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Adriean Videanu

Adriean Marian Videanu (born 1 June 1962) is a businessman and former mayor of Bucharest, Romania. He is also a vice president of the Democratic Liberal Party of Romania, which was led by Emil Boc and the Minister of Economy in the Boc Cabinet, since 22 December 2008.

A businessman in the marble and granite industry, Videanu was elected mayor in early April 2005, gathering 53.01% of the Bucharest electorate's vote, but the turnout was the lowest since 1989, with only 24.83% of the voters turning up.

Starting with 2008 Videanu is under corruption investigation regarding a business with raw materials for constructions (i.e. curbstones). His own companies were involved in the scandalous affair of the "curbstonization" of the Romanian capital city, Bucharest. Many streets from Romanian capital were paved with new curbstones imported from China during the period of 2006–2008. The traffic was severely disturbed, dissatisfying Bucharest inhabitants. According to some preliminary data Videanu's companies obtained illegally 4 million euros from state funds.

On 29 January 2015 he was arrested for new corruption allegations.

He and his wife Mioriţa have two children, Andrei-Valentin and Diana-Alexandra.

Family origins and studies
Adriean Videanu comes from a family of wealthy farmers from the area of Videle, Teleorman. He has two brothers: Marian, born in 1958, international transports driver and Fănel, born in 1968, graduate from AES and PhD in economics.

In 1981, Adriean Videanu graduated from the High School of Mathematics - Physics no. 4 from Măgurele, near Bucharest. In the same year, he was admitted to the Faculty of Transport within the Bucharest Polytechnic, Department of Road Vehicles (AR), which he graduated in 1987. He performed a military service in a tank unit in Lipova (Arad County).

During the high school and college, he practiced volleyball for professionals (division B) and football for the Petrolul Videle team (division C) where he played 3 seasons.

Private life
Adriean Videanu has been married since 1987 to Mioara Videanu, born on August 12, 1963, in the commune of Grosu, Teleorman and graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies (AES) in Bucharest, with whom he was a childhood friend. Adriean and Mioara Videanu have two children: Andrei Valentin, born in 1990 and Diana Alexandra, born in 1992. Andrei Videanu was admitted in 2009 to George Washington University (GWU) in the US, where he studies economics. Diana Videanu was accepted in 2012 at the University College of London (UCL) in the United Kingdom, Department of Science & Innovation. The Videanu couple have lived in Bucharest since 1987.

Professional Activity before 1990
In 1987, after graduating from college, Adriean Videanu obtained an assignment as an engineer within the I.T.A.U. (Light Car Transport Company), a logistics unit within the structure of the General Petroleum Special Construction Constructions Trust (T.A.G.C.S.P.) Ploiești, where he worked by 1990. During these three years he travelled from Bucharest to the workplace. At that time under the Ministry of Petrochemical Industry, the T.A.G.C.S.P. was the most important Romanian construction and logistics company with specialized activities in the field of energy, especially oil and gas. Adriean Videanu became the head of the Transport department, then, the head of the local section of the Equipment and Transport Station (S.U.T.) within the T.A.G.C.S.P and was in this position at the time of the events of December 1989.

Political Start
In the spring of 1990, the National Salvation Front (NSF) has been prepared for parliamentary elections and looked for the young people with a university background and local notoriety. Cazimir Ionescu, the vice-president of NSF and of the Provisional Council of National Union (PCNU), responsible for Teleorman county, has address the related request to Adriean Videanu, known and appreciated locally especially for his football activity. At the age of 27, Adriean Videanu agreed to enter politics and was running for the first time as an MP on the NSF lists.

The founder member of the Democratic Party (DP)
During 1991, there were divergences within NSF between the wing that supports the acceleration of economic reforms, grouped around Prime Minister Petre Roman, and the one that militates for the extension of the state sector's presence in the economy, whose unofficial leader was President Ion Iliescu. Adriean Videanu was close to the first group and participated in March 1992 in the National Convention that enshrines the split between the two parties, following the fall of the Romanian government.

At the NSF Extraordinary National Convention of May 1993, the change of name of the NSF party to the Democratic Party (PD)was approved, Adriean Videanu was appointed the president of the youth organization and the party spokesman, positions he holds by 1996.

In 1996, he rose to the second echelon of the party, as secretary of the Executive Bureau, a body that became in 1997 NPB (National Political Bureau). During the governing of the CDR alliance where the Democratic Party was a part, Adriean Videanu was responsible for the party's image problems and relations with the press.

At the National Convention of the DP of February 2000, the same leadership was maintained around Petre Roman, categorized as a "club of barons", strongly used in polls due to his participation in the government. Adriean Videanu was reconfirmed as the executive secretary of NPB.

In July 2000, after Traian Băsescu's victory at the local elections in Bucharest, he became the coordinator of the DP Bucharest organization, which remained without a leader after the resignation of Nicolae Staiculescu. At the Extraordinary National Convention of the DP in May 2001, Petre Roman was replaced by Traian Băsescu.

In the new NPB elected in June 2001, Adriean Videanu was elected as a vice president in the first round, responsible for the party's image. From this moment, he became one of the most important leaders of the DP, representative of the new generation that came to power with Traian Băsescu.

In June 2005, after his name was circulated in the press for the DP leadership, the position finally belonged to Emil Boc, and Adriean Videanu became the executive president, a position he held by 2007, when the party merged with the Liberal Democratic Party led by Theodor Stolojan and the DP-L was created. Following this change, Adriean Videanu was elected the first vice-president of DP-L together with Theodor Stolojan, a position he held by May 2011, when he decided not to run and retired from the party leadership.

Coordinating the governance program of the DA alliance and promoting the single quota
During the campaign of the summer and autumn of 2004, Adriean Videanu was the coordinator of the governing program of the DA alliance from the DP. He was responsible for promoting it within the alliance and in the public space. The best-known measure of this program is the single tax rate of 16%.

In the fall of 2004, Adriean Videanu's name was circulated in the press and by some alliance leaders as the main option for the post of prime minister. In the formula initially negotiated, in case of victory, PNL was to propose the president, and DP the prime minister.

The MP of Teleorman in 5 legislatures
At the elections of May 20, 1990, Adriean Videanu was elected for the first time as the MP of Teleorman, from NSF.

At the elections of September 27, 1992, NFS for this time was formed a group around Petre Roman, obtained about 10% of the votes and entered the opposition. Adriean Videanu has won his second term as an MP for Teleorman. He became a member of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Banking of the Chamber of Deputies, where he collaborated with specialists such as Florin Georgescu or Florian Bercea, specializing in the field of macroeconomic and budgetary strategy.

At the Parliamentary elections of November 1996, Adriean Videanu was re-elected, this time by the Social-Democratic Union, an alliance created in 1995 around the DP. He worked in the finance committee of the Chamber of MPs. In March 2000, he was appointed as a secretary of the SRI control commission in the Chamber of Deputies of the DP.

At the parliamentary elections of November 2000, Adriean Videanu obtained the 4th consecutive term as deputy of Teleorman on the DP lists. He was elected as the vice-president of the finance budget commission of the Chamber of Deputies together with Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu from PNL, the president being the PSD deputy, Florin Georgescu.

