Bucuresti
Though, it must be said, that often the financial assistance of the State was required by the need to avoid the collapse of the financial system since there are no viable alternatives. Moreover, the commercial banks seek to limit damage during recession by more rigorous selection criteria as far as their customers are concerned. In terms of individual rationality of the banks, their behavior seems natural, especially since they are in a process of "deleveraging", of recovery of their balances by seeking to increase their capital as a share of the held assets and liabilities.
Moreover, what seems rational at individual level, may be worse in terms of systemic perspective, when, for example, the credit crunch hits the real economy unduly. This dispute could be observed in Romania as well (in fact the interest rates charged by banks have been controversial for many years). Non-banking businessmen criticize the local financial institutions for their very high interest rates, well above the ones in most EU countries. It is true that the exchange rate fluctuations, as well as the requirements of the national bank, are a very good explanation for the behavior of the commercial banks.
However, we have a decreasing inflation, a dramatic reduction in the current account deficit (from 1.5% in 2008 to probably about 5% this year) and funding from the IMF, World Bank and European Commission shows that Romania no longer faces a foreign exchange constraint of the intensity felt in the second part of 2008 and the first half of 2009. It is true that the process of improving public finances system will be extremely difficult, that it will take time, which will cause uncertainty to persist.
But, all in all, they will always remember the high interest margins, which do not help the recovery of local economy. Commercial banks are at the intersection of two contradictory interests. They want to improve their balance sheets by avoiding the assumption of new risks deemed unacceptable. The Vienna Agreement (between the government, the NBR, the private banks and the foreign donors) has tried, moreover, to mitigate the inclination to withdraw liquidity from the country.
But there is another logic behind that as well, which says that if the banks important on the Romanian market don't serve their clients in this period it is like they would be shooting themselves.
• Translated by Sorin Balan
Pentru procurorul Vasile Pavel, de la Parchetul Tribunalului Bacău, arestarea şi trimiterea lui Nicolae Ţigaret în judecată, pentru omor calificat şi tentativă la omor deosebit de grav, au marcat un salt consistent în carieră. A sărit pe scara ierarhică până pe treapta de sus: procuror general al Parchetului de pe lângă Curtea de Apel Bacău. Acum, dosarul instrumentat cu patimă de procurorul Vasile Pavel a devenit un... rebut al justiţiei. Inculpatul lui a fost achitat, succesiv, de trei instanţe de judecată, inclusiv Curtea Supremă. Iar ambiţiosul acuzator îi datorează unui nevinovat fix: un an, o lună, o săptămână şi o zi din viaţă. Adică perioada în care l-a lipsit de libertate. Pentru asta, Nicolae Ţigaret va cere acum, în instanţă, socoteală statului român. Dar pentru faptul că a construit un dosar din probe măsluite, exercitându-şi profesia cu rea credinţă, îi cerem noi socoteală procurorului Vasile Pavel. Exemplul pe care vi-l relatăm este o pildă despre cum nu trebuie făcută o anchetă şi despre ce nu ar trebui să facă niciodată un procuror.
Dumnezeu prin puterea Lui a pus în "raniţa" fiecăruia dintre noi "bastonul" idealului de perfecţiune. Pentru a desăvârşi această poruncă nescrisă, noi trebuie doar să alegem cele bune şi drepte şi să adoptăm principiile de viaţă care să ţină viu în trupul şi sufletul nostru chipul Lui.
În "Marele singuratic", Marin Preda revine la biografia personajului Niculae Moromete, pe care-l conturase deja de la primul volum al "Moromeţilor", înfăţişându-i tinereţea şi iubirea târzie. Este, până la un punct, un roman recuperativ şi sintetic.
