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The wrong approach to cancelling special retirement plans

Published at: 22-12-2019

Posted on: December 22nd, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

A good-quality change management requires thorough planning of change, dosage and good communication, assessment of possible sources of resistance and ways to mitigate it and why not, compromise. Excellent ideas may get buried by a massive negative reaction from those affected. At the end of the day, any change involves humans and most humans abhor […]

Populist decisions are pushing borrowing costs up, not S&P

Published at: 13-12-2019

Posted on: December 13th, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

The decision by the rating agency Standard & Poor’s to downgrade Romania’s credit-rating outlook from stable to negative seems to have come as a surprise. I believe that the agency’s explanation was sufficiently clear to exclude any speculations: the large spending deviations of the former government will be difficult to correct by the current government […]

Stranded in the maze of the last crisis

Published at: 06-12-2019

Posted on: December 6th, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

It was a bullet whizzing past us, investors, bankers, employees, employers, consumers, deposit holders and the list could go on. The 2008 crisis, by its complexity, has had a serious and profound impact on financial and economic systems, in the developed economies, in particular but also on the rest of the world by a spillover […]

Happy anniversary Romania! Farewell Bessarabia.

Published at: 01-12-2019

Posted on: December 1st, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

1918 was a watershed moment for Romania and will remain an exceptional year in its history. The stars aligned into a great conjunction that not even the most upbeat dared to dream of. Historian Lucian Boia noticed that the outbreak of World War I confronted Romanian politicians with a huge dilemma: join the Triple Entente […]

Sweep it from under the carpet

Published at: 23-11-2019

Posted on: November 23rd, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

To rise up and go it alone against the establishment is not an easily made decision. Despite corporate managers and governments urging transparency, ethical behaviour or the flagging of any unfair or outrageous behaviours, the truth is that, more often than not, such calls are mere publicity stunts. On more than one occasion did such […]

Consumers don’t predict, but compound recession

Published at: 17-11-2019

Posted on: November 17th, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

One of the “compelling” arguments that those who refute the danger of the economy slowing down and sliding towards recession put forward is the Romanian consumers` appetite which shows no sign of abating. And why would it while consumer sentiment is still running high as the graph below illustrates. Look harder however, and a gloomier […]

Will Germans become an appendage to Germany?

Published at: 09-11-2019

Posted on: November 9th, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

I repeatedly read the other day an interview by Deutsche Welle with professor Herbert Brucker, researcher on international migration and European integration with the Federal Institute for Employment Research in Nurenberg. He basically argues in favor of immigration to Germany, putting the number of needed immigrants at 400.000 a year. According to his estimations, in 20 […]

Should central banks feel guilty?

Published at: 05-11-2019

Posted on: November 5th, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

Central banks in mature and liberal economies have consistently advanced an image of exclusively technocratic establishments and kept political relations to a minimum. The main and single mandate received by most of them, namely to keep inflation under control, meant that their attention focused more on economic theories and models that would help them take […]

Who is spinning the wheel of History?

Published at: 06-10-2019

Posted on: October 6th, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

I read the other day with great interest, as I always do, the opinion of the distinguished professor Valentin Naumescu in his article “Is the wheel of History spinning? Why is the West losing ground to Russia and China? The West vs West war”. He expressed concern and, clearly, frustration about the radicalization and polarization […]

Are the ignorant in power?

Published at: 15-09-2019

Posted on: September 15th, 2019 by RaduC No Comments

In March 2014, the Washington Post conducted a survey in the US on a national sample on Russia`s invasion of Crimea. The question asked was: how should the US act in Ukraine? Given that two thirds of Americans claimed that they were watching the situation “somewhat closely”, the survey findings came as a surprise. Only one […]

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