The Market For Ideas

In 1895, the French novelist Jules Verne launched one of his many visionary ideas that either became reality or something future next generations are expected to achieve. Propeller Island follows the story of four musicians whose services are demanded... More

Corona-blues: A Brief Reflection on the Challenges of Managing the Coronavirus Pandemic

No. 24, Jul.-Aug. 2020

That the new coronavirus has taken the world by storm is no longer a surprise, causing significant casualties worldwide as well as civil unrest and disrupting economies, with ever grimmer prognoses. Much has been said about both the... More

Defined Contribution Pensions, But Not ReallyEconomy Near Us (XXXI)

No. 24, Jul.-Aug. 2020

From a theoretical (and philosophical) point of view, the (defined contribution) pension in a pay-as-you-go system is an impersonal, non-coexistent, inter-generational, and mandatory quid pro quo. The referee which must assure that the quid pro quo is... More

International Digital Conference on Multidisciplinary Research and Perspectives for Innovative Higher Education 2020

No. 24, Jul.-Aug. 2020

The Market for Ideas

University of South Asia, Lahore, Pakistan, presents the International Digital Conference 2020 on Multidisciplinary Research and Perspectives for Innovative Higher Education on July 24-25th, 2020. The main topics include: Artificial.... More

The Pandemic and the Standard of Living

No. 24, Jul.-Aug. 2020

Iulian Stănescu

A recent report was issued by the Research Institute for Quality of Life of the Romanian Academy, titled The pandemic and the standard of living. Social policies. Its authors were Daniel Arpinte, Sorin Cace, Simona Mihaiu, Iulian Stanescu, Simona... More

Stealing into Power by Opposition to Power

No. 24, Jul.-Aug. 2020

Steven Alan Samson

Two acute observers of the American system and its decentralized character were Alexis de Tocqueville, who with his friend Gustave de Beaumont traveled through America for around nine months while studying America’s prisons... More

Twelve Countries Cumulate 80% of the Pandemic Deaths

No. 24, Jul.-Aug. 2020

Cezar Mereuță

The “parallel world” of the pandemic has two main coordinates: contagion cases and deaths, accompanied by the very important indicator of fatality rate relative to contagion cases (Rc/d).In our previous interventions, we demonstrated that the... More

Placing the Central Asia Region in the Equation of Neo-Colonialism Promoted by Russia

No. 24, Jul.-Aug. 2020

Ioan Alexandru Gherasim

The reconsideration of Russia’s foreign policy was made under the condition that, as a result of the steep increase in international prices for crude oil and natural gas, considerable financial resources flooded into the state treasury. With... More

The Absorption of Uncertainty and Exiting from the PandemicEconomy Near Us (XXX)

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Olga Bodrug O. Bodrug Kassandra Maduzia K. Maduzia James Snedden J. Snedden Michael Migaud M. Migaud Mohammad Ahmadi M. Ahmadi Justin Bullock J. Bullock

The individuals (and, to some extent, the groups) make decisions based on their perception regarding the future, rather than on a rigorous calculus based on accurate models of rationality (such a conclusion has long been reached by the researchers... More

A New Silk Road – Russia’s Position

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Ioan Alexandru Gherasim

The first version of the Silk Road is placed by analysts at the beginning of the westward expansion of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). Chinese products (silk, porcelain, spices or other goods) that were highly prized began to be delivered to Europe... More

NASA & SpaceX Launch – A New Milestone in Space Exploration

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Over the years, space has proven to be one of the few topics that captivated people from all around the world to follow the same TV programming or online event at the same time. Individuals with different backgrounds, ethnicities, races... More

Reading Between the Lines

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

The macroeconomic situation of Romania is a subject of considerable debate inside the country. The important development of the country is, nevertheless, marred by imbalances and underwhelming reforms, constantly... More

Conservatism and Spiritual and Social Recovery

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Richard J. Bishirjian

As I read newspapers, popular magazines, listen to National Public Radio, watch cable television, attend Catholic Mass, and work with American academics at the deracinated institutions called colleges, I am conscious that American secular... More

Revolt of the Disdained: Sovereignty or Submission

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Steven Alan Samson

The 2016 presidential election hinged on the return of overlooked or marginalized middle-class and working-class Democrats and independents – many of whom had earlier supported Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan – to reinvigorate traditional... More

Some Thoughts on COVID-19 Pandemic ShockEconomy Near Us (XXIX)

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Bianca Petre Alexandra Firescu

On the nature of COVID-19 pandemic shockWe think the COVID-19 pandemic shock “verifies” the following features:the shock is atypical: it has the particularity that it bypasses the standard “path” – that is, it does not affect the nominal flows... More

Coco & Chanel: Creating Herself and a Whole Universe, from Croquis to CoutureMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [XVI]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Petronela Cîrstea

Imagine the epitome of an elegant, stylish woman of modern times. Is she sporting chic suit pants and a matching blazer, or maybe a timeless black dress? Is her jewellery exquisite without overbearing opulence, perfectly assorted to her handbag... More

Will We 3D-Print Medicine at Home?MIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [XV]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Claudia Enache

It is around 7 AM, little Jim has just been woken up by his mom. He can distinguish clatter of softly gyrating gears from rain taping at his windowsill. There was no reason to focus more on those everyday sounds especially because he heard the same... More

