Nothing makes me feel more relaxed than when the president of a country is going on TV saying shit like “The government literally doesn’t know what it’s doing and the entire economy is in meltdown.” Continue reading A Complete and Total Clusterfuck
The other day, my wife and I watched The Big Short about the collapse of the American economy in 2007-2008 (known in Romanian as the criza financiara). She was having trouble following the plot, and so she fell asleep. I’d already read the book (it’s fantastic) and so I managed to stay awake. But afterwards, it got me to thinking. I doubt very few Romanians … Continue reading How A Few Bankers Fucked Romania
With the IMF in town and the majority of the country against them, the sinister coalition led by Pavel “Mr. Midnight” Filip is putting a brave face on things. Yesterday the parliament published yet another piece of worthless paper. My translation: The document laid out by the Moldovan legislature states their intention to promote reforms demanded by their development partners [foreign financiers], to consolidate the … Continue reading High and Deep in Moldova
It’s no secret that I have almost zero respect for Romanian journalists and bloggers. But I am starting to get a serious writer crush on Moldovan journalist Vitalie Calugareanu, who has been writing (literally!) the only decent analysis I’ve seen anywhere in the Romanian language on what’s going on in the Republic of Moldova. Because his latest article is so good, I decided to translate … Continue reading En Garde, IMF!
You know, in the diplomatic world, you’re always supposed to discuss even the most contentious issues with poise and equanimity. But earlier this week, special rapporteur to the Republic of Moldova, one Lithuanian politician named Petras Austrevicius, couldn’t control himself. The European official hinted in this context that Brussels monitors the situation from the Republic of Moldova and is not influenced by the cases and … Continue reading Petras Auštrevičius Loses His Cool
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