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Defined Contribution Pensions, But Not Really
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 respected is the state (we have here a nice example of a hard core of public interest which would be desirable to be extended to others, i.e. national interests). As it is inter-generationally applied, such a “social contract” faces some accidents, some of which are objective, others not quite. For example, a current generation “i”, is paying social contributions during its active life to the generation „i-1” – I will do not complicate the discussion by taking into account that, in fact, there is an overlapping of generations both as paying social contributions and as benefiting from defined-contribution pensions (this would be useful if done for the public finance decision). In turn, the current generation “i” (which is the future “i+1” retired generation) will benefit for its pensions from the social contributions paid by generation “i+1”, and so on. This mechanism seems to provide a roughly fairness, because the pensions are calculated based on the effective social contributions paid during the active (that is, economically productive) life. Rawls, as pure contractarian, would say it should be designed and implemented in the legislative stage of making the social contract, not in the original position. Below, I ask myself whether such fairness is really effective and, if not, how we should to proceed. The discussion is inherently coupled to the debates regarding the increasing of the pensions in Romania. I will do not discuss the (judicial) fact that a normative act which was already been constitutionally enacted by the legislative authority leaves, I think, an extremely narrow room, if any, for doubts regarding its implementation, but, instead, I will deal with only some very simple economic and social questions (more exactly, of social justice). More
Breaking the Long Truce
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element of democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the ruling power of our country.[1] – Edward Bernays, 1928Ressentiment is directed at something which at the deepest level of his being the individual recognizes as good. Although there may be evil mixed with it (as in the sinful preacher), it is not the evil which is hated primarily but the good. Dwelling on the evil is ressentiment’s ploy for attacking the good.[2] – James Hitchcock, c. 1983 More
Not Too Young to Perform
If young people are not too young to get married, to serve in the military or to choose those who represent them in different government capacity, then they are “Not Too Young to Run”.Diversity is needed to create a great team and, if we do not bring women and youth aboard, then we are limiting the country’s competitiveness. To start with, what Nigeria needs at this point in time is inclusive growth. According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ 2016 data, youth represent 50.2% of the total labor force in Nigeria. Hence, by restricting them from the country’s policy formulation and implementation, the country is not likely to attain its economic potential. More
The Romanian Government’s Underwhelming Response to the COVID-19 Crisis
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 of keeping the country open so as to achieve a higher degree of immunity as well as minimize economic loss and social distress, or if Germany implemented a swift search-and-clean infection-cluster policy followed-up by an effective intensive care capacity and real-time viral research, Romania has simply copy-pasted some broad European and World Health Organization lockdown guidelines to stop the contagion risk. There is no active – in some cases even experimental – strategy, no special health care crisis unit, no real-time research and goal-oriented policy – just a rather ridiculously named “Group of Strategic Communication”, made up mostly of police and intelligence officers, which releases some basic statistics concerning the number of people infected, those hospitalized, confined or dead to some press outlets and, with long lags, publishes them on the website of Ministry of Internal Affairs. More
Inflation Is Back: What Is to Be Done?
The pressing matter of inflation is once again on the minds of the citizens and the National Bank of Romania (NBR), whose goal is to preserve and maintain price stability. Over the previous year, inflation has dramatically risen. It continues to include a significant external component, amplified by the economic consequences of the war between Russia and Ukraine, most notably the sharp increases in the price of energy and raw materials. Over the last couple of months, inflation has intensified and spread, leading to it eventually being internalised. As a consequence, the normalisation of monetary policy is necessary. More
The Quality of Nigeria’s Capital Imports
A saying has it that numbers do not lie, however the parameters behind the numbers might be somewhat misleading. The first quarter of 2018 saw a continuous growth in total capital importation into Nigeria, the fourth consecutive quarterly increase since Q2 2017. The total value of capital imported in the quarter stood at $6.3 billion, which is a year-on-year “YoY” increase of 594.03% and 17.11% growth quarter-on-quarter “QoQ”. This increase in capital inflow in Q1 2018 was mainly driven by portfolio investment, which grew from $3.5 billion in the previous quarter to $4.6 billion, accounting for 72.42% of the total capital importation during the quarter. More
A New Silk Road – Russia’s Position