Three Paradoxes of the Territorial Distributions of Contaminations with COVID-19

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Cezar Mereuță

A month ago, in the first episode regarding the pandemic, we identified the fact that the structural distribution of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus throughout the countries and autonomous territories of the world fulfils all the standards of the... More

Power Through Play: Thinking Energy Outside the BoxMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [XIV]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Iulia Mărginean

According to the World Bank (2019), roughly 1 billion people have no access to electricity whatsoever, but a Nigerian-American entrepreneur thinks football might be the solution. How is it possible? The story begins with Harvard graduate Jessica... More

The Million Dollar Pixels: How a Student’s Idea Changed the Internet for the BetterMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [XIII]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Mihai Răzvan Nedelcu

The internet. A place where (almost) everybody can see (almost) everything (almost) for free. An incredible technological asset of humanity as a whole. But how can we find everything? Do we pay these people? How many people would agree to make the... More

Bringing Lasting Positive Change for Women

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Olga Bodrug

Any change brings both positive and negative consequences. Therefore, a development planner should respect various principles to promote change that minimizes negative effects. Also, certain priorities or values should be reflected. This... More

Making History While Snacking: Microwave Meets MarketplaceMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [XII]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

World War II, going on between 1939 and 1945, was one of the bloodiest confrontations in the world. It cannot be overstated how much this conflict changed the course of history, for better (if anything good can be related to wars) or worse. For... More

Think Fast: Interactive Filmmaking Puts Consumers in the Spotlight (Or Is It Just an Illusion?)MIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [XI]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Andrei-Gabriel Gheorghe A.G. Gheorghe Mădălina Bianca Moldovan M.B. Moldovan Alexandra Vuțescu A. Vuțescu

In 1967, the cinephiles attending that year’s edition of Expo Montreal were left with the experience of a lifetime, having been submerged into a new dimension of film-making. Radúz Činčera’s vision brought the audiences a new perspective, as his... More

The Risk of Poverty by Age-Groups in RomaniaHistory, on the verge of repeating itself after ten years

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Ștefania Popescu Eliza Ignat

The risk of poverty recorded in Romania for the entire population was higher in 2019 than in 2008, according to data published by Eurostat. Almost one in four Romanians (23.8%) had an equivalent level of disposable income less than 60%... More

Centuries of “Concrete”-Solid Discoveries of the Humankind: From Building the Roman Empire Towards Contemporary BuildingsMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [X]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Have you ever questioned what lies at the basis of the so-called highly-developed cities, at the foundation of the tallest buildings worldwide or how the infrastructure came to life? The answer is directed towards… concrete. It built the modern world... More

WaitSafe in the Pandemic: How to Fluently Reconcile Social Distancing with Personal MobilityMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [IX]

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

The easing of the lockdown ignited with the advent of COVID-19 pandemic is still subject to strict conditions, as communities need to accommodate sanitary safety concerns with solutions for the freedom of movement for individuals, as the latter is a... More

The Press – Social “Mediator” or “Instigator”?

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

On the 3rd of May we celebrate World Press Freedom Day. The power of the Press (hereinafter deliberately written with capital P, in speaking precisely of its societal vocation) and its impact on the average citizen and on the wider masses of the people is... More

More than a Fifth of Romanians Are Employed by MultinationalsFrance Took over from Germany

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Germany (16.6%), France (12.4%) and Italy (9.2%) are the countries that hold the largest share in the Romanian economy by the number of employees operating in 80,591 groups of enterprises, according to the data processed and... More

COVID-19’s Distributions and Balances of PowerProfessor CEZAR MEREUȚĂ: “Understanding this is the new challenge the most powerful leaders in the world have to face”

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Adelina Mihai

Who would have thought that precisely the most powerful countries on the planet, which invested the most in their health systems, registered the most cases of contamination with the new coronavirus? Well, an analysis by Professor Cezar... More

The Romanian Government’s Underwhelming Response to the COVID-19 Crisis

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Bogdan C. Enache

The Romanian Government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis has nothing exceptional, no original idea, no single individualized policy, no special or particular focus. If Sweden, no matter how controversial, dared to pursue an individualized strategy... More

European (Dis)Integration During PandemicsLessons for EU members about the convergence of interests

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Ana-Maria Osipov

The big aspirations of “Unity in diversity” within European speeches seem to fade, as the supranational gathering around connection and cooperation is now, in the context of the pandemic, an ideal with less commitment than before... More

Romania – the Fourth EU Economy in the Share of Foreign Capital EnterprisesAnd an Interesting Paradox

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Romania ranks fourth among EU Member States in terms of the share in gross value added (GVA) of enterprises with foreign capital (controlled from abroad) – FCE –, according to a study published by Eurostat, based on data from 2017... More

Pandemic: How to Avoid What Is Worse

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Lucian Croitoru

In addition to major health issues, COVID-19 creates major economic problems. The risk of a deep global recession is very high. It is a shock that reduces supply, especially through the shock on the labour force, through illness or social... More

A Primer on Political Economy

No. 23, May.-Jun. 2020

Steven Alan Samson

Economist Walter E. Williams learned a principle of success by missing lunch. “At 13, I was a typical barbarian growing up in the slums of Philadelphia”, he recalls. “My mother supported us by working as a maid. Frivolous consumption often meant... More

Exploring the Transformation of Human Work in Relation to the Shock of the Novel Coronavirus PandemicEconomy Near Us (XXVIII)