As the vice-president of this commission, Adriean Videanu supported the tax relaxation and the increase of the added value in the export of Romanian products as well as the identification and encouragement of those sectors where Romania has real advantages.

In May 2003, he resigned from the Parliament, being according to the press the first MP who took this decision as a result of the adoption of the Law of incompatibility between the elective functions and those of director of companies. He was replaced by his deputy, Alexandru Mocanu. Re-elected deputy of Teleorman from the DP in November 2004, Adriean Videanu resigned after 2 months in the Parliament, following the appointment as deputy prime minister in the Tariceanu government, in which he was responsible for carrying out of the economic program.

The feedback of Traian Băsescu
At the local elections of June 2000, Adriean Videanu was one of the main organizers together with Liviu Negoiță and Vasile Blaga of Traian Băsescu's victorious campaign for the General City Hall of the Capital. He worked closely on the motion "Strong Romania - Social-Democratic Romania" with which Traian Băsescu won the Convention of May 2001, becoming the president of the PD. He was one of the 5 members who supported him in front of the general assembly of the party. During this period, Adriean Videanu was considered by the press as one of the main supporters of Traian Băsescu, a prominent member of the "young guard" promoted by the new president.

In his public speeches, Adriean Videanu supported the strategy of firm opposition launched by Traian Băsescu in 2001 against the PSDR government from 2000 to 2004. He became one of the main leaders and communicators of the party, which led, according to some press sources, to a cooling of the relationship with President Traian Băsescu, starting with 2002: “''Adriean Videanu started to grow in the party after the elections of 2000, with the arrival of Traian Băsescu to the DP leadership. His political evolution was in line with the strategy of the current head of state, which also led to a cooling of relations between the two. For a start, Videanu, responsible for the image and spokesman of the DP, had a deleted performance compared to his duties, because the message of force was transmitted by the party president''.” Thus, in July 2002, Adriean Videanu even had an attempt to withdraw from the party leadership.

During the campaign in 2004 for the general elections, Traian Băsescu publicly appreciated his success as an industrialist and businessman, and his experience in the real economy and international markets, which was interpreted by some media as a sign that Adriean Videanu would be at the DP's proposal a prime minister in case of victory. Finally, the PNL returned to the post of prime minister, and Adriean Videanu was appointed as a deputy prime minister and the minister of state responsible for economic activities.

According to some press sources, new tensions between the two has appeared starting with 2005, determined by certain changes that Adriean Videanu wanted to make at the Capital City Hall as well as by the internal competition for the DP leadership following Traian Băsescu's departure to Cotroceni. In this sense, Adriean Videanu would have been supported for the party leadership by some of the party leaders, especially by Liviu Negoiță, Vasile Blaga and Radu Berceanu. However, Emil Boc won and Adriean Videanu obtained the newly created position of the executive president. Other points of divergence would have been the promotion of the former head of the presidential chancellery, Elena Udrea, the breaking of the DA alliance or the collaboration with the Liberal Democratic Party led by Theodor Stolojan, Adriean Videanu being among the DP leaders who planned to postpone a political action of Democrats bu 2009 elections. According to the press, these tensions would have decreased in intensity with the attempt to suspend the president from office in 2007, when the DP leaders supported Traian Băsescu referendum campaign.

The Deputy Prime Minister in the Tariceanu government, responsible for the Coordination of Economic Activities
In December 2004, after winning the elections by the DA and Traian Băsescu alliance, Adriean Videanu resigned from the Parliament to be appointed the Minister of State and Deputy Prime Minister responsible for the Coordination of Economic Activities in the government led by Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. In this capacity he was appointed a chief negotiator with the IMF and the World Bank.

Adriean Videanu was considered by the press during this period as the main collaborator of Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu on economic policies. In his opinion, the priority was to increase the competitiveness of the Romanian economic environment in order to be able to meet the requirements of the European market, in the context of Romania's integration into the EU. "In vain we will insist on the automotive or steel industry, because we will never have a competitive advantage. This does not mean that we have to close them, but to create conditions for those who have technology and a market to come and produce in our country”. Adriean Videanu considers that one of the first industries that can be successfully developed in Romania is the agri-food industry. The resources they rely on are primarily investments and especially foreign ones.

In January 2005, Adriean Videanu proposed the generalization of the obligation to declare wealth, limited only to civil servants and public officials, in order to combat tax evasion and the accumulation of illicit assets. In his view, this would allow the tax administration to establish annually the concordance between the assets of the tax home and the declared income. However, the reform provoked controversy in political and public space and was eventually cancelled.

Shortly afterwards, Adriean Videanu decided to resign from the government to run in the local elections in Bucharest. Before resigning, however, he ended the round of negotiations and signed the new agreement between Romania and the IMF. Among the latest government decisions whose approvals are obtained are the establishment of the location for the People's Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest as well as the granting of funds for the construction of a high-capacity football stadium for the national team. This last project eventually gave birth to the Arena Națională stadium in Bucharest.

Start
In 1990, following the opening of the Romanian economy to private initiative and the free market, Adriean Videanu decided together with his wife to start an entrepreneurial activity. The decision was facilitated by the fact that Miorița Videanu, an economist at a furniture factory un by 1992, then was fully involved in the administration of family affairs. In 1996, she graduated M.B.A. of the I.N.D.E., an association between the A.S.E. from Bucharest and C.N.A.M. from Paris. According to their own statements, the first business of the Videanu couple was about trading in various products, including cotton and petroleum products. In 1991, they became censors and then associate of the ROCAS company from Albeștii de Muscel, Argeș, which dealt with the extraction of ornamental stone for constructions. Two years later, Adriean Videanu was among the associates of the SECON company from Roșiorii de Vede, established based on a loan approved by the French bank BNP Paribas. The company sell the petroleum products. In 1994, Adriean Videanu entered the capital of the PECON company of the same locality, which breeding the birds and pedigree animals. In 1994, the Videanu couple decided to start their own business from the scratch.

Titan Mar
In 1994, Adriean Videanu and his wife established the company SC Titan Mar Bucharest, which deals with the processing and distribution of natural ornamental stones, including marble. The economic model on which it is based involves the purchase of raw materials from manufacturing companies - at that time still owned by the state - to be then processed in-house and sold on the market. Beside the own capital, the Videanu spouses invested in the business a loan of $350,000 US dollars, obtained from Banca București. For credit, they guaranteed both the personal apartment and those of close relatives, including the wife's mother and of her aunt.

The funds were invested almost entirely in state-of-the-art technology purchased from Italy. Since 1997, the company has been exhibiting its products every year at the international trade fair in Verona (Italy), the most important in the field, where it has its own flag.

The Videanu couple run the company together by 2004, when Adriean Videanu retired so as not to be incompatible with the public positions he hold. During this period, Adriean Videanu dealt with the company's international strategy and marketing while his wife coordinated the administrative part and production.

