisis May Reshape EU’s Geostrategy Adrian-Ioan Damoc
- Annotating the Paris Agreement Henrique Schneider

- Conservatism and Spiritual and Social Recovery Richard J. Bishirjian
- NASA & SpaceX Launch – A New Milestone in Space Exploration Olga Bodrug, Kassandra Maduzia, James Snedden,Michael Migaud, Mohammad Ahmadi, Justin Bullock
- COVID-19 Distributions and Balances of Power. Interview with Professor Cezar Mereuță Adelina Mihai
- Some Thoughts on COVID-19 Pandemic Shock Emil Dinga
- Charter Cities: Vernian Fantasy or Human Reality? Alexandru-Costin Udrea
- The Inconsistency of Biological Analogies in Economics Vlad Popescu

- The COVID-19 Pandemic – Changing the Paradigm Florin Paul
- The Race to the Bottom in Oil Alexandru Georgescu
- On the Self-Testability of the Minimum Wage Gabriela-Mariana Ionescu
- Brâncuși’s Endlessness and the Scarcity of Some Means Octavian-Dragomir Jora
- Communicative Action, Subjective Perception and the Hermeneutics of Capital Structure Alexandru-Ștefan Goghie
- Was the Islamic State a Real State? Răzvan Munteanu

- The Anthropocene-Fallacy: Learning from Wrong Ideas Henrique Schneider
- Technology and Ethics: Of Man and Wisdom Georgiana Constantin-Parke
- On Brexit and Other Exits Andreas Stamate-Ștefan
- With Regards to Government Charity for the Private Sector Emil Dinga
- Political and Economic Fallacies: A Tribute to Sir Roger Scruton Steven Alan Samson
- Russian Relations with North Korea Stephen R. Bowers and Kelli M. Nab

- From Marxism to the Ideology of Free Society in 1989 Romania – Transition or Rupture? Ștefan-Dominic Georgescu
- The Power of Vague Things: A Cautionary Tale Steven Alan Samson
- Playing on High Difficulty: The Trade Barriers of Modern Video Gaming Vlad Moraru
- 21st Century Ethics and the New Jus Vitae Necisque? Georgiana Constantin-Parke
- Modern Monetary Theory and Its Poisonous Implications Silviu Cerna
- Gazprom as Policy Instrument Stephen R. Bowers

- The Earthly Algorithms of the Heavenly Affairs Octavian-Dragomir Jora
- Sicut in Caelo, Et in Terra Adrian-Ioan Damoc
- The Supreme Unity, the Unity of the Species Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu
- To the Moon and Back Alexandru Georgescu
- The Steering Wheel with Free Will Ana-Maria Marinoiu
- In Memory of Romania’s Last King: His Royal Majesty Michael I (1921-2017) Bogdan C. Enache

- INFatuated, INFuriated, INFlexible? Narciz Bălășoiu
- Future Tense in the Job Market Mihnea Alexandru Ciocan
- Some Thoughts on the Criteria of Nominal Economic Convergence in the EU Emil Dinga
- State Role vs. State Size Gabriela Ionescu
- The Return of Microeconomics Alexandru Georgescu
- The Passions of France Adrian-Ioan Damoc

- New Developmentalism, Old Ideas Bogdan C. Enache
- Karl Marx and Switzerland Henrique Schneider
- Drifting Away Vlad Roșca
- Simion Mehedinti and the Romanian Geopolitics
- A New Way of Solidarity within NATO Florin Luca
- The Impact of Russia’s Strategic Interest in the Black Sea Region on the Imbalance of the Russian Economy Leonela Leca

- The Professionalization of the Public/Political Decision-Making Emil Dinga
- Is Small still Beautiful? A Swiss Perspective Henrique Schneider
- The Romanian National Cathedral: The Voice of a People Freed Georgiana Constantin
- Wisdom and Perseverance Ahmed Abdulla Saeed bin Saeed Almatrooshi
- The NEET Tag and Intergenerational Existence on Labour Market Monica-Florica Dutcaș
- The Regional Resources of Ukraine and New Opportunities for Economic Development Until 2030 Ganna Kharlamova Nina Chala Olexandra Gumenna Tetyana Osinchuk

- Football-ism – The Ultimate Global Ideology Savian Boroancă Vlad Roșca
- “Search Neutrality” Is Not Possible Henrique Schneider
- Excess Democracy? Andrei Sandu
- Freedom Under Assail Tanja Porčnik
- From the Queen to the Tsar: on Trump’s Travels to Europe Adrian-Ioan Damoc
- Operational Research of the Libyan Civil War and the EU Neighborhood Policies George Zgardanas