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Monica-Florica Dutcaș

Work is one of the concerns of our daily lives. Permanent, but often on very short-term, concerns about work issues are at the forefront of public debates specific to the economic or other fields of social sciences. Countless scientific studies and... More

No Way In, No Way Out

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Scratching beneath the surface of socio-political matters results in a multitude of findings and novelties. It is time that enough answers were given to the everlasting questions which naturally follow the inquiry into the reasonableness of dominating... More

Mutating Mindsets and Contagious Behaviours (Part III): Diagnosing the Geopolitical and Geoeconomic Risks of the Coronavirus Outbreak

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

In the previous parts, we argued why behavioural economics does a better job of explaining consumer and supplier behaviour in the time of the coronavirus outbreak than the neoclassical paradigm. Both approaches were discussed at a... More

Coronavirus: Commission Hosts a European Hackathon to Develop Innovative Solutions to Fight the Outbreak

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

As of 24 April and throughout the weekend, the Commission will host the pan-European #EUvsVirus Hackathon, under the patronage of Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. The hackathon... More

Mutating Mindsets and Contagious Behaviours (Part II): Zooming in on Economic Decision-Making in the Time of the Coronavirus

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

As we have reemphasized, neoclassical economics, with all its shortcomings, is still considered to be the mainstream wisdom and the reconciliating synthesis of ages-old advances in economic science. Behavioural economics, for its part, is a rather... More

The COVID Crisis and the 2nd Pillar of the Romanian Pension System

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Far from the public attention, the value of the assets held in the seven private funds that manage the pension money in Pillar II for seven and a half million future pensioners decreased dramatically in the second part of February and continued to decline... More

Mutating Mindsets and Contagious Behaviours (Part I): An Overview of the Coronavirus Outbreak and Its Insights for Economic Theory

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

It is no longer a secret that the new coronavirus outbreak is the most significant issue troubling mankind at the moment, generating a level of panic and uncertainty with powerful effects on all level of society, politics and the economy. What... More

Was the Islamic State a Real State?

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Răzvan Munteanu

The self-proclaimed Islamic State, known to the international press under the ISIS moniker, became a true center of power in the Middle East in the period 2014-2017. Its success came with a background of instability generated by the Arab Spring... More

The CORONAtion of Equality, the Abdication of InequalityOr viceversa?

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

We all are equal in front of death, but we are living lives in unequal ways, because of our deeply uneven endowments and unsimilar chances that Gods or odds reserve for us. We are (supposedly) alike in front of laws, while some... More

Communicative Action, Subjective Perception and the Hermeneutics of Capital Structure

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Alexandru-Ștefan Goghie

This article highlights the implications of the subjective communication and interaction between economic agents in the process of expanding individual and implicitly social knowledge. Each economic actor goes through a set of unique... More

Free vs. Fair Trade – Pandemic Edition

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Victor Hebert

At the beginning of studying economics, the two basic ideas every undergrad learns about are the theories of absolute and of comparative advantage, respectively. Ricardo, one of the most influential classical economists, claims that countries... More

A Treatise to Challenge the World of Tweets“Information may be abundant, but knowledge remains scarce”. This is the message of a collective of scholars from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, the Faculty of International Business and Economics

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Nicolae Istudor

One may reasonably question any new… old-style opus, in times of “fast and furious” facts and figures, expressions of international economic relations (scientific literature markets here included): Isn’t it enough that we are now part of an... More

Smith, Hayek and the Virus: Entrepreneurial Responses in Times of Crisis

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Vlad I. Roșca

The world is struggling with despair in the face of an uncaring threat at the moment of writing these ideas: that word is not even worth mentioning any longer, since it is probably on the lips (and in the ears) of the majority of people worldwide.... More

Taxation of Wage Earnings for Pension Purposes in Romania, since 1950Some implications at present

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Georgiana Constantin-Parke

The income tax has increased about four times in Romania since 1950, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). The evolution of gross and net earnings shows that we have reached a doubling compared to the period.... More

Pandemic: Of Words, Beasts, and the Gates of Peace

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

The world is facing a pandemic. People are looking for ways in which to minimize its effects and defeat the virus. Some are taking all the necessary precautions. Some are treating the situation lightly. Some are panicking. And some… are.... More

On the Self-Testability of the Minimum WageEconomy Near Us (XXVII)

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Gabriela-Mariana Ionescu

As I have shown, in a previous intervention, in which I explained the conceptual difference between the minimum salary (the actual minimum wage, with the particularity that is generated by the market, rigorously called “minimum nominal salary”).... More

Corona-Economy: From Crisis to Rebuilding Trust

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Cosmin Marinescu

The Corona-Economy is already the grand economic challenge of the year 2020, but also of the political establishment. The latest developments are very serious, quite worrying for many sectors, which demand a coordinated response in terms of.... More

The Race to the Bottom in Oil

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Alexandru Georgescu

With the developed world in transition towards a short and medium-term economic self-flagellation as a means of reducing the impact of the SARS-COV-2 virus spread, there is little room for economic news that is not related to markets tumbling.... More

Will the Coronavirus Amplify the Role of the Government in the Economy?

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Lucian Croitoru

A defining phenomenon for virtually the last hundred years is the expansion of state influence in all areas. The extreme was reached in the communist and fascist countries, where, under dictatorship, all freedoms were altered. In Western.... More

Brâncuși’s Endlessness and the Scarcity of Some MeansTo whom does his work belong?

