politics and economics in romania

i've stayed tuned for the recent changes of the political scene in romania due to elections for the parliament. at first i really feared the possibility of the social-democrats' regain of power (the left-center). then, apparently, the final results showed a slight gain of the liberal-democrats (the right-center), but still not the majority: a third goes to liberal-democrats, a third to the socialist-democrats and the other third to the national-liberals and the hungarian party in romania. so a coalition was needed, even if i considered it not sustainable in romania.

the first positive surprise was that the president named a democrat-liberal to be a prime-minister and, moreover, a guy who is supposed to know economics - theodor stolojan. then, the biggest surprise: "the partnership for romania" coalition signed by, unbelievable, the right and the left. immediately, the negative surprise: the prime-minister cannot afford this coalition and gives up. obviously, at first i thought this could happen only in romania. finally, the leader of the center-right becomes prime-minister.

this evening i read another good news: the ministries of finance and the one of the economy go to the center-right... now, it depends on how technocrats they will be in the end, but i see it as a good sign. then, of course the parliament will vote for or against the structure proposed by the named prime-minister. but as the coalition represents more then three quarters of the parliament, i suppose the proposed "government" will be accepted. or, at least, i hope for a fair play. the hope dies the last...

p.s. to be more precise, my first impression when i heard about the coalition right-left was that this will not hold in romania; and i think i also felt the right cannot believe in a partnership with the left, strictly speaking from the doctrinal point of view... on the other hand, if i think better, such a coalition, strictly theoretically cannot but help romania... we'll see if they will really work for this!

on rewards and prizes

Tonight there were awarded prizes for the most representative people for Romania: actors, journalists, businessmen... The person of the year is Aurora Simionescu, 24 years, researcher in astro-physics. She is part of a team from University of Bremen, Germany, that found out a part of the world that was never known before. At the end of her speech she pointed out three important things/wishes with which i definitely agree:
1. Romania to be an integrated part of the Europe and not just economically;
2. next prizes to be won by scientists from Romanian research institutes and not just by Romanians;
3. the award the most important scientist to be given.

Especially the second wish made me smile and be sad in the same time...

By the way, the most admired person in Romania is apparently the president Traian Basescu!

liberals and the crisis

looking for how the liberals view the crisis:

anonymous liberal on the root of the crisis: http://www.anonymousliberal.com/2008/10/financial-crisis-in-nutshell.html

from roosevelt to obama: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/17/081117fa_fact_packer

not necessarily liberal view: macroeconomics lecture - how the financial crisis affects the real economy: http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/12/lectures_on_mac_6.html

quote of my day

A letter is an unannounced visit, and the postman is the intermediary of impolite surprises. Every week we ought to have one hour for receiving letters, and then go and take a bath.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

about women in the economics field

to discuss more about it!

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3556

reading on...

recession, liquidity trap, deflation, Friedman's "helicopter drop"; definitely "we" are living a recession and now the problem is not any more the inflation - they talk about saving the (american) economy by printing money, which until now i only saw as a bad measure; it's also interesting how the theoretical "ricardian equivalence" is now reminded in practice.

see also: http://blogs.ft.com/wolfforum/2008/12/central-banks-need-a-helicopter/

to be continued...