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, with the Chinese importing precious metals, glass and other products in return. Trade routes were plied by caravans connecting to Europe through Central Asia. This region gradually became the epicenter of the first wave of globalization, which made it possible for the area to connect remote regions, generate prosperity and connect very complex cultural and religious traditions. The impressive economic growth and increased openness to the external environment that China registered in the latter part of the 20th century and in the first two decades of the 21st century, focused on export-led industrialization, brought China the resources and vision to consider the necessity of investing new trade routes. Paradigm shifts have also occurred at the political level, with China's top leadership publicly presented in 2013 the concept of a “New Silk Road” (morphed into the currently named Belt and Road Initiative through the addition of a Maritime Belt) as a complex and ambitious logistics network consisting of ports, railways and highways, supporting infrastructure, as well as oil or natural gas pipelines that will sustainably connect China with the states of Europe and East Africa. The EU has since become China’s largest trading partner. More
The 17th International Conference on Business Excellence
Business excellence is about achieving superior business results in relation to the competitors by means of developing and strengthening the management systems and processes of an organization; it is targeted at improving performance and delivering value for all the stakeholders, in a three-dimensional space characterized by uncertainty, complexity and dynamism.The first goal of this international conference is to reunite specialists from the triple-helix fields: university and research, consultancy and business, and policy making pursuant to optimizing the business added value by providing a stimulating environment for knowledge and knowhow business excellence transfers and alliance formation. More
International Business and Economics, in a Romanian Interpretation
Bookfest 2018. Thursday, May 31, the ASE Publishing House launched the treatise entitled Relații Economice Internaționale. Teorii, strategii. politici, instrumente și studii de caz [International economic relations. Theories, strategies, policies, instruments and case studies] – Gheorghe Hurduzeu, Luminiţa Nicolescu (eds.) – in the presence of a numerous audience. The book, the first compendium on the topic in the Romanian economic literature, is the joint effort of scholars from two departments of the Faculty of International Business and Economics, in the Bucharest University of Economic Studies – the Department of International Business and Economics and the Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication. The volume is dedicated equally to students and to specialists, to theorists and to practitioners, though it can be useful as well to any educated individual interested in international issues due to its careful balance between the rigour of the content and the accessibility of the style. The Romanian edition of the treaty is scheduled to be followed by an annotated English version. More
Placing the Central Asia Region in the Equation of Neo-Colonialism Promoted by Russia
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 their help, the Russian authorities have slightly improved the standard of living of citizens and, on the assumption of the continuity of the windfall, it was considered appropriate to launch for public reflection the topic of the international role of the state entity inheriting the foreign policy issues of the former Soviet Union. At the centre of these efforts was an objective which was difficult to reject for the Russian citizens, to regain the historical honour and to preserve the integrity of the space in which Russia exerts its natural influence. At first, the international community did not attach much importance to these signals, taking some time to notice the pitfalls of these internal and foreign policy messages. There were also some concrete moves on the geopolitical arena. Russian troops were involved in a brief war in Georgia in 2008 over Georgia’s attempt to bring separatist regions back under Tbilisi’s authority, in 2010 the non-military pressure on Kyrgyzstan made itself felt, and in 2014 the first overt military actions in Ukraine started, after years of non-kinetic hybrid warfare and lawfare. More
My Brentry after Their Brexit
Could Britain be immutable as well as irreplaceable? This is a question worth pondering, given several of Britain’s attributes: its greatness as an island with tendrils reaching across the entire planet, even if it is limited today to a mere geo-cultural-symbolic rite as its geo-politico-economic clout has somewhat waned; its unity, if only among its own constituents, insofar as in Europe it hasn’t been particularly long-lived due to an overly Brussels-based rigid and (op)pressing bureaucracy; its kingship, even if henceforth God must Save the King after having watchfully protected Queen Elisabeth II throughout her 96 years of life, 70 of which spent as a reigning monarch. To a Euro-citizen recently returned to the United Kingdom after the Brexit, having to hand over the passport instead of the more familiar ID card at the border control represents the most immediately apparent change of tone. Looking strictly at the ambience, just as entering the (predecessor of the) European Union didn’t perturb the daily affairs of the Brits, neither did Britain’s divorce from the EU generate any depression. Yet, one cannot always perceive the subtleties beneath people’s (changes of) mind and (pre)judgments, even if these people are His Majesty’s subjects, yet also subject to error. More
Identity Building in Football
Winning at all costs has often been associated with football, but is success the only aspect that matters to fans? A wooden saying has it that victories will only bring other victories. If so, why do some winning teams attract far less spectators to their games than other teams that actually do not perform that well on the pitch? More