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

The public subscription for Brâncuși’s “The Wisdom of the Earth”, to get it from private hands “back” to the Romanian state, failed not so long ago. In markets, big money is paid for his works, more than “all” Romanians managed to gather. The moral? Art.... More

COVID-19: Counting the Cost

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Emmanuel Olusegun Stober

Fighting epidemics, or stopping them from spreading, has a cost. The direct costs of the COVID-19 pandemic are, of course, deaths and the sickness that prevents people from working. However, the indirect effect or Economic Cost include the labor.... More

How the Evolution of ITC Shaped the Field of Diplomacy

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Alexandru Manoliu

When looking at the historical evolution of diplomacy and foreign policy, for centuries they have ended up relying on the traditional establishment of delegations or ambassadors, formalizing bilateral and multilateral agreements regarding various.... More

The COVID-19 Pandemic – Changing the ParadigmSir William Osler: “Medicine is a science of uncertainty and the art of probability”

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Florin Paul

For almost three months now the entire world is in the midst of a very aggressive and rapidly evolving outbreak with new Coronavirus, that today is known as COVID-19. The origin of the outbreak is in China, the province of Hubei (Wuhan) and.... More

A Strategy of Subversion

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Steven Samson

Half a century ago the German sociologist Helmut Schelsky succinctly dissected the political strategy of left-wing radicals in West Germany and the West generally. His essay, “The New Strategy of Revolution,” remains one of the best.... More

(Corpo)Rational Person(ality)

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

It is perhaps characteristic of modern times to gather large groups of people who share the same perpetual quest for what is called freedom of expression and action within a free world, to make use of it with every single opportunity they might.... More

Interstellar RightsProviding more legal support to companies to explore outer space brings benefits to all mankind

No. 22, Mar.-Apr. 2020

Olga Bodrug

The exploration of space is now shifting the paradigm as recent innovations put in light incredible discoveries. The space economy is undoubtedly the most captivating industry of the future. As it develops, dependence on satellite-based.... More

From Energetics to EconomicsStarting from the nodal analysis concept, engineer Cezar Mereuță opens up a new domain of inter-disciplinary research for economists

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Alin Th. Ciocârlie

The fine connoisseurs say that statistics are perfectly comparable with the beach attire of an attractive young woman: reveals what everyone is allowed to see, but hides from the public eye the most appealing details. Because statistics is a science.... More

The Efficient Wage and Its ChallengesEconomy Near Us (XXVI)

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Georgiana Constantin-Parke

The standard Economics states that the gross nominal wage which is consistent (that is, non-contradictory) with the criterion of economic behaviour of the employer – the gross profit maximization – must be at most at the level of monetary.... More

Technology and Ethics: Of Man and Wisdom

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

In Isaac Asimov’s Bicentennial Man, the fictional robot character of Andrew Martin spends centuries suffering many modifications in order to be accepted by humanity as one of their own.The story shows Andrew, whose name comes from the Greek.... More

Romania: A New Energy PowerAfter a slowly diminishing status, brighter days to come?

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Stephen R. Bowers Ana Mihaela Istrate

While contemporary interest in energy questions focus on the Middle East, Romania has an impressive record in petroleum production which can be traced to 1517. Romania has a history of more than 150 years in oil extraction and in 1838 became.... More

A Leaflet for Economics?

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

It may be rightfully supposed that the first few months of higher education represent a turning point for most people. It is undoubtedly of a great importance that people take the decision of wholeheartedly stepping into a new environment and.... More

Europe after Brexit: Isolating the Continent

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Cezar Teclean

The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union remains undoubtedly the event of the year 2020. From a technical, procedural and institutional point of view, it was an impeccable, flawless process, according to the provisions... More

With Regards to Government Charity for the Private SectorEconomy Near Us (XXV)

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Mariana Nicolae M. Nicolae Elena E. Nicolae E. E. Nicolae Andreea Paul A. Paul

In a market economy, which is also presumed to function within a free society, generally, the goods and services needed for individuals are acquired through economic transactions (regularly through work and the processes around it – saving... More

Relations with East Asia – A View from Romania

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

The situation of the world today makes it difficult to even agree on whether we, as humanity, are going towards the right or the wrong direction. This is indeed a time of increasing fluidity, fake news, rapidly rising populism, which all makes vision and... More

The Future of Cars: Reinventing Transportation

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Emmanuel Olusegun Stober

The automobile industry’s cycle-race to embrace electric and autonomous vehicles did not include all its factories and workers. Neither did softening global auto sales help the market situation. And a change in the downward slope of the number of... More

On Brexit and Other Exits(Praxeo)Logical insights regarding economic and political integration

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Andreas Stamate-Ștefan

The United Kingdom has just spent its first days out of the European Union. The exit, completed by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson (the third British PM in a row, since Brexit began, four years ago) together with his political counterparts from... More

A Perspective by and for the Youth

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

To most of us, it goes without saying that today’s youth will be tomorrow’s helmsmen amidst the tumultuous sea that life is. For “the little ones had become big, and the big ones had become almost men during the two years they were adrift in the... More

My Mauser Is Bigger than YoursThe arms race in the South Caucasus

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Heydar Mirza

The arrival of four recently acquired Russian Su-30SM heavy multifunctional jet fighters in Armenia is far from being defined as ‘turning the chessboard on one’s opponent’, but it definitely triggers a new stage in the arms race between Armenia... More