Marmosim Privatization
Between 1994 and 1997, Titan Mar became one of the main processors and distributors of raw materials for Marmosim Simeria, a former supplier of marble products for Casa Poporului, which at that time operated 9 of the most prestigious marble quarries in Romania, the best known being the one from Rușchița. However, Marmosim's operating technology was outdated and the quality of the raw material was not always considered at the level of export requirements.

In 1997, FPS launched the process of selling the majority stake of 60%, the rest of the capital being held by other private investors. It was an international tender, where the specifications provide for the Romanian state to keep a registered control action. This, in Adriean Videanu's opinion, benefited the Romanian candidates, discouraging some foreign investors, distrustful of the local political and economic environment. The attractiveness of these companies was due to the fact that they keep in management the quarries they normally exploit, according to the Mining Act of 1998. In order to secure and qualitatively improve its supply of raw materials, Titan Mar entered this tender, being one of the 7 participants

However, Titan Mar did not have enough funds to launch itself in this operation. After several discussions with various funds, Adriean Videanu managed to negotiate the association with 2 specialized investment funds in Romania, RAEF (Romanian American Enterprise Fund) and RIF (Romanian Investment Fund) operating on the market since the early 1990s. The companies agreeded to contribute with the necessary capital and to leave the management of the company to Adriean Videanu and his wife and agreed to retreate when it was most appropriate. In 1998, Titan Mar won the auction for Marmosim. Its investment plan was considered the best: almost $14 million for a complete refurbishment of quarry operations and doubling export capacity.

Responding to various speculations on this issue, Adriean Videanu considered that he was not advantaged by the fact that DP was in the coalition that was then in power. According to his statements, however, he had to maintain discretion to ensure the success of the operation: “... ''I was extremely discreet with this operation. Precisely, this discretion can be interpreted differently. Many of my colleagues did not even know that if they had known, I might not have been able to buy Marmosim''.”

Marmosim - Titan Mar ensemble
In 1999, Marmosim's production was still 80% for the domestic market. Sales reach $1.2 million. The main exporting countries were Germany, Italy and Hungary. New opportunities were to emerge in the US and Hong Kong. Following a market study, exports were increasingly moving to warm and rich countries, where marble was a commonly used building material.

Marmosim - Titan Mar began to be known in the US, in the Middle East (Syria) and especially in the Persian Gulf countries, where since the 2000s participated in prestigious projects: the palaces of the sultans in Brunei and Oman, residential projects in Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates United and especially the large Palm Island residential project off the coast of Dubai a company was the exclusive supplier for Class A villas. In Europe, Marmosim retained its traditional EU markets (Germany, Italy, Belgium). The company involved in the construction of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's residence, the BBC headquarters in Mannheim and the villa of Michael Schumacher in Monte Carlo, among others.

In 2004, Adriean Videanu states that the cumulative annual turnover of Marmosim and Titan Mar reached approximately US$18 million. In 2007, 65% of Marmosim's production was destined for export. It is the moment when Marmosim was a successful privatization and Adriean Videanu was appreciated because he managed to modernize the company and oriented it towards export. This success, appreciated by the financial and business circles, recommended him as one of the main DP candidates for the post of prime minister at the elections of 2004.

Also in 2004, the 2 investment funds whose financial contribution over 6 years of partnership was equivalent to 64.5% of the capital of Titan Mar - Marmosim, decided to withdraw and look for a buyer. According to their assessment, the entire business worth about $15 million. Put in the situation of losing control and management of the business in case of the emergence of a new shareholder, Adriean Videanu finally managed to obtain a loan from Raiffeisen Bank in Vienna and to repurchase the shares. After this operation, Titan Mar made several capital increases that allowed to purchase from the Stock Exchange the packages from the minority shareholders. The economic crisis has also affected Marmosim-Titan Mar, especially since 2009, but export sales have withstood quite well in terms of diversification into less at-risk areas: Persian Gulf, Japan, Central Asia. In 2011, Marmosim and Titan Mar together recorded a turnover of 76.5 million RON, which represented 17.7 million Euros or about $23 million US dollars.

Other investments and ongoing projects
Titan Mar is the owner of a land of approximately 6 hectares in Bucharest, of the area September 13, on the site of the former Vulcan enterprise. According to media sources, the area could be the subject of a residential project that has not yet started.

Equity and management of companies
According to the data from the Trade Register, in September 2012, Adriean Videanu was a shareholder in the capital of Pecon SA, Secon SA, Equity Invest (brokerage) and Titan Mar. He was also the administrator of the Titan Mar company, together with his wife.

Personal wealth
Since 2002, Capital magazine considers Adriean Videanu as one of the top 100 richest people in Romania. In 2004, his wealth was estimated at US$30 million, when he was preparing to enter the Tariceanu government. The calculation was based in particular on the presumed value of the shares held by the Videanu spouses in the Titan Mar - Marmosim business.

However, the analysis of the 2 investment funds RAEF and RIF, made in 2004, when they decided to leave the Marmosim - Titan Mar business, indicates a value of only $15 million US dollars, of which almost two thirds belong to the funds.

In 2009, the same Capital magazine considers that Adriean Videanu's wealth would reach 200-220 million euros. The figure is based primarily on an estimate of the value of Titan Mar-Marmosim at the end of the economic and real estate boom period, including the land in Bucharest, the September 13 area in the Titan Mar patrimony.

However, in 2010, Adriean Videanu claims, responding to attacks from the media, that his personal wealth is not so big and that the press evaluations are too much exaggerated. Thus, the personal wealth of the Videanu spouses would not exceed 2 million euros, everything being found in his public declaration of wealth and income. The last public statement of this kind, that of Minister of Economy in December 2009, includes, among others, the shares held by the Videanu spouses in various companies, first of all Titan Mar, the real estate patrimony as well as the dividends obtained. He claims that media evaluations are exaggerated and prejudicial. Adriean Videanu declares on this occasion that he is ready to donate publicly any difference that would be found compared to his declaration of wealth.

"Unfortunately, things are not always true in everything that is said. Everyone says that Videanu has 200 million euros. Can I convince someone as long as the media said I have? If someone, and it is my public commitment, can prove that I have one RON plus to what is in the declaration of wealth, I will donate everything that can be proved to anyone in this country.” Adriean Videanu proposes that the wealth of politicians to be publicly verified both in terms of provenance and in terms of taxes and duties paid. "I do not agree with the politicians who hide behind their mother-in-law, behind their brother-in-law and currently have assets for which they cannot justify the origin of the money or the taxes and duties related to the wealth."

Media attacks
Until 2005, Adriean Videanu has a low notoriety but mostly positive. However, his arrival at the General City Hall of the Capital propels him on the first stage, in the attention of the public opinion and especially of the mass media. After the first year of his mandate, with the launch of major infrastructure projects, Adriean Videanu begins to be attacked in the written press and by the TV channels. Campaigns and attacks intensified in 2007 and 2008, as the works in the Capital increased in intensity.
 * "For Videanu, the" grace period "passes quickly, because, with the first works starting in 2006, the first controversies caused by the traffic blockade in the Capital has appear." "... Compared to a mayor like Traian Băsescu, Videanu's media presence is considered too modest, especially in relation to the scale of the announced projects. The Mayor-General's explanations that he does not have enough time for the media are not satisfactory."

