From Marxism to the Ideology of Free Society in 1989 Romania – Transition or Rupture?

From Marxism to the Ideology of Free Society in 1989 Romania – Transition or Rupture?

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The turbulent times in which a revolution takes place delegitimize almost any claim to understand in real time what is happening. Only after things have got back on track can a lucid, cold analysis of events be undertaken – in philosophical terms, the history’s power to reveal the truth is recognized –, and this is the case the 1989 Romanian Revolution. In that year, the population taken to the streets was hoping only for an improvement in living conditions or, rather, for a profound change that would, at one time, have led to a better life – here’s an outdated problem. It is certain that those events have led to substantial changes in Romania – among which the most important place seems to be held by the change of ideological-social commitments, at all levels.  More

The Power of Vague Things: A Cautionary Tale

The Power of Vague Things: A Cautionary Tale

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

Paul Valery contends that power is founded on belief (a “vague thing”). Harold J. Berman believes the rule of law relies more on moral force than a police force. Yet the modern positivist worldview emphasizes the practical rather than the moral dimension of power. What are some consequences of this positivist belief?  More

Playing on High Difficulty: The Trade Barriers of Modern Video Gaming

Playing on High Difficulty: The Trade Barriers of Modern Video Gaming

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

Over the course of the last few decades, video games have evolved from being a niche of the entertainment industry to being a major pillar, generating revenues greater than even blockbuster films (Zackariasson & Wilson, 2010). Multinational companies invest tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars into developing the most technologically advanced video games they possibly can. These companies compete primarily on an international level, since only a global market can generate the returns that make such investment worthwhile. There is virtually no such thing as national gaming markets, outside of niched East Asian segments that are culturally alien to the globalized pastiche of Western culture. Another aspect worth pointing out is that the gaming market is increasingly of the “winner takes all” variety, where a product must, without exception, come up to the highest standards of quality for the category that it belongs to in order to have any chance against those offered by the competition (Nieborg, 2011a). These two factors combined mean that any game that is not good enough to achieve international success can be considered a failure. More

21st Century Ethics and the New Jus Vitae Necisque?

21st Century Ethics and the New Jus Vitae Necisque?

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

In the United States, an important conversation is taking place, the results of which might set a worldwide precedent for the framework of future ethical debates. While European countries have laws which generally ban abortion after the first trimester, when the baby becomes better formed and (as far as science knows at this point) is able to feel pain, in the US, late term abortions, that is, those which take place after the first trimester, are being celebrated by some as a sign of freedom. In fact, recently, a law was passed in New York which permits abortion after 24 weeks, that is a little after 5 months. Other such laws are being prepared in the country. This has reopened disputes on both sides of the political spectrum. Some call for no restrictions on any type of abortion and gratuity of services related to it. Others call for a complete ban on the practice.  More

Modern Monetary Theory and Its Poisonous Implications

Modern Monetary Theory and Its Poisonous Implications

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is often mentioned in the latest economic debates, especially in the USA, where it is supported by some (left-wing) candidates of the Democratic Party to the Presidential elections of 2020 and their economic advisers. Recently, a first edition of a macroeconomics manual with over 600 pages, where this theory is presented, was rapidly sold out. The explanation for this bookstore success resides in the fact that the new theory seems to provide governments with economic policy tools susceptible to be used when the interest rates are very low or even zero and will, probably, remain so in the near future.  More

Gazprom as Policy Instrument

Gazprom as Policy Instrument

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

A consistent challenge in international relations is the calculus of national power. Publications such as Military Balance have long made calculations based primarily on military considerations such as the numbers of tracked vehicles, infantry units, aircraft, naval vessels and other tangible assets.  More

The Market for Ideas: Supplying and Demanding Thoughtfulness

The Market for Ideas: Supplying and Demanding Thoughtfulness Ruminations that inspired the creation, three years ago, of a wilfully free-speech and free-access, hopefully critical and creative, magazine