Political and Economic Fallacies: A Tribute to Sir Roger Scruton

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Steven Samson

Adam Smith’s invisible hand, Frederic Bastiat’s essay “What Is Seen and What Is Unseen,” Michael Polanyi’s Tacit Dimension, Friedrich Hayek’s “spontaneous order,” and the Christian doctrines of subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty – these... More

Leadership à la CEE: Values & Approaches

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Mariana Nicolae

Another book review? Of yet another leadership book? There are and continue to appear so many books on leadership from so many angles, including innovation, creativity and artificial intelligence. And yet, what makes this particular book... More

Russia’s Trump Card Against China and Reshaping Power DynamicsWhat Russia stands to gain from the US - China rivalry

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Stephen R. Bowers Kelli M. Nab

On 18 December 2019, Donald Trump, the current President of the United States of America, was impeached by the House Judiciary Committee following allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, the third US President to be... More

Russian Relations with North Korea

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

The changing relationship between Russia and North Korea has its beginnings when the Soviet Union and China became rivals for influence within the Communist world. In the contemporary context, there is a triangle of complicated relations... More

The Market Liberalization of Space Odysseys

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Vlad I. Roșca

Towards the end of 2019, a software issue during launch meant that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was unable to perform its first mission to supply the International Space Station as intended. It might by counted as merely one of the many problems... More

The Anthropocene-Fallacy: Learning from Wrong Ideas

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Henrique Schneider

The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. While it is not an... More

The “Avenger” from SpaceX and TeslaMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [VIII]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Maria Mincu

The main purpose of this essay is to highlight the life and the entrepreneurial journey of one the most influential people of the moment and how he permanently changed the world with his abilities and perception of things. Elon Reeve Musk... More

BTS – The Freedom of Musical Expression Remains UnlimitedMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [VII]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Alexandra Dobre

In the past, there was The Beatles. In the second half of the 20th century, The Beatles became the most popular band in the entire world. Time passed and the 21st century brought new legends to the music industry. Most likely the biggest boy band in... More

Foundation: The Very Basis in MakeupMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [VI]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Andreea Cheleșu

Perhaps everyone who uses makeup has wondered at least once about its origins? Every little thing has its own past but not a lot of people know the history of foundation. Surprisingly, its antecedents are not as pretty.Foundation traces its... More

Mr. Sam’s Walmart Empire in Uncle Sam’s American RepublicMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [V]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Andreea Maria Mănescu

Samuel Moore (or how people liked to call him later on, “Mr. Sam”) was born in 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and lived there until 1923 with his parents, Thomas Gibson Walton and Nancy Lee Lawrence Walton. He had a brother, James... More

Innovation in the Eye of the Beholder: Optical BreakthroughsMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [IV]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Stelian-Gabriel Voicu Georgiana Denisa Oae

he commonplace objects that we surround ourselves with are just as indispensable for our everyday businesses as they are, individually and collectively, piecemeal retellings of different parts of our civilization and the progressive attempts by... More

ADI DASsler’s “Impossible is Nothing” and “The Miracle of Bern”MIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [III]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Alexandra Ispas Cosmina Stroinea

“It’s over! Over! Over! Germany are the World Champions!”, Radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann’s jubilant words still resound in the hearts of many Germans, as a newly-created West Germany conquered the most coveted trophy in international... More

Apple’s Handheld Evolution: From the Newton MessagePad to the iPhoneMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [II]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Ever wonder how some things came to be? Just look at your phone. We cannot even imagine life without it anymore, but it is not always that we think of how much sweat and tears were put into achieving this particular invention. To be more... More

Make Education Relevant Again!MIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [I]

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Cătălin Ionel

“The times they are a-changin’” and, along with them, the people’s needs and desires are changing as well. This is reflected in many ways throughout the economy, but perhaps the most interesting example we can ponder are the transformations that... More

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

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Alexandru Georgescu

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... More

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

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

The Market for Ideas

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... More

IDEAtorial

Cyber-Cerberus and Hackers’ Hades How to make home(land)s cyber-safer places

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Dumitru Miron

The creation of cyberspace may be perceived either as a benign addendum to the biblical Book of Genesis or as man’s fatal conceit making a virtual world mimicking the inherited one. Is it a smarter cover for the physical world – with its old-days and more predictable social life, economic cooperation, and power politics – or a digital hallucination – leaving us disturbed? The godfather of cyberspace is considered William Gibson. He invented the word, using it in his SciFi Burning Chrome story and Neuromancer novel. You do not have to be full-time scientific-fantasist to get the side effects of an avatar-world. An avatar-world will accordingly develop goods and bads that will transcend it and trespass it. Its goods will enhance the source realms, its bads will strike back in it, as happened in the world of www, Facebook, Wikileaks and US presidential campaign interfered by maleficent descendants of the “dark-side” soviets. More

On the Nature of the Concept of Tolerance Essay on three conferences delivered by Andrei Plesu, Mircea Dumitru and Horia-Roman Patapievici

I would like to discuss the following issues related to the concept of tolerance (the concept of intolerance can be derived, relatively un-problematically, from that of tolerance): the nature (source) of the concept of tolerance. More