The attacks come mainly on issues of a private nature, holidays spent abroad or the construction of a family home near Bucharest. To these is added the subject of "borders", where allegations of abuse and conflict of interest are serious and ultimately lead to the opening of a parliamentary inquiry and a civil lawsuit in court. However, this will prove Adriean Videanu right in 2011 by a final sentence.

The attacks and accusations continue during his term as Minister of Economy, making Adriean Videanu one of the most attacked politicians in the Romanian media. According to journalist Ioana Ene from ziare.com, Adriean Videanu is the object of a “populist media lynching” in 2010, due to the fact that he refused to pay “immunity” or advertising budgets to the media. Thus, the media trusts have attacked him, especially Antena 3 and Realitatea TV, would actually play into the political and private interests of their shareholders.

 * „...After they took away the places where he spends his holidays, presenting pictures from Mamaia as pictures from the Cote d'Azur, the valiant employees of S.O. Vantu also reached to the 1400 sq m villa which Mr. Videanu has finished near Bucharest ... Adriean Videanu is, indeed, a very rich man and he was very rich before he became mayor general of the Capital. He is a prosperous businessman who works in a field with great weight, both literally and figuratively: the exploitation and sale of marble and tiles. I don't know if you can get rich by selling pretzels, but surely marble has great potential ... What should really interest us at Adriean Videanu and all people of his financial caliber are completely different things. First of all, we should be interested in whether every penny of his wealth was made honestly, if for every penny taxes were paid to the state and if any penny of this wealth is the result of a detrimental contract for the state ... Journalists who attack him have no way to talk about the rope in the houses of their owners, including politicians, who can be attacked both in terms of interests and business with the state, and in terms of tax evasion found by ANAF. It is simpler and safer to attack populists with houses and cars that in themselves have nothing wrong.”

In a reply given to Realitatea TV in June 2010, Adriean Videanu, as Minister of Economy, publicly confirms his position not to pay for public funds.

 * "...This whole campaign to discrediting me does nothing but prove unequivocally that you have a problem in your relationship with me and I have always said: it is the fact that at the moment national companies no longer advertise. I tell you once again that national companies will no longer advertise to anyone...”

Adriean Videanu claims that he was personally subjected to some form of blackmail from certain media trusts and that the negative image they created is primarily due to his refusal to pay in order not to be attacked.

 * "In our country, it was allowed to create trusts and media bodies with a single majority, private shareholder, often with great interests in the national political and economic game, without a real counterpower to protect both public opinion and the injured. Many of these trusts are not impartial and take advantage of the audience they make through all sorts of emotional tricks, most of them through negative emotions, to practice political manipulation and blackmail. Their goal is not to inform, and the audience is not an end in itself but just a means to serve the interests of an individual or a group. It is a major problem of post-December Romania and it contributes a lot to the tensions in society. (...) Personally, I was subjected to this kind of blackmail and I refused to give it a go, considering that in the end it will be reflected objectively what you do in a certain position. I was wrong. If you pay it reflects, if not, no. And the campaigns that can be launched against you can be extremely dirty.”

Curb business
In 2007, Adriean Videanu's share of popularity was declining. The rupture of the Justice and Truth alliance in April and the opposition between PNL and PD accentuate the criticism on him. To this are added the difficulties caused by the numerous construction sites open simultaneously in the Capital, which make traffic difficult for months. Against this background, Cancan magazine published an investigation regarding the private vacation spent by Adriean Videanu on the French Riviera in the summer of 2007. In early February 2008, a few months before the local elections, "Financial Week", a magazine belonging to the media trust Intact Media Group stated that Titan Mar provided at least part of the street curbs that are placed in the Capital as part of the projects on restoration of road infrastructure. Adriean Videanu was accused of conflict of interest. The scandal took on a large scale, primarily in the media, and will last for several years, bringing Adriean Videanu the nickname "The Mayor of Curbs".

Adriean Videanu defended himself by showing that none of his companies have a contractual relationship with the City Hall and that all tender procedures have been followed by law. The general contractor working on the project being the one who selected his suppliers, he had the legal right to appeal, among others, to the company Titan Mar, one of the first suppliers of natural stone in Romania. It would have provided the curbs worth to 665,000 lei, respectively 1.62% of the total investment in this material, made by the Street Administration in the period of 2005 - 2007.

In 2008, a report of the Court of Accounts regarding the General City Hall of the Capital was published, which has revealed a series of possible irregularities, among others the price paid for a dog shelter located in Mihăilești commune. Following this report, a parliamentary inquiry commission was set up in the Senate, at the initiative of some DLP members. It was also to verify the allegations of conflict of interest. A civil lawsuit was filed against Adriean Videanu in 2008 at the Bucharest Tribunal, following a notification sent by the Court of Accounts. It also notified the DNA, which started its own investigation, while ANI verified the existence of a possible conflict of interests.

In May 2009, the Bucharest Tribunal did not hold any charges regarding a possible conflict of interest or other illegality in the "curb" business. Instead, the court retained two other issues in charge of the former mayor general: the purchase of land for dog shelter, which would not be in line with the mandate given by the CGPMB and the lack of recovery of the CAS from general counselors. According to this decision, which was not final, Adriean Videanu and 23 other officials of the Capital City Hall during this term should pay damages of approximately 5 million lei.

Adriean Videanu appealed and won the lawsuit in December 2011. The decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal was final and irrevocable. It is also confirmed by the DNA and ANI investigations, which, based on the complained received, did not reveal any illegality committed during the term of office of Adriean Videanu as General Mayor, including in the case of "the curve" business.

Controversies with Victor Ponta
In July 2009, during the governing of the PDL-PSD coalition, Victor Ponta, then Minister for Relations with the Parliament, began to publicly attack the Minister of Economy Adriean Videanu, his government colleague, for the changes made in the management of the Gorj branch of Hidroelectrica. According to some press sources, the controversy between the two would have had as a starting point the termination in the spring of 2009 of the contract of the company Șova și Asociații, close to Victor Ponta, with the Turceni Energy Complex. This was decided by the director of the complex, Ionel Manțog, Victor Ponta's old political opponent, appointed by Adriean Videanu without the consent of PSD. After PSD left the government in October 2009 and the election of Victor Ponta as a head PSD in February 2010, he began to attack Adriean Videanu more and more often and harshly at the TV shows or public statements, calling him a "thief" and "corrupt". In August 2010, Adriean Videanu sued Victor Ponta for slander.

After the installation of the Victor Ponta government in May 2012, Adriean Videanu became his "the most vocal critic", primarily in the field of economic policy. In June 2012, he publicly presented a critical assessment done by the PDL of the first month of SLU rule.

The "Hidroelectrica and the smart guys" business
Between June and July 2012, Victor Ponta launched various accusations of fraud against Adriean Videanu regarding Hidroelectrica, stating several times that the investigation bodies were notified and that "he is convinced that they will do their duty". The most important of these accusations is related to the signing and extension of the preferential commercial contracts of Hidroelectrica (also called contracts with "smart guys"), contracts for which Adriean Videanu would be responsible, in the opinion of Victor Ponta.

