Romania, just like the US and even the EU have escaped the economic crisis. It is a mistake to still call "crisis" the issues which the countries of the world are having right now ... perhaps because analysts are thinking simplistically, or due to the lack of adequate words - in particular in Romanian - to define what is happening in the world right now. I hope that the media and the analysts will stop talking about the European and implicitly about the Romanian crisis as quickly as possible and they will focus on the issues concerning the redefining of the economic thought and practice on a global level.

In my opinion, we are talking about a TOTAL change of the economic models, of the structures and the way the economies operate. We are talking about a new relationship between risk and return - one where volatility will be much higher than it was in the past, and the notion of "risk free' will become a mere economic utopia - a necessary redefining of the concept of ratings - sovereign, local authority or company - a change of the approach of the rating of an entity. Financial institutions will need to adjust their capital, and therefore their operations, lending and investment policies, as well as the compensation policies (especially when it comes to management). This is the reason why I wrote total in all caps: almost nothing of the "old economic and financial order' is left standing today. The reformation of the capitalist economic system will be profound and it stems both from the appearance of the "new economy' as well as from the world's demographic changes and the problems of the social-democratic political systems in Europe.

Thus, we must learn to talk about and to search for ways to adapt to this new economic model (which is not yet structured and will probably be defined in the coming years). From this point of view, 2012 will be critical