The Future of Economics Is Human

Nicoleta Stoianovici

Private actors have long embraced behavioral economics as a way to boost sales and profits yet, until recently, the line of study had not been endowed with a front row seat in the hall of economic policy development. This year’s recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (called the Nobel Prize for Economics), Richard H. Thaler, increases the proportion of behavioral economists upon whom the prestigious award has been bestowed to 6%. His work offers a glimpse into a particular type of libertarianism: coined as “libertarian paternalism” by this year’s Nobel Prize recipient and the co-author of his bestselling book “Nudge”, Cass Sunstein, the pair argues for guiding people in their choices under specific conditions. Libertarian paternalism would prevent losses resulting from neglecting to act upon lucrative propositions such as signing up for a savings plan where the employer matches one’s contribution up to a certain percent of one’s income and reasons in favor of providing as default options for policy implementation the best alternative for the individual or society as a whole (such as automatic enrollment in said savings program) in order to assist fallible or inexperienced individuals with key decisions. Thaler tries to match the two seemingly conflicting interests of the individual and the group (to him, choices need not be a zero-sum game) by minimizing the cost of externalities through defaults that are beneficial to one party while interfering minimally with respect to the other (a widespread example is that of favoring opt-out policies rather than opt-in, on the one hand to increase the number of participants and, on the other, to bank on people’s inertia). More

In Pursuit of the West

Vlad I. Roșca

There is a ceaseless notion going on about the rearwardness of Eastern European states and their inability to build lastingness. Ideas uninterruptedly flow about a retrograde existence that keeps the East away from competing with the West; that the hiatus seems to enlarge day after day. Alignment with the West is one of the biggest endeavours of the East. Many efforts are put into an attempt of modernization which gives the impression of being beyond comprehension and realization. Arraying in the same clothes as the big brother looks to have become a mantra of the East, with an ubiquitous hope of a finest hour that will come when differences will no longer exist. Odd enough, the East sets its hopes in an ideal it has never managed to obtain for centuries, but which is now seen as an end goal. More

Georgiana Constantin-Parke

Man, Mansion, and Motion (II) A Forward History of Homesteading and Horsepowering

Alexandru Rîpa

The last argument concluded by leaving an open door to the second facet of our topic: the duality of transport/mobility & house/stability. We set up the context of our discussion based on the relationship between action and movement, which has applicability in the analysed duality. We argued how the action axiom is the spine of the above dualism and we performed afterwards a short review of the history of transport from its roots to its forthcoming developments. Having taken care of transport, we will discuss in this article how humans acted with regard to the concept of homesteading. More

BUSINESSance

Romania’s “Sonderweg” to Illiberal Democracy

Bogdan C. Enache

In German historiography, there is a current of thought dating to the 19th century regarding a “special path” (Sonderweg) of political development in Germany or German settled areas. Its first incarnation was a positive one, underlying the German aptitude for social reform and development in the absence of dangerous pressures. After WW2, it became a way of explaining the rise of Nazism and retconning it as inevitable, thus making the leap from theory to tool for self-blame. This article argues that Romania is undergoing its own Sonderweg to illiberalism, based on local specificities of a political and structural nature. More

BUSINESSance

“Unplugged Skills”: The Need to Live beyond Technology’s Limitations

It would seem as if there is an electrical outlet for everything from one’s toothbrush to their car now. Society is in continuous technological progress. Advances in scientific and technical knowledge have extended and improved our lives. Most of us live in comfort only afforded to kings a few centuries ago and with capabilities they could not have imagined. And with all the new technology come new skill sets, new job prospects, and exciting opportunities. We now have the freedom to work from home or from anywhere in the world, as long as we have a computer and a good internet connection. We can run a business online. We can shop online. We can keep in touch with people from thousands of miles away and deliver messages that reach them in seconds. Everything seems to herald in an exciting future. More

UNI(di)VERSITY

Models of Globalization The first four meetings of the Interdisciplinary Scientific Seminar “Octav Onicescu”

Alexandru A. Popovici

By the end of June 2017, when the seminar on “Marxist mathematical economics” was wrapping up, I announced a plan to organize a scientific seminar on “Models of globalization”, and I expoused its basic themes. It extends the economic study from the national to the supranational (of international organizations) and global levels, as was the obvious progression of inquiries. In September, after consulting with potential participants and especially professor Emil Dinga (director of the Seminary “N. Georgescu-Roegen”, of Logic and Methodology of Economics), a plan of organization and a list of reviewers and reports were established. Hence, on the 28^th of September 2017, I was able to publish online the purpose, the organization and the program of the seminar, which was described as “interdisciplinary”. Latter on, under the approval of the participants, it was named “Octav Onicescu”, because he was an important promoter of interdisciplinary studies and the seminar was housed by the Institute for Mathematical Statistics and Applied Mathematics, of the Romanian Academy, which bears his name. I also managed for the seminars (together the discussions) to be recorded and published on youtube,com and to be broadcast live, through Skype. More

ecON/OFFice

A Romanian Perspective on the Three Seas Initiative

Liviu Mureșan Alexandru Georgescu

The Three Seas Initiative is a recent formula describing an older concept. Romania is a reflexive supporter of regional cooperation initiatives, but it is paying special attention to this initiative, as it encompasses a geopolitically significant area with relevance to long-term Romanian interests. This paper argues that this valuable initiative has a latent geopolitical subtext with regards to the two powers flanking the region which is perceived as such, if not commonly articulated, by the countries of the initiative. At the same time, the Black Sea will be a main deciding factor for the success and failure of the Initiatives, owing to several underlying conditions, as well as potential complicating factors. Any sort of Three Seas Initiative development will have to keep this in mind or else risk a concentration of vulnerabilities in the middle portion of the Initiative’s geographical space. The Three Seas Initiative must also be regarded from the perspective of synergies with Chinese initiatives, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the 16+1 cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries. More

