The world’s major economies are skating on dangerously thin ice and lack the fiscal, monetary, and emergency tools to fight the next downturn.

A roster of top crisis veterans fear an even more intractable slump than the Lehman recession when the current ageing expansion rolls over. The implications for liberal democracy are sobering.

“We have no ability to turn the economy around,” said Martin Feldstein, President of the US National Bureau of Economic Research.

“When the next recession comes, it is going to be deeper and last longer than in the past. We don’t have any strategy to deal with it,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

Professor Feldstein, a former chairman of the White House Council of Economic...

ROMANIA/THE BANKING SYSTEM - Given where we are today and how we got here, I think we can safely say that the Romanian banking system is ready for the challenges of the future. Over the last years, we have witnessed a consolidation of the banking system through many mergers and acquisitions between banks, a trend which follows, as a matter of fact, from the development of the regulatory framework, as well as from the financial coming of age of the clientele. The banking business can no longer be efficient on a small scale or in a niche area, and that will become increasingly obvious in the coming period.
We are also witnessing a profound change of the banking sector, which will only become more acute over time. What I am talking about is the need to align with the requirements of the digital era. The bank isn't just a provider of loans and deposits, it also wants to be a reliable partner and to develop complex financial solutions for its customers. This change in the way the relationship with customers is approached is visible in the new policies and products launched by banks. Banks of the future will have to be deeply digital, and communicate with the new generations of customers in their own language, through alternative channels. For us, the stake is the customer's comfort in the long run, and digitalization is a process of permanent technological transformation. Hence where we get the assumed effort of OTP Bank România to understand and anticipate the needs of the customer and to give them exactly what they expect.

 According to Eurostat, Romania has the biggest governmental deficit in the EU
The hike of some taxes, in the near future, is unavoidable, according to economic analyst Aurelian Dochia.  His statement comes as, in the first quarter, the government's deficit has seen an increase over the last quarter of 2017, according to data by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat). 
The economic analyst told us the following, on Friday: "In order to overcome this situation, there are a few solutions. On one hand, we can try and attempt to control the budget expenses, but we can't work with any of these expenses, especially since 2019 is an electoral year, and the other solution is the raising of some taxes (that measure isn't popular in an electoral year, but I think that somewhere it will be done, regardless of whether it is towards the end of 2019, or in 2020, after the elections. It is hard to believe there is another solution".

BUCHAREST - NBR: Placing gold operations arbitrage or speculative involve counterparty risk and it increased with the crisis gloală said Friday Mugur Isăescu Governor National Bank of Romania (BNR), a conference of press. "The gold held by the central bank to the account opened at the Bank of England, which is a custodian solid financially and reputation is always our gold, so there is NETeller through various operations and is available to us at any time. Placing gold operations arbitrage or speculative involve counterparty risk and it increased with the crisis gloală. an eventual recovery by operations, as suggested in some discussion in the media, through television, would involve a form of alienation, even if stock would remain deposited with the Bank England ", said Isarescu.  "We have not considered that such a period is better to resort to such operations for gains that otherwise are small. Not worth, so to speak.   Not only that but I did not, at least not us has it occurred to play gold in păcănele as suggest a character. "

He referred to the Romanian gold held by the Russians. "I see that Hungary has repatriated gold abroad. Well Hungary has three tons of gold. They held abroad or kept them in Budapest was the same thing, why would not we increased our stock of gold, enough big as Poland? If we take into account that we have a gold stock stored elsewhere with the relevant documents, but still unrecognized, I think our stock of gold is high enough but we are ready to buy at competitive conditions to be hereinafter yellow metal. As a proportion of gold in total international reserves, are beyond the means ", said BNR governor.

   Mugur Isărescu, about NBR policies :
     - The decisions of the Board of Directors of the NBR have targeted the behavior of the monetary policy in the context of the significant and quick increase of inflation;
     - the lack of reaction of the NBR would have led to inflation expectations being tethered to a new higher level, because economic operators would have interpreted the lack of reaction from the NBR as a tacit acceptance of the new inflation level;
     - The risk of depreciation of the leu would have increased, which could generate new inflationary pressures, because the NBR can't fight the pressures of the monetary market regardless of the circumstances, especially if they are accompanied by a change in the perception by investors;
     - The hike of the annual inflation rate was generated first and foremost by exogenous, temporary and statistical factors;
     - The monthly price increases also reflect fundamental inflationary factors, such as the accumulation of inflationary pressures on the demand side, the increase of wage costs and increased inflationary expectations in the short term;
     - The measures passed by the NBR represent the only correct, justified and proportionate reaction to the inflationary threats and to the growing imbalances in the economy;
     - we share the point of view of a good combination between the monetary policy and the government's economic policy;
     - Inflation and the exchange rate represent symptoms of the quality of the mix of economic policies, and the chain of causes - budget deficit - current account deficit - weakening of the leu - inflation must be viewed as in correlation not just with the monetary policy, but with the government's fiscal-budgetary and tax receipts policy;
     - the full management of the aggregated demand by the NBR involves the more intense use of monetary policy instruments, which would generate a larger rise of the interest rate, because the use of macroprudential instruments, to reduce demand by compressing credit, is not enough;
     - a potential intervention on the exchange rate would not only prove unsustainable and would lead to the pointless loss of the currency reserves, but it would also affect the credibility of the central bank;
     - the situation in Romania is different from the one in Czech Republic, Poland or Hungary, as the inflation rate is within the targeted range (mostly due to some prudent budget policies), and the pressures are on the strengthening of the currencies, unlike Romania, where the pressures are towards its weakening;
     - the announcing of risks to the balances of the economy does not amount to expressing suspicions concerning the government's policy;
     - The NBR has opted to use the annual inflation rate because the ratio allows the ongoing observation of the inflation in relation to the target, and what the average citizen feels is more the CPI inflation, rather than the one calculated based on the Eurostat methodology;
     - the demand surplus is an unobservable size and it is justifiable its more cautious approach, because when its effects manifest themselves through inflation and foreign deficit it is too late for an effective action of the monetary authority;
     - Regardless of the level of surplus demand, its very existence requires a prudent economic management, which relies on anti-cyclical policies, and the pro-cyclical policies from the public authorities do nothing but deepen the imbalances;
     - In this context, the measures taken by the NBR had as their goal minimizing the risks of a eventual forced adjustment when the economic cycle enters a negative slope.

Un sondaj Europa FM despre cum percep românii Justiția și amestecul politicului în dosare. Sondajul comandat de postul de radio Europa FM arată că un referendum organizat de Klaus Iohannis pe tema independenței Justiției ar strânge o prezență considerabilă la vot. Președintele, preferat să numească procurorii șefi de parchete. „Ați participa sau nu la un referendum convocat de președintele României pe tema justiției?”, este una dintre cele mai importante întrebări cuprinse în sondajul realizat de IMAS, la comanda Europa FM. Aproape 37% au răspuns că ar participa cu siguranță, peste 15,5% au spus că probabil ar participa, iar cei care cu siguranță nu ar participa se numără într-un procent de 34,7%. În condițiile în care pragul pentru validarea referendumului este de 30%, un astfel de referendum ar trece ușor peste acest procent. O altă întrebare se referă la numirea șefilor de parchete - cine ar trebui să-i numească? Aproape 22% consideră că numirile ar trebui făcute de Consiliul Superiro al Magistraturii, 35,3% au răspuns că Președintele României, iar ministurl Justiției a strând doar 17,2%, conform EurActiv.