However, Adriean Videanu has shown that during his time as Minister of Economy, the company did not sign any such contract. According to his statements, they were signed especially in 2003 and 2004 by the PSD government, which also included Victor Ponta, then head of the Government's Control and Anti-Fraud Corps. The contracts had the terms 2013-2014 and, in the opinion of Adriean Videanu, they were drafted in such a way that their termination would be a deterrent for the Romanian state.

Between 2009 and 2010, when Hidroelectrica was in a particularly difficult economic situation, Adriean Videanu agreed to renegotiate the energy tariffs provided in these contracts. Thus, the company would have achieved in 2010 the best result in its history, with a profit of over 100 million euros. The tariff increase was negotiated in exchange for the extension of bilateral contracts after the period 2013 - 2014. However, the tariffs would have been ultimately aligned with market values due to the creation of the 2 national energy companies. According to Adriean Videanu, the reform would have involved both a change of legal entity and a change of product, the hydro energy being transformed into combined energy, which would have allowed an automatic revision of the contracts.

In response to Victor Ponta's accusations against him, Adriean Videanu pointed out that these would be insinuations without evidence and "unqualified pressure" from the Prime Minister on justice.

Regarding the insolvency procedure launched by the Victor Ponta government at Hidroelectrica, Adriean Videanu considered that this was a national strategic company and cannot be treated as "a company that sells slippers". The insolvency decision can induce "very large negative effects, implicitly lowering the company's rating, which would reduce access to credit." He accused the Executive of trying to sell the company in pieces.

Financial management at the Bucharest City Hall
In a public speech on September 12, 2012, Prime Minister Victor Ponta again accused Adriean Videanu of "serious irregularities" in financial management during his term as Mayor General of Bucharest. Thus, "these irregularities could close the Capital" being "very high debts" for which "prosecutors should look over these documents signed by the former mayor."

In reply, Adriean Videanu claimed that Victor Ponta's attacks have a political character. The bond issue that the Capital City Hall carried out in 2005 under its mayoral mandate, obtained the best possible interest rate, it being a normal way of financing for a capital in order to carry out large projects. The sums were used to achieve objectives such as the Arena Națională or the Basarab Overpass.

Privatization of Oltchim
A new accusation was launched on September 24, within the privatization of the Oltchim plant, where Adriean Videanu and a part of the press denounced the lack of professionalism of the government led by Victor Ponta. This time, the accusations launched by Victor Ponta refer to the fact that "Minister Videanu" allegedly violated in 2009 the "legal provisions" and "national interests" by promoting in the government a loan guaranteed by the Romanian state of 500 million euros for Oltchim, despite the opposition of SDP ministers. According to Victor Ponta, Adriean Videanu would have waited for the SDP ministers to leave the government to fulfill the "fraud procedure of the Romanian state". Victor Ponta stated again that "state institutions have been informed for a long time", but could not specify whether the Prosecutor's Office has started any investigation in this regard. "The responsibility must come and Videanu and all the others who participated in the fraud must answer, as they will probably have to answer in the case of the fraud of Hidroelectica and the other big Romanian companies." At the same time, Victor Ponta accused Adriean Videanu, whom he calls "the thief of thieves", of having an agreement with Dan Diaconescu, the winner of the tender for Oltchim, to "cover the frauds committed by PD-L in Oltchim".

Adriean Videanu, in turn, vehemently rejected these accusations, denying any agreement with Dan Diaconescu and calling Victor Ponta a "national mythomaniac" and "Bulă". He publicly has shown the memorandum of 2009 in which the members of the DLP-SDP government of that time, of which Victor Ponta was a member, signed the state credit guarantee for Oltchim. The measure was in his view economically justified and was a part of the plant's relaunch plan.

At the same time, Adriean Videanu declared that Victor Ponta is guilty of closing Oltchim and threatens to file a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office for attempting to undermine the national economy due to the poor management of the plant privatization by the Government.

title: Adriean Videanu


text:
Felipe de Marichalar y Borbón

Felipe Juan Froilán de Todos los Santos de Marichalar y Borbón, Lord of Tejada  (born 17 July 1998), widely known as Froilán, is the elder child and only son of Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo, and Jaime de Marichalar. He is the maternal-line grandson of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía of Spain, and the nephew of King Felipe VI. He is the paternal-line grandson of Amalio de Marichalar y Bruguera, VIII Count of Ripalda and Concepción Sáenz de Tejada, Lady of Tejada. He is fourth in the line of succession to the Spanish throne, after his cousins (King Felipe's daughters) Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofía of Spain and his mother, Infanta Elena.

He has a sister two years younger, Victoria de Marichalar y Borbón.

Birth and christening
Felipe de Marichalar y Borbón was born on 17 July 1998 at Ruber International Hospital in Madrid.

He was baptized on Sunday 4 October 1998 day of the feast of San Francisco de Asis and on the eve of San Froilán, patron of Lugo, the mass was celebrated in the audience hall of the Zarzuela Palace. The ceremony was officiated by Archbishop of Madrid. His godparents were his maternal grandfather, Juan Carlos of Spain, and his paternal grandmother, Concepción Sáez de Tejada y Fernández de Boadilla, Dowager Countess of Ripalda (1929–2014).

Early life
Until the age of twelve, he studied at the Colegio San Patricio in Madrid, but due to his bad grades (although without repeating academic courses), his parents decided that he should attend a boarding school in England. Froilán took a course at Cottesmore, a boarding prep school in West Sussex, to return the following year, in 2011, to Colegio Santa María del Pilar in Madrid, where he remained for three years. Two of these years were spent in secondary school (ESO); he had to repeat an academic course.

On 9 April 2012, Felipe de Marichalar accidentally shot himself in his right foot while he was on a farm of his father's family in Garray (Soria). His father had to declare to the Civil Guard because Spanish law forbade the use of firearms by minors under the age of 14. The judge dismissed the case against Jaime de Marichalar, considering it not gross negligence but a small misdemeanor.

At the beginning of summer 2014, he was admitted to the Sagrada Familia Episcopal College of Sigüenza, from which he graduated from ESO the following year. In September 2015, he went to the United States, to complete his high school education in 2017 at the Blue Ridge School college, in Saint George, Virginia in Greene County, Virginia, Randolph-Macon Academy, in Front Royal, Virginia, and at the Culver Military Academy. The tuition, which for each course amounted to $45,000, was paid for by his maternal grandfather King Juan Carlos I.

He then began his higher education studies, majoring in Business Administration and Management at the College for International Studies in Madrid, a Spanish Higher Education institution associated with Endicott College.

In 2022, he started being investigated by police in the wake of being involved in a brawl involving knives outside the Vandido nightclub in Madrid. In January 2023 it was announced that Felipe would be going to live in the United Arab Emirates with his grandfather, Juan Carlos I. Froilán will work for the ADNOC oil company, owned by the Minister of Advanced Technology of the United Arab Emirates, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber.