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

It has been three years since our project – The Market for Ideas – took shape. We have tried to present our readers with interesting ideas from a wide variety of fields and penned by a wide variety of others. To the best of our abilities, we have tried not to turn this journal into a publication by Romanians for Romanians, only in English, which would be snobbery, but a shared space in which Romanian issues could be presented alongside more general considerations for the edification of a diverse and educated, but non-expert audience. The figures back us up, both on Facebook and on the website, where Romanians are still a plurality, but no longer the majority of our readers. Hopefully, we have not driven any of them away; instead, we rather managed to interest some people in our corner of the Internet, which is a difficult thing to do in a world given to shallow and homogenizing diversity. Facts and figures: TMFI is being read in 188 jurisdictions all over the world and its writers come from more than 50 countries. More

Crossroad Years

Crossroad Years Sensing 2019, with a tint of 1989 and a glow of 2020+

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

Human beings are obsessed with identifying trends and motifs in the passage of historical ages and to personalize, even deify, their geographical cradles. From the very sages of cultures and civilization(s) to the common folk, it seems that every turn and twist of time might have a logic of its own, as every chunk of space is teeming with life in its particular rhythms. This craze prevails. It is “sustainable”. More

The Year of Tolerance

The Year of Tolerance The UAE on its 48th anniversary

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

My country, the United Arab Emirates, recently celebrated its National Day, marking the celebration of the 48th anniversary of its founding. The UAE strides forward with wisdom and perseverance, under the leadership of the President, HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his brothers their highnesses the members of the Federal Supreme Council, Rulers of the emirates, and following in the footsteps of its founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Through the hands of its loyal daughters and sons, the United Arab Emirates concentrates on pillars of the country’s growth and development, attaining developmental, cultural, economic, political and social achievements.  More

On Ownership and Stewardship: Private and Collective Property

On Ownership and Stewardship: Private and Collective Property

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

Property is a complex subject and can be approached from several points of view such as: legal, philosophical, sociological, but especially economic. For each domain, property is of particular importance, which is why the question first arises: what is property?  More

The Arctic Maritime Corridor

The Arctic Maritime Corridor “Ice Ice Baby” on the frozen dance floor

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

In the context of ever-growing concern regarding global climate and the consequences that will impact our society in its entirety, it is worthwhile to approach a topic that may be seen in a positive key – the emergence of a new transport route through the Arctic Ocean. This arctic passage would facilitate the maritime commercial link between East Asia and Western Europe and the East Coast of North America by providing an alternative route. On paper it is shorter and therefore could be deemed as a great economic advantage. This article gives a short analysis of the true feasibility of this new and presumptive transport corridor by examining it briefly from 4 points of view: geographic, logistic, economic, and in the end, the geopolitical perspective.  More

How to Regulate the Financial System in the Digital Age

How to Regulate the Financial System in the Digital Age

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

In 1920, after the disaster that followed the First World War, contemplating the period before it, Keynes noted:„The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantities as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep; he could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, and share without exertion or even trouble, in their prospective fruits and advantages”. More

Rumble in the Gulf – A Look at the Significance of the Saudi-Yemeni Conflict

Rumble in the Gulf – A Look at the Significance of the Saudi-Yemeni Conflict

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

Higher-order cognition in humans is one of the most commonly cited factors that separate us as a species from other life-forms on earth. It enables us to make sense of the patterns in our environment and the laws that govern nature, to think beyond our immediate sensory input and create art and beauty, to encode our knowledge, storing and preserving it, passing it down to further generations who would then use it to yield new knowledge as well as invent new tools and adapt the old into new, to reshape both the internal and the external world. Yet this gift does not come without its caveats, and human cognition is indeed often riddled with biases and shortcuts that, despite allowing us to simplify the complexity of our world, often dull our receptiveness to certain realities or, even more dangerously, offer the illusion of knowledge and understanding when, in fact, they are in short supply. More

The Case for a Homeopathic Fiscal Policy

The Case for a Homeopathic Fiscal Policy Economy Near Us (XXI)

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

Very recently, a certain initiative of the Minister of Public Finance – namely regarding the possibility that tax evasion be punished by prison time – has generated much rumour and pros vs. cons debates (especially among the TV talking heads). Since the political (or even electoral) reasons of such a proposal are alien to my mind, I will focus this intervention on the general character the fiscal policy should exhibit, according to its nature as well as its purposes and, consequently, on the legitimacy of introducing such sanctions. Another issue of interest will be that regarding the efficacy of the proposed measure.  More