- Are Planned Economies Our Destiny? Prince Michael of Liechtenstein
- The Bear Stearns of Romania Bogdan C. Enache
- China’s Belated Spring Cleaning Nicoleta Stoianovici
- Toward Understanding the Balkan Economic Thought Nikolay Nenovsky
- On the Minimal Wage, with Responsibility Gabriela Ionescu
- How Did Horses Become a Luxury? Maria-Mirona Murea

- Romanian Capitalist Economic Thought. Brief notes on pre-1989 diasporic and post-1989 domestic debates Octavian-Dragomir Jora
- Rebuilding Economics Emil Dinga
- The One-Size-Fits-All of the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” Reports Emmanuel Olusegun Stober
- “Are Central Banks Literally Independent?” Silviu Cerna vs. Ion Pohoață
- Some Thoughts on the “Global Competitiveness” Costea Munteanu
- Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose Mary Lucia Darst

- Pandora’s Botnet Alexandru Georgescu
- On the Nature of the Concept of Tolerance Emil Dinga
- Romania’s “Sonderweg” to Illiberal Democracy Bogdan C. Enache
- A Community in Search of Unity, a Union in Search of Communion
- Defence and Security: The UK and Romania after Brexit Adam Sambrook
- Orient and Occident – Perceptual and Complementary Macro-Regions Viorel Mionel

- European Construction. Intellectual Project vs. Emergence Emil Dinga
- Challenges and Opportunities for the Future of Competitiveness Dragoș Preda
- Womenomics – Is It Worth Talking About Gender? Mariana Nicolae
- The Youth Atlantic Treaty Association and Its Role in Promoting Euro-Atlantic Values John Jacobs
- Water – the Ultimate Geostrategic Resource Viorel Mionel
- North Korea: “Reading the Tea Leaves” Alexandru Georgescu

- Cultural Goods and Cultural Welfare: Some Praxeological and Proprietarian Notes Octavian-Dragomir Jora
- Trump and the Paris Agreement Alexandru Georgescu
- The Risks of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Construction of Eurasian Economic Corridor Liu Zuokui
- Music Industry Development – Future Global Trends on the Rise Paul Niculescu-Mizil Gheorghe
- Cultural Diversity: Same Question, but a Different Answer. The Story of Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Raluca Șancariuc
- Planning for Freedom in Central and Eastern Europe: Mises’s Proposal for Political Integration Matei-Alexandru Apăvăloaei

- Shakespeare & Eminescu – Measure for Measure Adrian George Săhlean
- Ethnogenesis in Davos Alexandru Georgescu
- The Clash of Realism and Liberalism: Understanding the Nature of Cooperation on Energy Security between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia Ayhan Gücüyener
- Robots and Empire(s) Adrian-Ioan Damoc
- Debating the EU's Fiscal Union Filip Clem
- Space Debris – Visualizing the Risk and Informing Stakeholders Adrian Gheorghe

- The Long Slide towards Autocracy János Kornai interviewed by Zoltán Farkas
- Trumponomics – A New “New Deal” for the American people? Alexandru Georgescu
- The Costs and Benefits of Endowing the Romanian Army George Tăslăuanu & Marius Zgureanu
- Musk v. Hawking Andreea Paul
- The Chinese Dream – An Exhortation to Achieve Daniel Tomozei-Dimian
- The 12 Labours of Narendra Modi – India’s Demonetisation Saga Raluca-Andreea Manea

- To Be or Not to Be... Charlie! Camil A. Petrescu
- The Dissolution of the Communities Alexandru Georgescu
- The Banks in the Economy Silviu Cerna
- Geo-economics and Geopolitics of Brexit Crisis Napoleon Pop
- The Piketty-ism – A Childhood Illness for the 21st Century Ion Pohoață
- Simion Mehedinți – A Man of Fulfilled Ideas Silviu Neguț

Romanian Capitalist Economic Thought (I) Brief notes on pre-1989 diasporic and post-1989 domestic debates
The process of institutional transformation from the socialist, command economy to the capitalist, market economy can be understood theoretically and historically, as a priority, like a process of intellectual transformation. Romania in the 1990s, perhaps to a greater extent than any other country in the ex-communist bloc, was the theatre of a transition at the level of politico-economic institutions which was little-announced and stated by a convergent, consensual idealistic transition. More

Romanian Capitalist Economic Thought (II) Brief notes on pre-1989 diasporic and post-1989 domestic debates
“The disappearance of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 reflected the collapse of the existing belief system and accordingly the weakening of its support organizations” (North 1997, 18). Such a verdict catches the image of a bivalent process of deconstruction and institutional reconstruction: from former imposition of material and moral servitudes to economic and political liberalization. But that new order – of the market and of the multiparty system – could have been accomplished, ultimately and inevitably, with the same people who inhabited the old institutional and organizational architectures, both at the top and at the base of society. The intellectual scaffolding of transformation became a critical resource, and its training and performance were, among others, functions of epistemic tradition and transfer. More