Pandora’s Botnet How the cyber visionaries are sticking us with the bill

Alexandru Georgescu

Cybersecurity is mentioned so often that it has become a cliché like climate change, with the other thing they have in common being a disagreement on what solutions are required, who is responsible for them and whether there is a responsibility in changing behaviour so as to minimize these risks. All of these difficult questions are left unanswered not just by the conceptual breadth and diversity of the issue at hand, but also by the ease with which dilettantes and people with agendas can spot facile solutions that obviate the need for difficult questions and answers. More

PrestiDigital GeoPolitics Web Spatiality and Territoriality

We, humans, live and act in the old physical space, though spatiality will never be the same after digits became the atoms of some “virtual matter”, in which our bodies and souls e-immersed. Cyberspace, equated reasonably with the Internet, allows for larger and better markets and fortunes, as well as more and fierce dangers to our security and liberty, to our homes and homelands. More

The Grand (Binary) Chessboard: Security, Geopolitics and Geoeconomics in the Cyber-era

For each age that we think to define, there are words that describe the aspects or characteristics that are thought to define it best. The mid-twentieth century was known as the ‘Atomic Age’, when the results of research into nuclear physics were brought to the forefront with the detonation of nuclear bombs. Shortly thereafter, it was succeeded by the Space Age, with the drive to explore outer space and the competition between the world’s superpowers to develop technology to that end. Somewhere from the 1970s, the Information Age is believed to have begun, sprung by the Digital Revolution, with information technology playing an increasingly greater role in human affairs on an ever-growing number of levels: the economy, society, culture, language and politics. Thus, geographic distance became less and less relevant in defining human interaction, and physical contact was no longer an imperative for relations between people. More

Essentials of Military Cyber Security Strategies

Bilge Karabacak

There are considerable, even astonishing, differences between the old and new versions of Department of Defense (DoD) cyber strategies. There is a four-year period between the two strategies and the new version explicitly states that the United States may take offensive actions against its persistent adversaries in cyber space. In this article, the major changes in the new strategy are shared with the reader. Secondly, cyber-attacks against the assets of the US in a four-year period have been summarized. Probably, these persistent attacks may be the primary reason for the offensive nature of the new strategy. This article also shares the essentials of a military cyber security strategy, which are in parallel with the evolution of the DoD cyber strategy. More

Cyber Conflict and International Law

Metodi Hadji Janev

This article provides a brief overview of the international principles and standards applicable to cyber conflict. The main assumption is that globalization and technological development have changed the international order. These changes affect the nation states and principles and standards established to regulate their relations. The existing international law has limited applicability to regulate potential cyber conflict. Therefore, the International Community must take further steps to prevent these challenges. More

Cyber Diplomacy – Addressing the Gap in Strategic Cyber Policy

Carmen Elena Cîrnu

Although it is a new topic, cyber-diplomacy has already advanced in leaps and bounds worldwide in an attempt to define and to summarize the efforts constantly made to solve a new type of conflict, namely those taking place in cyberspace. The primary role of diplomacy is to generate common advantage through dialogue, thus the primary role of cyber diplomacy would be to generate advantage through dialogue on cyber security issues. More concrete, a simple assumption would be that cyber diplomacy uses diplomatic tools to solve the problems that emerge in cyberspace. Topics like internet governance, enforcement of law against cyber crime, response to malicious attacks arising in cyberspace, the protection of critical infrastructure, just to mention a few, are of utmost importance and require a dedicated agenda and concrete action. The last decade has seen emerging technologies impact national economic systems in virtual space. This has changed the diplomatic agenda, with cyber threats moving to the top and with many governments already acknowledging that ignoring cyber diplomacy is no longer an option for global dynamics. Both a confusion in terminology and a lack of common legislation when addressing the cyber diplomacy topic is observed, since beyond internet governance and cyber security, a range of topics, from military use of internet to economic growth, are also enclosed by cyber diplomacy. More

Terrorist Influence on Children in Cyberspace

Katarina Jonev

Terrorist groups are using cyberspace to propagandize ideological, political and religious concepts, for mutual communication and organization of activities, for planning attacks in the real world and for financing. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegrams have contributed to radicalization and recruitment, primarily of children and young people who accept the principles of terrorists and join their ranks. Modern ways of communication have enabled terrorists to successfully increase membership and their ranks without direct, physical contact. More

Terrorism Has No Echo without the Media

Valentina Nica

Terrorism can be seen as an act of communication. In order to transform an attack into a message, the media’s dissemination capabilities are needed, being a vital pawn in the game the terrorists are playing. Sending the perfect message in the way the terrorist desire is much more important that the act itself. The challenge in the relationship stated is the conflict of interests between the media having to broadcast unbiased information about the event, the social responsibility they carry and the prospect of giving sensational news that may alter the reality in order to have a wider audience. More

