Economia lumii, singularul unui plural încă eterogen (economiile lumii), în ciuda tendinţei istorice de a (re)apropia naţiunile (una încă schizoidă din pricina obsesiei guvernămintelor de a obţine deschiderea celorlalţi pe fondul reziduului de intervenţionism / protecţionism asupra alor lor), este, cu atât mai mult în prezent, agora discuţiei şi disputei teoretice codate „Liberalism vs. Etatism”. Economia lumii, în toată concreteţea şi pragmatismul ei (post-)traumatic, va continua să poarte urmele acestei „alegeri abstracte”.

There is frequent talk nowadays on the chances to use the “opportunity” that the present crisis has given to us, in order to, at least try to, reform the world economy. The current crisis seems to show us that it is of an imperious nature not only the need to reform the global regulatory and supervisory framework, but equally the need to reform the global monetary system anchored in the US dollar.

Despite the various accents observed in the traditional analyses on the roots of this kind of phenomena, we will argue that the causes of the present crisis, ignited inside our “modern” economies, are strongly related to the modern nature of money, the role of “fiat-currency” as exchange support for real transactions and the effect of central banks monetary policy on markets.

Article published within Research Project CNCSIS TE_340, Contract no. 38 / 03.08.2010 entitled “Contagion Effect of Financial Crises in Case of Eastern European Countries”

Principala motivaţie a resuscitării activităţii SOREC după 2009 a fost aceea de a contribui la germinarea unei comunităţi, fie ea cât de restrânsă, a cercetătorilor economişti de la noi. Dezbaterile găzduite de colocviul SOREC “Deschideri economice” pe tema raportului dintre piaţa liberă şi intervenţionismul etatist în circumstanţele actualei crizei economice s-au plasat în acest context.

Romania has known in the last 20 years a deindustrialisation process (like other Eastern  European countries) firstly caused by a profound system crisis. And for the same 20 years, Romania seems like is running away from the idea of industrial policy. But there is nothing wrong with having an industrial policy. The EU has one, and is also promoting it through the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Approaching economic freedom from an institutional perspective provides realistic economic insights. This study emphasizes the correlation between extending economic freedom and real GDP per capita, human development, global competitiveness, and the diminution of corruption, by comparing the index of economic freedom against various statistical indicators of development.