Titles, styles, honours and arms
He is styled as The Most Excellent Don Felipe Juan Froilán de Todos los Santos de Marichalar y Borbón, Grandee of Spain and Caballero Divisero Hijodalgo of the Illustrious Solar de Tejada

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Felipe de Marichalar y Borbón


text:
Tree conservation areas in Singapore

Tree conservation areas are large urban areas in Singapore in which no tree with a girth above 1 metre when measured 50 centimetres from the ground may be felled without permission from the National Parks Board.

There are currently two such areas, Central TCA (South Central of Singapore) and Changi TCA (Eastern Parts of Singapore).

Illegal felling of a Hopea sangal tree
On 20 November 2002, a large tree was chopped down by a property management company, DTZ Debenham Tie Leung. The tree in question was a Hopea sangal, or Chengal pasir tree, a rare tree reputed to have given Changi its name. In addition, the tree was standing in a tree conservation area, which forbids any unauthorised felling of a tree with a girth above 1 metre. The tree in question had a girth of 3.4 metres.

Public sentiment against the felling was high, and the courts imposed a S$8,000 fine on the company for the offence, which has a maximum fine of S$10,000. The company was also ordered to pay S$76,035 to the state in compensation for the felling.

Nature groups and concerned citizens were determined to ensure that this episode became a lesson to be learnt for others. In September 2003, the logs which has been cut down were recovered and transformed into sculptures. A major educational drive, called "The Hopea sangal Tree: Sculpture Symposium", was organised by The Sculpture Society (Singapore) in partnership with the National Parks Board and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and with the support of the Nature Society (Singapore) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, representing a government-NGO combined effort to raise awareness towards the conservation of trees.

Seeds recovered in September 2002 were grown in National Parks Board's Pasir Panjang Nursery. On 7 November 2004, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew planted a sapling in Hendersonville (between blocks 103 and 104), Henderson Crescent.

title: Tree conservation areas in Singapore


text:
User:Superwasabidave

Superwasabidave originates from South Africa. Created by computer whizz David Sherman, superwasabidave means super green mustard. Other names superwasabidave is known as: superwasabispacedog, superwasabi(minimalist)

title: User:Superwasabidave


text:
User talk:Fort Street Class of 1969

Drinking/Meeting place times Sydney - Darling Harbour first Friday each month at the Powerhouse Brewery..or elsewhere if someone offers a better alternative Canberra - second Thursday each month at the Akuna Club for lunch or at King O'Malleys in Civic from 5 pm Alice Springs - 5th Thursday afternoon at the todd River left bank underneath the acacia tree Brisbane - 3rd Friday each month at the Pig and Whistle Riverside, not the Queen Street Mall one

Ho hum diddly dum Steve Blinman in ydney 17th April..call him

April 16th: Didn't know I was going to be in Sydney tomorrow?? Thought I was supposed to be having lunch/couple of beers with a few other blokes & going to watch the Steelers play the Broncos. Will have to sack my social secretary. Thought I might have been up there yesterday but spent the last few days offloading some shares before the rush started. Going fishing down the coast for a few days on Monday while the world sorts itself out. Hope everyone's still well. Enjoyed the night. Regards Steve B

Ummm
Hi guys, sorry to break the news but Wikipedia isn't a free hosting service for personal pages. There are places like Livejournal for that. Wikipedia exists to build an encyclopedia. If that's not what you're here to do, you'll need to put your pages somewhere else. Isomorphic 04:30, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Don't take this wrong, by the way. We're not angry or anything.  It's just that this isn't what Wikipedia is for. Isomorphic 04:33, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Please read What Wikipedia is not and take this elsewhere. These sort of projects have no place on Wikipedia. The administrators may take appropriate action if this continues. Thank you. Inter\Echo 12:02, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikicities
Hi there. I noticed that someone (you?) deleted my previous comment. I don't want you to feel that you're being kicked out, because you're very welcome to contribute to articles we have here. But Wikipedia isn't the place to store articles about people in your class, and it would be mutually beneficial if you took this project elsewhere.

I know it probably looks selfish from your point of view, but Wikipedia really isn't the place to store those kind of articles. If you create your own project at wikicities, then you can create user accounts for each person in your class.

You can also store things in the main article namespace, and have a custom main page. If that doesn't appeal to you, then you can always set up mediawiki or something similar (like maybe a blogging thing?) on your own web server.

Pages like this have been deleted before, and I'd really prefer if we can come to an agreement regarding your page. Thanks. -Frazzydee|✍ 14:43, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a free host or webspace provider
I am restoring my deleted comment. Please note that What Wikipedia is not: You may not host your own website, blog, or wiki at Wikipedia. If you are interested in using the wiki technology for a collaborative effort on something else, even if it is just a single page, there are many sites (such as Wikicities, SeedWiki or Riters.com) that provide wiki hosting (free or for money). You can also install wiki software on your server. Wikipedia pages are not:
 * 1) Personal homepages. Wikipedians have their own personal pages, but they are used for information relevant to working on the encyclopedia. If you are looking to make a personal webpage unrelated to encyclopedia work (e.g. posting your resume), please make use of one of the many free homepage providers on the Internet.
 * 2) File storage areas. Please upload only files that are used (or will be used) in encyclopedia articles; anything else will be deleted. If you have extra relevant images, consider uploading them to the Wikimedia Commons, where they can be linked from Wikipedia.
 * See also: What wikipedia is and Importance for why your project has no place on Wiki. Simply - it is not important enough to be put in an encyclopedia. Of course, feel free to convince me otherwise. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 23:35, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi
In my previous emails to you, I had already raised my concerns that this project is not appropriate for Wikipedia.

I hope that you have found an alternative home for it - if you have any more questions, you are more than welcome to contact me again.

Enochlau 06:18, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Fort Street Class of 1969


text:
User talk:LockeShocke/Why did Socialism fail in early 20th century America

I love this page. This is exactly what Wikipedia should have more of. Next steps:
 * Put a copy of this (you can keep the original here, fairly safe from editing) in the main namespace at Socialism in the United States.
 * Format it to match standard article format; add an intro paragraph; make it slightly more NPOV; wikify with links to related articles; wikify the references section
 * Link to it from History of socialism
 * Update Socialism so it contains a clearn History top-level section, somewhere in the first three sections (and add a little Main article: History of socialism at the satrt of that section)

+sj +  12:26, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)


text:
Charging

Charging may refer to:

 * Charging (ice hockey), when a player takes more than three steps before checking an opposing player
 * Battery charger, a device used to put energy into a rechargeable battery
 * Charging station, a device used for recharging the battery in an electric car
 * On a timesheet, claiming time worked under a specific task or project code
 * Sending an invoice

title: Charging


text:
User:J0ana

could you please delete this user?

i created it without noticing i had already my principal one

thanks

ps do not talk with me or send me any messages through this page))))

i won't check it

--J0ana 12:27, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: User:J0ana


text:
Llanelli Star

The Llanelli Star is a Welsh regional newspaper covering the areas of Llanelli and Carmarthen in the county of Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is published on a weekly basis in a tabloid form. The newspaper is published by Trinity Mirror, the same company behind the South Wales Evening Post. In 2012, Local World acquired South West Wales Publications owner Northcliffe Media from Daily Mail and General Trust. Geoffrey Lloyd was the editor from 1965 to his death in 1986.