Rebuilding Economics Series of articles excerpted from the printed edition [#1]
In the last decades, the economic discipline in its hypostasis of Economics (i.e. positive economic theory) was, and also currently is, subject to radical and massive criticism not only from the non-economists (including physicists!), but also from notorious economists, including Nobel Prize winners.The perspectives of such criticisms are very different, starting from the conceptual bases, focusing on the methodological framework, and ending with the predictive potential. Of course, although the initial criticisms were focused on the mechanical ways of economic thinking (by taking over the Newtonian paradigm in physics), other points came to the forefront in recent years: the required interdisciplinary character of Economics, the issue of truth in the economic field (in a wider sense: in the social field), the required evolutionary nature of Economics, because of the evolutionary nature of the society, and even the requirement of a new formalism in Economics based on something other than differential equations (which do not indicate the dynamics – i.e., the causality – in the economic process) and so on. More

The One-Size-Fits-All of the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” Reports
The recently released World Bank “Ease of doing business 2018” report put Nigeria at 145 out of 190 countries surveyed, just behind Niger. This ranking represents a significant improvement over that of last year, when the country was ranked 169th. Therefore, there are several questions that need to be asked: Are these statistics enough? Is Nigeria’s business environment now friendly with entrepreneurs and investors? What do these figures mean to the ordinary Nigerian? More

“Are Central Banks Literally Independent?” Two sides of one highly sensitive debate. And two Romanian economists taking sides
The independence of the central banks – mysterious or miraculous entities in the eyes of masses – is practically an inexhaustible topic for scholars-economists and political scientists, as well as for business-persons and policy-makers. Still, the ultimate bill-payer of all institutional settings and governance organizations is the consumer-citizen. For this character this bell (of the debate) tolls. More

Some Thoughts on the “Global Competitiveness” Beyond the glamour of Davos
Despite the argument by Krugman that “economists, in general, do not use the word competitiveness”, a cursory survey of the literature reveals a wide range of definitions of competitiveness and frequent usage of the concept. Moreover, although research on competitiveness has been popular for forty years, in recent time it appears to be flourishing as many economic phenomena are assessed according to whether they are competitive or non-competitive. This probably explains why the last several years have witnessed a growing academic and political debate over better ways to conceptualize and measure competitiveness. More

The World of Romania Works that made this planet a better place – Part I –
The Market for Ideas and the students from the class of 2018 of the “International Economic Diplomacy” Master’s Program, from the Faculty of International Business and Economics, of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania, prepared, in a special dossier, an anthology of what may be noted as cultural-diplomatic, civilization-contextualized answers to a question: “How did Romanian critical thinkers and gifted creators contribute to the thrive of humankind?” More

Ruling over Central Banking…doms The (mir)age of independence
The independence of the central banks – mysterious or miraculous entities in the eyes of masses – is practically an inexhaustible topic for scholars-economists and political scientists, as well as for business-persons and policy-makers.Still, the ultimate bill-payer of all institutional settings and governance organizations is the consumer-citizen.For this character this bell (of the debate) tolls. More

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
In his article “Opioids and Paternalism”, Dr. David Brown described the new face of American drug addiction, “the new underclass is stymied by economic obsolescence, a sense of victimhood, and an exaggerated view of its own physical damage”. One of my former professors used to say, “don’t re-invent the wheel unnecessarily” to convey the idea that one does not need to create new analyses and methodologies for every problem. In addition to Dr. Brown’s sound scientific and psychological observations, I believe that we may also look to history for enlightenment regarding the current malaise. More

The Matter of Persia: Discerning Meaning from Strife and Unrest
The year 2018 began with a renewal of some of last year’s main geopolitical clashes, the most prominent being the nuclear threats exchanged between North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump, China’s President Xi Jinping delivering grim speeches to his army, urging troops to be ready for war, and analysts offering generally gloomy forecasts for this year. One other significant event that has erupted near the end of 2017 were the unexpected and violent protests in Iran that have continued up to at least the first week of 2018, with mass demonstrations held both for and against the country’s current government and an uncompromising crackdown by Iranian police. More

Invitation to the European Resource Bank Meeting Gathering of libertarian, conservative, and liberal entrepreneurs and thinkers
Economic think tanks, entrepreneurs, institutes, and intellectuals assemble annually at the European Resource Bank meeting to discuss the challenges to the free market, individual liberty, and free enterprise facing Europe and the world. This year the event is in Prague, Czech Republic, and will be an exciting three day conference from 13 April through 15 April, 2018. It will be hosted in cooperation with the CERGE-EI Foundation and will take place at the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute. More