The Concept of Economic Capillarity

The Concept of Economic Capillarity Economy Near Us (XXII)

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The term capillarity belongs, from a historical point of view, to physics, but it has been taken over, in terms of its general, philosophical significance, both by psychology and sociology, as well as by historical science. From a semantic point of view, capillarity indicates a property of a phenomenon or of some entity to evolve (from a spatial point of view or structural-functional properties) in a manner contrary to all laws and mechanisms known and accepted as governing the phenomenon or the respective entity. The classic example of capillary is that of a liquid that, in a tube narrow enough that its surface tension exceeds the value of the gravitational force, instead of moving down (more precisely, in the direction of the source of the gravitational force), moves in the opposite direction. More

From the Intelligent State to the Responsible One

From the Intelligent State to the Responsible One Economy Near Us (XXIII)

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The state is not a manager only with regard to the society as a whole. If it was to be like that, a performant computer could have better accomplished whatsoever administrative tasks. The social contract on the basis of which the state is supposed to be generated implies both much more and much less than that. Let me provide some analytical explanations: More

Euro-Phobia, Justified or Not?

Euro-Phobia, Justified or Not?

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

What comes first to mind when you say “European Union”? From the definition of the economic concept to the perception of a zero-average Gaussian variable system, we could introduce the notion of “Brexit”, a probability given by a system that does not understand its implications. “To be or not to be Brexit”, this is the question that is taking over the commons; but this is not a local phenomenon, for all its specificities, because its implications have their subtle roots hidden in the subconscious of the whole world. It is a bit like the apple that fell from Newton’s hand, and the “law” was his, when humanity had always been anchored to the face of the world. More

BNR’s Inflation Bias

BNR’s Inflation Bias

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The National Bank of Romania’s (BNR) recent decision to leave its interest rate unchanged, despite inflation surpassing the 4% threshold, has been justified as a prudent decision in the face of international uncertainties with adverse effect on growth and “preemptive” rate cuts in several advance and emergent economies, but it is also a testimony to the Bank’s inflationary bias and even of its shaky real policy independence.  More

Romania’s Anti-Communist Straussianism

Romania’s Anti-Communist Straussianism

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The decision of the Bucharest Court of Justice on Friday, September 20th 2019, to uphold the verdict issued in May by the National Council for the Study of the Archives of the “Securitate” (CNSAS) regarding former President Traian Băsescu’s collaboration with the Communist regime’s secret police has been received with a sense of avenged satisfaction on the part of his long-time critics and adversaries. This was doubled by a feeling of avowed surprise on the part of his most loyal and ardent supporters. Neither of these opposite attitudes is however justified by a careful analysis of the country's recent politics.  More

The Curious Case of the Romanian Yield Curve

The Curious Case of the Romanian Yield Curve

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The single biggest evidence in favour of a recession looming on the horizon, which is on the lips of every single pundit in advanced economies at present, is an atypical relationship between the yields of government bonds of different maturities, called the inversion of the curve. Short term government borrowing has become more expensive than long term government borrowing, which goes against basic tenets of economic theory such as time preference. This atypical relationship between long term and short term maturities is thought to predict a recession, because the only reason why borrowing would become more expensive in the short run than in the long run seems to be a flight on the part of creditors to safe, highly liquid and easy to exchange assets, which pushes up demand for the near-end of the curve, and a pessimistic growth outlook for the future, which pushes down demand for the far end of the curve. In the United States, the model-economy in this regard, the inversion of the curve has so far predicted every recession in the last decades. More

Nudges – The Paradigm of the Oriented Free Choice

Nudges – The Paradigm of the Oriented Free Choice Economy Near Us (XXIV)

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

Referring to the extremes of economic behavior we can say that they are: a) the imperative norm and b) the absolute autonomy (we refer here to the individual freedom, which does not take into account the free choice of others). Focusing on the concept of freedom, it represents, according to Jonge (in his book “Rethinking Rational Choice Theory”), the autonomy of desires and not freedom of action. In Rawls’ opinion, freedom is first in the hierarchy of interests, higher interests becoming normative.  More

