Pandemic economy vs. wartime economy

The current crisis brings to the front some of the most serious problems, which in times before the crisis managed to remain hidden. The crisis is a mirror, which shows us how serious are the things which we avoided taking into consideration: the lack of capacity to produce locally simple things, such as surgical masks or disinfectants; the lack of capacity to cooperate more closely on a European level, so that the states which are plagued by the pandemic could bring their diseased to less affected countries to receive treatment; the lack of serious investment in the military medical system, which could allow rapid interventions in critical conditions.
The people in Romania today deal with pseudo topics – whether it is good to have pictures of doctors imitate the style of Orthodox Christian icons, whether somebody wants to take the northwestern part of the country away, whether 5G antennas kill birds, and similar pseudo debates which limit our capacity to pay attention to more serious matters.
In the conditions of a pandemic, we managed to shine a spotlight on these important issues with the economist Cornel Ban – professor at the Copenhagen Business School. The interview dealt with the topics of industrial conversion, air ambulances as a solution for COVID-19 patients’ treatment, the Romanian workers who went to work on farms in Western Europe. It also deals with the role which the military could play in confrontation, not only with a viral enemy, but also its own conceptual limits in contributing to democratic society.


Photo: Cornel Ban (source: YouTube)
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