INTERVIEW WITH NICOLAIE HOANŢĂ The bankruptcy of countries (or the bankruptcy of a myth)

Reporter: Is the current crisis more severe than the one of 1929-1933?

Nicolaie Hoanţă: The current crisis, which he have dubbed since the beginning, the Great World Financial Crisis (because it is money, finance that is at stake), even if it does have some similarities with the one of "29-"33 (it is the result of the concerted actions of the international finance and it is intended to create a new world order and to concentrate more and more power and money in the hands of its members), it is still however less severe than the one of "29-"33, at least because of the following reasons:

> it is also affecting the public finances of the states themselves, with the goal of dismantling the myth that states can"t go bankrupt, while at the same time placing a fiscal/financial burden on the citizens of the world using a new method (aside from the traditional one of raising the price of everything, including credit);

> it is a lot more sophisticated (one of the "insiders" of the ones who are responsible for this crisis, just as they are responsible for all the others in the history of the world, was talking in 2009-2010 about the odds of this crisis being W-shaped in order to make it more difficult to discern), in a world with more awareness or at least more information than the one of "29-"33;

> it spans a far wider area from a geographical point of view, because what is at stake is the accomplishment of the total globalization, in other words attracting the Arab world, rich in mineral resources (especially oil and gas) and which, in the manipulative opinion of international finance, are eager to "apply" the democracy that the former is proposing (becoming part of the consumerist motion, and adjusting to borrowing and to the volatility of money and earnings);

> because of the far greater stake (or stakes), this Great World Financial Crisis seems to last longer and to have caused greater losses, (overall, in terms of the number of people that were affected) than the one of "29-"33 (for instance, take the signals of the Fed which has announced, in an unprecedented move, that it will maintain interest rates at the current lowest levels for two more years).

Reporter: What is your view on Romania"s situation under these circumstances, given the international context and the evolution of the domestic economy?

Nicolaie Hoanţă: Romania is now more than ever in the clutches of the IMF, the EU and the World Bank, which the international finance resorts to in order to impose what it wants. After having allowed us, just like it did other states, to have our way spending public money, and even private funds, it has now grabbed it by the throat and it dictates our every move. In the current and the future international context, Romania will have major difficulties, for at least three reasons: (1) first of all, it doesn"t have an economy that can absorb the foreign shocks (it would be very interesting to discuss the characteristics of our economy) and that would allow it to pay off its debt, (2) it has sold all of its vital assets (for a dime), (3) is severely short on domestic capital and is heavily dependent on foreign capital, which is now more volatile and more indifferent than ever to Romania"s domestic needs. The sacrifices that almost all of the country"s citizens have been unfairly subjected to, because the blame lies with all of the Romanian politicians who have had anything to do with the government, and who were irresponsible in their behavior, will not be enough, even if there are attempts to gain political capital on the basis of these sacrifices. This is also proven by the measures which were recently announced by the Government: maintaining public sector wages and pensions unchanged for the next two years, as well as those concerning the reduction of the number of employees in the public sector.

Reporter: How would you describe the European banking in its current state, given the sovereign debt crisis?

Nicolaie Hoanţă: I have no data (and nobody does, aside from the heads of the international finance) when it comes to the exposure of the international banks based in Europe to the financial derivatives and other sophisticated financial products intended for individual or institutional scams. What is certain is that, since 2007 when the Great World Financial crisis began, the whole truth was never disclosed about the breadth of the ensemble of operations and "toxic assets" used in the scenario of the crisis. But let"s not worry about the international banks, because we"ll see the fall of whichever player is set to fall, when the time comes for it to happen. What we should worry about is the shocks that will be felt by the entire world through the international financial-banking channels. We can say that right now, the European banking system basically doesn"t exist, at least not in the manner that European bankers define it, since the heads of the "elite" European states are the ones calling the shots on which measures to take in order to keep it alive to an extent (at least for appearances" sake, because it is the rulers of the international financial system that make these decisions). Since the international banking system also bears the blame for the sovereign crisis, perhaps the palliatives used, whether justified or not, that the leaders of the main European countries resort to, are insufficient, and the taxpayers feel this and gave begun to react.

Reporter: Is there a danger of the Eurozone disappearing? What is Romania"s position in this area?

Nicolaie Hoanţă: Anything is possible, even the disappearance of the Dollar zone, if the people who control the money of the world were to decide so. Since both the US and the EU are artificial constructions, admittedly created in different moments, and in different manners, by the same international finance, why wouldn"t any scenario concerning the global currency be possible? Given the ambitions of the government and of the NBR, Romania is placing itself in the Eurozone, which it is adamant about joining, even though it receiving an increasing number of signs that it shouldn"t push its luck on the matter. On the other hand, with an economy which is nothing more than an appendix of the EU economy (more of a buyer of EU products than anything else), Romania doesn"t really have a choice. If the Eurozone (and implicitly the EU) were to collapse by the time Romania adopted the Euro, then so would the ambitions of those living off this strategy.

Reporter: How solid is the Romanian banking system, given the fact that its profit fell to 95 million lei, from 373 million lei in March?

Nicolaie Hoanţă: The NBR has provided the answer to this question, and will continue to do so, as they are the only ones who have the ability to know, more or less, the truth about the solidity or the fragility of the Romanian banking system, as the world financial crisis continues to rage. Perhaps another facet of the answer to this question can be deduced from the recent meeting of the head of state with the head of the government and with the governor of the NBR. Finally, another dimension of the answer needs to be sought in the analysis of the extent of the exposure of foreign owned banks and of the financial issues that their parent banks and countries are facing.

Reporter: What is your most optimistic scenario for the coming years? And what is your most pessimistic scenario?

Nicolaie Hoanţă: I still stand by my opinion, which I expressed in the beginning of the year, in another interview I gave to your newspaper, that there is no point in fooling ourselves that things are going to get any better before 2015-2016. In fact there are signs that not even other people, who are way too proud of being the citizens of powerful Western countries, will do so well in the coming years, not even Americans, who have been deceived by exaggerated consumerism in order to be more easily manipulated. The best scenario for our economy for the near future (2015-2016), is that we will succeed in avoiding default, as well as continuing to follow this line of imposed sacrifices, which were reintroduced by the Romanian governments after the ones our predecessors had to bear between 1929 and 1933. The worst alternative would be "the Greek scenario", or more accurately, the scenario that has been prepared for them (and most probably for others as well).