The Clawback Tax, Sponsor of Government Programs in Romania

The Clawback Tax, Sponsor of Government Programs in Romania

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The budget allocated to healthcare in Romania suffers from “chronic subsidization”. Politicians chose, as a long-term treatment for this issue, a tax that reduces the profits of drug manufacturers to the point of non-existence. These entities risk turning from profit-making businesses into virtual nonprofit entities. Through an objective and simple analysis, I will show how, through this tax which aims to ensure the necessary subsidized medication, and as a result of the declaration of pharma companies as public utilities, patients will have to spend more money on medicine. This goes against the stated intention of the ministry and ensures that Romania will always be on the cusp of a crisis of supply in pharmaceutical products.  More

A Short History of Venezuela’s Liberators

A Short History of Venezuela’s Liberators

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

“The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still. Yesterday Mr. President of the United States (George W. Bush), whom I call “The Devil”, came here and spoke as if he was the owner of the world…”This was the late President Chavez’s introductory statement at the UN congress held in 2006 in the heart of “Hell” (the UN Headquarters is in New York). During the speech, Chavez also rallied the other political leaders who were present to rise against the hegemonic aspirations of the US which he declared to be an impending danger to the survival of the human species, and all life as we know it.I believe that this statement is an instance of the charisma which Chavez wielded, along with his talent for oratory which inspired not only the Venezuelan people but also a large number of outside entities.To correctly understand the influence of Chavez upon Venezuela, we firstly have to review some pages of history. More

Breathing Life into Numbers: Power Asymmetry as Revealed by Nodal Analysis in Professor Cezar Mereuță’s Compendium

Breathing Life into Numbers: Power Asymmetry as Revealed by Nodal Analysis in Professor Cezar Mereuță’s Compendium Triple review from Aurelian Dochia, Octavian-Dragomir Jora and Adrian-Ioan Damoc

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

In his latest book, the esteemed Professor Cezar Mereuță, Ph.D. embarks on a journey that is as ambitious as it is demanding, but also fruitful and rewarding. Writing about Carl Friedrich Gauss’s religious views and opinion of divine revelation, biographer G. Waldo Dunnington remarked that “a book is inspired when it inspires”. The same can be said of Professor Mereuță’s compendium, Analiza nodală – abordare micro și macroeconomică [Nodal Analysis – A Micro and Macroeconomic Approach], insofar as the value of one’s research lies not only in the answers it offers, but also in the questions it generates that necessarily invite more research to further travel the paths the questions point towards. [N.B. The book is published in Romanian for now, but an English version of the research is being taken into consideration by the author. The launch of the Romanian edition: October 29, 2019, under the auspices of the Faculty of International Business and Economics, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies.]  More

Innovators from Germany, France, UK and the US Will Attend “Future Summit” on November 28th in Bucharest

Innovators from Germany, France, UK and the US Will Attend “Future Summit” on November 28th in Bucharest

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The global director of Artificial Intelligence of E-ON, the Innovation Manager from Disneyland Paris, the inventor of the first electric flying taxi awarded in Paris by Emmanuel Macron, the activist planting tens of millions of trees in Africa and 25 more speakers come to Bucharest to offer insights on what the next ten years will look like and what decisions businesses and companies have to take now. More

The Autumn School in Philosophy, Economics and Politics 2019. 30 Years Later: Real Liberty or New Serfdom?

The Autumn School in Philosophy, Economics and Politics 2019. 30 Years Later: Real Liberty or New Serfdom?

No. 19-20, Sep.-Dec. 2019

The Center for Institutional Analysis and Development – Eleutheria (CADI), The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), the Institute for Economic Studies Europe (IES- Europe) and the Society for Individual Freedom (SoLib) welcome you to the 2019 edition of the Autumn School in Philosophy, Economics and Politics entitled „30 Years Later: Real Liberty or New Serfdom?”. The event will take place between November 13th – 17th, at Hotel Siqua, Calea Plevnei Nr. 59A, 010223 Bucharest, Romania.  More

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