Radu Craciun

Certainly, this is a question that on the face of it could sound absurd to many. How can a country with significant natural gas resources fear that they could end up creating trouble? These concerns are not new and there is a whole literature on the phenomenon given various metaphoric names. The Economist was the […]

A few months ago I participated in a conference organized by the Romanian Central Bank. On that occasion, against the backdrop of Mr. Juncker`s vaguely optimistic statements on the new European architecture, people talked endlessly about including Romania in Europe`s hard core. That is alongside France, Germany, the Netherlands and other like countries. My speech, which […]

This was not the plan. This is not how it was supposed to happen! Romania, from its big brother position, was intent on acting as the main champion and “coach” to the Republic of Moldova so that the latter could swiftly and smoothly join the select club of the EU Member States. Moreover, some pundits […]

The latest Romania`s achievement in terms of raising foreign debt was a sovereign bond issue worth $1.2 Bn bearing an annual 5.2% interest rate and a maturity of 30 years. As an aside, that was an opportunity that Romania will not easily encounter any time soon. For several reasons. As I showed in a previous […]

“Even though we are celebrating 10 years since the first contributions were paid into the private mandatory pension funds (Pillar II), I do not think that festive presentations are in order. Having this event in the amphitheater of the School of Economics (ASE) compels us, I believe, to academic rigor. That is why this is […]

In the past 25 years, the Romanian government has provided numerous poor management examples of the assets it’s responsible for: state-owned enterprises incapable of reinventing themselves after 1989 and ending up shut down, companies with good potential or a very good financial position which got ripped off under the eyes of shareholders only to be […]

Does SpaceX sound familiar? The company that manufactures rockets that after launching their satellites come back to Earth to safely resume their position on land awaiting a new takeoff? Or Tesla? The firm producing one of the most popular (and expensive!) electric cars? Or PayPal? The online payment company acquired by Ebay for $1.5 billion? […]