Office closure
In December 2017, it was announced that the Llanelli Star office in Cowell Street, Llanelli was to close down.

Editions
The Llanelli Star has a sister paper, the Carmarthen Journal. The Star was originally published on a Thursday, but both are now published on Wednesdays. The two papers have different formats and news content which varies by area.

The Llanelli Star covers the district of Llanelli and the Gwendraeth Valley where the Carmarthen Journal covers the town of Carmarthen and also the Gwendraeth Valley.

of the Llanelli Star

 * There are three editions of the Llanelli Star, the main Llanelli edition, the Burry Port edition and the Gwendraeth Valley edition which was re-launched in late 2011.

of the Carmarthen Journal

 * Town
 * Gwendraeth
 * Cardigan
 * Llandeilo
 * Lampeter
 * Whitland

title: Llanelli Star


text:
International economics

International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns and consequences  of transactions and interactions  between  the inhabitants of different countries, including trade, investment and transaction.

 * International trade studies goods and services flows across international boundaries from supply-and-demand factors, economic integration, international factor movements, and policy variables such as tariff rates and trade quotas.
 * International finance studies the flow of capital across international financial markets, and the effects of these movements on exchange rates.
 * International monetary economics and international macroeconomics study flows of money across countries and the resulting effects on their economies as a whole.
 * International political economy, a sub-category of international relations, studies issues and impacts from for example international conflicts, international negotiations, and international sanctions; national security and economic nationalism; and international agreements and observance.

Scope and methodology
The economic theory of international trade differs from the remainder of economic theory mainly because of the comparatively limited international  mobility of the capital and labour. In that respect, it would appear to differ in degree rather than in principle from  the trade between remote regions in one country. Thus the methodology of international trade economics differs little from that of the remainder of economics. However, the direction of academic research on the subject has been influenced by the fact that governments have often sought to impose restrictions upon international trade, and the motive for the development of trade theory has often been a wish to determine the consequences of such restrictions.

The branch of trade theory which  is conventionally categorized as "classical" consists mainly of the application of deductive logic, originating with  Ricardo's Theory of Comparative Advantage  and  developing into  a range of theorems that depend for their practical value upon the realism of their postulates. "Modern" trade analysis, on the other hand, depends mainly upon empirical analysis.

Classical theory
The theory of comparative advantage provides a logical explanation of international trade as the rational consequence of the comparative advantages that arise from inter-regional differences - regardless of how those differences arise. Since its exposition by David Ricardo the techniques of neo-classical economics have been applied to it to model the patterns of trade that would result from various postulated sources of comparative advantage. However, extremely restrictive (and often unrealistic) assumptions have had to be adopted in order to make the problem amenable to theoretical analysis.

The best-known of the resulting models, the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem (H-O) depends upon the assumptions of no international differences of technology, productivity, or consumer preferences; no obstacles to pure competition or free trade and  no scale economies. On those assumptions, it derives a model of the trade patterns that would arise solely from international  differences in the relative abundance of  labour and capital (referred to as factor endowments). The resulting theorem states that, on those assumptions, a country with a relative abundance of capital would export capital-intensive products and import labour-intensive products. The theorem proved to be of very limited predictive value, as was demonstrated by what came to be known as the "Leontief Paradox" (the discovery that, despite its capital-rich factor endowment, America was exporting labour-intensive products and importing capital-intensive products )  Nevertheless, the  theoretical techniques (and many of the assumptions) used in deriving  the H–O model  were subsequently used to  derive further theorems.

The Stolper–Samuelson theorem, which is often described as a corollary of the H–O theorem, was an early example. In its most general form it states that if the price of a good rises (falls) then the price of the factor used intensively in that industry will also rise (fall) while the price of the other factor will fall (rise). In the international trade context for which it was devised it means that trade lowers the real wage of the scarce factor of production, and protection from trade raises it.

Another corollary of the H–O theorem is Samuelson's factor price equalisation theorem which states that as trade between countries tends to equalise their product prices, it tends also to equalise the prices paid to their factors of production. Those theories have sometimes been taken to mean that trade between an industrialised country and a developing country would lower the wages of the unskilled in the industrialised country. (But, as noted below, that conclusion depends upon the unlikely  assumption that productivity is the same in the two countries). Large numbers of learned papers have been produced in attempts to elaborate on the H–O and Stolper–Samuelson theorems, and while many of them are considered to provide valuable insights, they have seldom proved to be directly applicable to the task of explaining trade patterns.

Modern analysis
Modern trade analysis moves away from the restrictive assumptions of the H-O theorem and explores the effects upon trade of a range of factors, including technology and scale economies. It makes extensive use of econometrics to identify from the available statistics,  the contribution of particular factors among the many different  factors that affect trade. One example of such an econometric model is the gravity equation. The contributions of differences of technology have been evaluated in several such studies. The temporary  advantage arising from a country's development of a new technology is seen as contributory factor  in one study.

Other researchers have found research and development expenditure, patents issued, and the availability of skilled labor, to be indicators of the technological leadership that enables some countries to produce a flow of such technological innovations and have found that technology leaders tend to export hi-tech products to others and receive imports of more standard products from them. Another econometric study also established a correlation between country size and the share of exports made up of goods in the production of which there are scale economies. The study further suggested that internationally traded goods fall into three categories, each with a different type of comparative advantage:
 * goods that are produced by the extraction and routine processing of available natural resources—such as coal, oil and wheat, for which developing countries often have an advantage compared with other types of production—which might be referred to as "Ricardo goods";
 * low-technology goods, such as textiles and steel, that tend to migrate to countries with appropriate factor endowments—which might be referred to as "Heckscher-Ohlin goods"; and,
 * high-technology goods and high scale-economy goods, such as computers and aeroplanes, for which the comparative advantage arises from the availability of R&D resources and specific skills and the proximity to large sophisticated markets.

There is a strong presumption that any exchange that is freely undertaken will benefit both parties, but that does not exclude the possibility that it may be harmful to others. However (on assumptions that included constant returns and competitive conditions) Paul Samuelson has proved that it will always be possible for the gainers from international trade to compensate the losers. Moreover, in that proof, Samuelson did not take account of the gains to others resulting from wider consumer choice, from the international specialisation of productive activities - and consequent economies of scale, and  from  the  transmission of the benefits  of technological innovation. An OECD study has suggested that there are further dynamic gains resulting from better resource allocation, deepening specialisation, increasing returns to R&D, and technology spillover. The authors found the evidence concerning growth rates to be mixed, but that there is strong evidence that a 1 per cent increase in openness to trade increases the level of GDP per capita by between 0.9 per cent and 2.0 per cent. They suggested that much of the gain arises from the growth of the most productive firms at the expense of the less productive. Those findings and others have contributed to a broad consensus among economists that trade confers very substantial net benefits, and that government restrictions upon trade are generally damaging.