Rebuilding Economics: Propaedeutic Assertions
In the last decades, the economic discipline in its hypostasis of Economics (i.e. positive economic theory) was, and also currently is, subject to radical and massive criticism not only from the non-economists (including physicists!), but also from notorious economists, including Nobel Prize winners. The perspectives of such criticisms are very different, starting from the conceptual bases, focusing on the methodological framework, and ending with the predictive potential. Of course, although the initial criticisms were focused on the mechanical ways of economic thinking (by taking over the Newtonian paradigm in physics), other points came to the forefront in recent years: the required interdisciplinary character of Economics, the issue of truth in the economic field (in a wider sense: in the social field), the required evolutionary nature of Economics, because of the evolutionary nature of the society, and even the requirement of a new formalism in Economics based on something other than differential equations (which do not indicate the dynamics – i.e., the causality – in the economic process) and so on. More

The Structural Incompleteness of Economics Rebuilding Economics
As I understand it, in the economic discipline there are two major paradigms in the sense that Thomas Kuhn employed the word, to mean modes of thought:a) the neoclassical paradigm (the still current mainstream);
b) the behavioural paradigm (the dissident current).
Keynesianism and its avatars (new and post-Keynesianism) could be considered as properly fitting with the neoclassical model although, as it is well-known, Keynes anticipated the so-called behavioural economics (see, for example, the concept of “animal spirits”, also approached by Akerlof and Schiller). In my opinion, both paradigms are incomplete regarding some crucial, structural issues. The examination of this heretical assertion is the goal of this article. More

Will We Face an Economic Uncertainty from the Current Political Instability? Economy Near Us (I)
By a system instability we must not understand a general fluctuations or oscillations of the system in its entirety. The instability of a system is done by only a few number of its components, but they must be crucial for the system identity/personality (the so called hub components). More, not any fluctuations or oscillations should be qualified as being instability, but only these fluctuations or oscillations which either are unpredictable (in their entirety or partially), or pass beyond a threshold usually accepted. This threshold could be viewed either as size, or as duration. So, the instability is, in fact, much lesser than it is usually considered. More

On the Law Enactment Trap Economy Near Us (II)
A free society is that society in which the general law governs, that is, the law which concerns all the members of society in relation to the norm which that general law establishes. And, on the contrary, society is not free when the private law governs, that is, the law that concerns only a very small number, a minority or, to the limit, an individual or a few individuals. Such a law is also referred to as a privilege (private law). The current effervescence in Romania on amending the laws of justice is an example within reach for philosophers of law, but also for social philosophers or moral philosophers, to reflect on this fundamental aspect of freedom (I refer here to the concept of individual freedom, which is the source of all punctual liberties, which must under no circumstances be confused) in the Romanian society. More

Inflation Surpassing Populism
In a Europe locked-in below-target inflation, for the most part, one country basically surpasses all others. Romania managed to almost triple its inflation rate one month into the New Year, after a brief – and unique period in the last quarter century or so – when the headline figure was actually negative. What’s behind this astonishing success, or not such a success after all? More

The Psychological Watchdog of Footballers
Where is Romanian football heading towards? Well, for a beginning, literally speaking, it might head towards the back of the net, which would be wonderful piece of news for the goal scoring team. The not so bright answer would come if the question was considered as a metaphor, not as a real ball-playing skill of any given footballer. Irrespective of where a ball is really heading – in or outside the goal, in the stands, outside the stadium even, as witnessed in many small, murky stadiums of lower league competitions – one thing is certain: Romanian football fans don’t really seem to be heading towards there where one would expect them to see: to the stadiums. More

The Keys to the American Economy Are Changing Hands
A change in leadership is imminent for one of the most important institutions for the American economy. Janet Yellen, the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve, will step down at the end of her four-year tenure at the helm of the establishment, after becoming the first chair in recent years not to be nominated for a second term. More

Smaranda Brăescu: The Girl with Her Head in the Clouds
In the early 1900s, modern aviation was still in its infancy. It was an era when iconic inventions and discoveries in terms of flying machines were only starting to see the light of day. The first pilot licence obtained in Romania was issued in 1911, after the first Romanian aviation school was opened in the spring of the same year. Against this backdrop, a career in aviation was, in the 1900s, an uncharted road, especially in the case of women, for whom, at that time, it was globally uncommon to vote or to have a job… any type of job. Just to remind you that the first European country to introduce women’s suffrage has done so in 1907, while Romania gave women the right to vote only in 1938. Also in Romania, married women were allowed to manage their own income only starting 1926. More

Photon(e)s 1.0 Hellenic, Hellios
A portrait of Romina, done in a much too warm day, somewhere in Athens, along with a palm tree leaf. It’s a compositional experiment of shadow and colour and an attempt at capturing a bit of the atmosphere of the place we were living back then. More

Photon(e)s 2.0 Shapes of Shades
“There is no story. It’s just a question of shapes and light”, Harry Gruyaert says. And, indeed, this is an example of how, despite the fact the human beings are always craving hidden stories and explanations, these are not always necessary. Sit down, breath in and just look at the colors, shapes and the way the light comes in. More