What Is Blockchain? An introduction for laymen

Radu Judele

During the age of the crusades, several knightly orders were formed out of international groups of feudal knights to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land. In the interludes between the various wars, the number of pilgrims would grow, seeking salvation and other personal benefits, such as the prestige of having performed the pilgrimage. The Templars were one of the groups approached by these medieval tourists and were asked for protection on the long road against robbers. The trend continued and there was a growing need for protection. Since the Templar Order had a limited number of members, they became overwhelmed and they came up with a solution. More

Building the Future, One Blockchain at a Time

Adrian Victor Vevera

The European Center for Excellence in Blockchain (ECEB) was founded in Bucharest in 2017 by the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI), the Idea Factory Think Tank and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia, USA) as a as a promoter of the Blockchain issue and its link with the protection of Critical Infrastructures for state institutions and for the private sector (i.e. finance, energy, etc.), both nationally and internationally. It seeks to foster an understanding of blockchain issues on the part of decision makers and to encourage the development of key applications for use in governance, such as that of critical infrastructures. It will cooperate with both public authorities and private actors to facilitate a sustainable exploitation of blockchain potential. More

BOOKracy

Development Exposed Ian Goldin, The Pursuit of Development. Economic Growth, Social Change, and Ideas

Elena Tălmăcian

Ian Goldin’s book entitled The Pursuit of Development. Economic Growth, Social Change, and Ideas was originally published in English in 2016 by Oxford University Press and was translated in Romanian (În căutarea dezvoltării: creșterea economică, schimbările sociale și ideile) in 2017 by Comunicare.ro Publishing House (introduction: Paul Dobrescu; translation from English: Viorela Dima-coordinator, Raluca-Elena Hurduzeu and Elena Tălmăcian). More

CasusBelleARTE

Hyperborean Folklore – The Art of Symbols & Numbers

The Art Gallery “Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck” at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies hosted the artistic photography exposition named “Hyperborean Folklore – The Art of Symbols & Numbers” which has the main theme of the reinterpretation of the ancestral and cultural symbolism found in the manufacturing of the national authentic Romanian dress, in a contemporary manner of fashion that brings to the present the artistic dowry that artists inherited from their Romanian origin. More

TheFILEstarters

A Community in Search of Unity, a Union in Search of Communion

The Faculty of International Business and Economics, from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, hosted on 16th-17th November 2017 the 8th edition of The Future of Europe International Conference, with the participation of distinguished speakers and generous auditorium from Academia, public administration, and business environment. More

KNOWlegacy

For a Privatization of Environmental Public Policies (Towards an intellectual climate change on sustainable development)

Climate change and sustainable development are, somehow, like “love and marriage”, and they go together like “a horse and carriage”; and if you ask “the local [as well as global] gentry”, they will say that this is “elementary”. But despite a basic consensus, that something is happening to our earthly environment and something must rapidly be done, the problem is much more delicate scientifically and politically. More

ecON/OFFice

Orient and Occident – Perceptual and Complementary Macro-Regions

Viorel Mionel

The Occident (The West) is a term that is borrowed from Latin (occidens) and translates as "sunset". From an etymological and semantic point of view, it refers to features of a geographic nature. The sunset, seen from the perspective of a fix point, means the west. Anyone at any point in the world can see that the sun always rises from the east and sets in the west. It follows that the West is located somewhere, where the sun sets. Examples of names that include terms such as occident and occidental (the West and western) are numerous, both in the western and eastern hemispheres: the Western Sahara or Occidental Sahara (the West African geographical region administered by Morocco), the Western Carpathians (Carpaţii Occidentali in Romanian; a Western Carpathian subdivision), Occidental Grand Erg (the area covered with sand dunes in the West of the Sahara desert), the Sierra Madre Occidental (mountains in western part of Mexico) or Negros Occidental (an administrative sub-region located in the western part of the Negros Island of the Philippines). More

Defence and Security: The UK and Romania after Brexit

Adam Sambrook

We live in a better world than our parents or grandparents did. Romania’s GDP is a remarkable five times higher that it was at the turn of this millennium. More countries, like Romania, are more open, democratic and stable than they were a couple of generations ago. We are more tolerant, with more rights for religious, ethnic and sexual minorities. We have access to technologies that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. And even if we look outside the developed world, there is good news. In 1990, 1.9 billion human beings lived in extreme poverty. That number had, despite population growth, been cut in half by 2010. In 25 years, global mortality rate for children under 5 years of age declined by more than half. Many fewer people are contracting HIV/AIDS and more are living with it. More

À la recherche de l’identité perdue

In most contexts, the name Catalonia is typically associated with the world of culture, arts, architecture and sports. It evokes the splendour of the Sagrada Familia, the distinctive styles of Antoni Gaudi and Salvador Dali, the venerable Montserrat Caballé and, of course, the famous Barcelona FC. Yet, in the aftermath of the declaration of independence passed by the Autonomous Community’s Parliament on October 27, 2017, the name is now also associated with the increasingly prominent trend towards fragmentation that has defined socio-political dynamics in the Western world in recent years, in particular Europe. More

The 2017 Austrian Elections A hint on the gap between contemporary Austrian politics and Austrian economics heritage

Barbara Kolm

Since October 2006, Austria has been governed by a “big coalition” between the two major parties, the Conservative People’s Party ÖVP and the Social Democratic Party SPÖ. Years which, in the eyes of most, have been dominated by intergovernmental conflict and bipartisan obstruction. More