Factor price equalisation
Nevertheless, there have been widespread misgivings about the effects of international trade upon wage earners in developed countries. Samuelson's factor price equalisation theorem indicates that, if productivity were the same in both countries, the effect of trade would be to bring about equality in wage rates. As noted above, that theorem is sometimes taken to mean that trade between an industrialised country and a developing country would lower the wages of the unskilled in the industrialised country. However, it is unreasonable to assume that productivity would be the same in a low-wage  developing country  as in a high-wage developed country. A 1999 study has found international  differences in wage rates to be approximately matched by corresponding differences in productivity. (Such discrepancies that remained were probably the result of over-valuation or under-valuation of exchange rates, or of inflexibilities in labour markets.) It has been argued that, although there may sometimes be short-term pressures on wage rates in the developed countries, competition between employers in  developing countries can be expected eventually to  bring wages into line with their employees' marginal products. Any remaining international wage differences would then be the result of productivity differences, so that there would be no difference between  unit labour costs in developing and developed countries, and no downward pressure on wages in the developed countries.

Terms of trade
There has also been concern that international trade could operate against the interests of developing countries. Influential studies published in 1950 by the  Argentine economist Raul Prebisch  and the  British economist Hans Singer suggested that there is a tendency for the prices of agricultural products to fall relative to the prices of manufactured goods; turning the  terms of trade against the developing countries and producing an unintended transfer of wealth from them to the developed countries.

Their findings have been confirmed by a number of subsequent studies, although it has been suggested that the effect may be due to quality bias in the index numbers used  or to the possession of market power by manufacturers. The Prebisch/Singer findings remain controversial, but they were used at the time—and have been used subsequently—to suggest that the developing countries should erect barriers against manufactured imports in order to nurture their own  "infant industries" and so  reduce their need to export  agricultural products. The arguments for and against such a policy are similar to those concerning the protection of infant industries in general.

Infant industries
The term "infant industry" is used to denote a new industry which has prospects of gaining comparative advantage in the long-term, but which would be unable to survive in the face of competition from imported goods. This situation can occur when time is needed either to achieve potential economies of scale, or to acquire potential learning curve economies. Successful identification of such a situation, followed by the temporary imposition of a barrier against imports can, in principle, produce substantial benefits to the country that applies it—a policy known as "import substitution industrialization". Whether such policies succeed depends upon the governments’ skills in picking winners, with reasonably expectations of both successes and failures. It has been claimed that South Korea's automobile industry owes its existence to initial protection against imports, but a study of infant industry protection in Turkey reveals the absence of any association between productivity gains and degree of protection, such as might be expected of a successful import substitution policy.

Another study provides descriptive evidence suggesting that attempts at import substitution industrialisation since the 1970s have usually failed, but the empirical evidence on the question has been contradictory and inconclusive. It has been argued that the case against import substitution industrialisation is not that it is bound to fail, but that subsidies and tax incentives do the job better. It has also been pointed out that, in any case, trade restrictions could not be expected to correct the domestic market imperfections that often hamper the development of infant industries.

Trade policies
Economists’ findings about the benefits of trade have often been rejected by government policy-makers, who have frequently sought to protect domestic industries against foreign competition by erecting barriers, such as tariffs and import quotas, against imports. Average tariff levels of around 15 per cent in the late 19th century rose to about 30 percent in the 1930s, following the passage in the United States of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. Mainly as the result of international agreements under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and subsequently the World Trade Organization (WTO), average tariff levels were progressively reduced to about 7 per cent during the second half of the 20th century, and some other trade restrictions were also removed. The restrictions that remain are nevertheless of major economic importance: among other estimates, the World Bank estimated in 2004 that the removal of all trade restrictions would yield benefits of over $500 billion a year by 2015.

The largest of the remaining trade-distorting policies are those concerning agriculture. In the OECD countries government payments account for 30 per cent of farmers’ receipts and tariffs of over 100 per cent are common. OECD economists estimate that cutting all agricultural tariffs and subsidies by 50% would set off a chain reaction in realignments of production and consumption patterns that would add an extra $26 billion to annual world income.

Quotas prompt foreign suppliers to raise their prices toward the domestic level of the importing country. That relieves some of the competitive pressure on domestic suppliers, and both they and the foreign suppliers gain at the expense of a loss to consumers, and to the domestic economy, in addition to which there is a deadweight loss to the world economy. When quotas were banned under the rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the United States, Britain and the European Union made use of equivalent arrangements known as voluntary restraint agreements (VRAs) or voluntary export restraints (VERs) which were negotiated with the governments of exporting countries (mainly Japan)—until they too were banned. Tariffs have been considered to be less harmful than quotas, although it can be shown that their welfare effects differ only when there are significant upward or downward trends in imports. Governments also impose a wide range of non-tariff barriers that are similar in effect to quotas, some of which are subject to WTO agreements. A recent example has been the application of the precautionary principle to exclude innovatory products.

Scope and methodology
The economics of international finance does not differ in principle from the economics of international trade, but there are significant differences of emphasis. The practice of international finance tends to involve greater uncertainties and risks because the assets that are traded are claims to flows of returns that often extend many years into the future. Markets in financial assets tend to be more volatile than markets in goods and services because decisions are more often revised and more rapidly put into effect. There is the share presumption that a transaction that is freely undertaken will benefit both parties, but there is a much greater danger that it will be harmful to others.

For example, mismanagement of mortgage lending in the United States led in 2008 to banking failures and credit shortages in other developed countries, and sudden reversals of international flows of capital have often led to damaging financial crises in developing countries. And, because of the incidence of rapid change, the methodology of comparative statics has fewer applications than in the  theory of international trade, and empirical analysis is more widely employed. Also, the consensus among economists concerning its principal issues is narrower and more open to controversy than is the consensus about international trade.

Exchange rates and capital mobility
A major change in the organisation of international finance occurred in the latter years of the twentieth century, and economists are still debating its implications. At the end of the Second World War, the national signatories to the Bretton Woods Agreement had agreed to maintain their currencies each at a fixed exchange rate with the United States dollar ($), and the United States government had undertaken to buy gold on demand at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. In support of those commitments, most signatory nations had maintained strict control over their nationals’ use of foreign exchange and upon their dealings in international financial assets.

But in 1971 the United States government announced that it was suspending the convertibility of the dollar, and there followed a progressive transition to the current regime of floating exchange rates in which most governments no longer attempt to control their exchange rates or to impose controls upon access to foreign currencies or upon access to international financial markets. The behaviour of the international financial system was transformed. Exchange rates became very volatile and there was an extended series of damaging financial crises. One study estimated that by the end of the twentieth century there had been 112 banking crises in 93 countries, another that there had been 26 banking crises, 86 currency crises and 27 mixed banking and currency crises, many times more than in the previous post-war years.

In making an influential case for flexible exchange rates in the 1950s, Milton Friedman had claimed that if there were any resulting instability, it would mainly be the consequence of macroeconomic instability, but an empirical analysis in 1999 found no apparent connection.

Neoclassical theory had led them to expect capital to flow from the capital-rich developed economies to the capital-poor  developing countries - because the returns to capital there would be higher. Flows of financial capital would tend to increase the level of investment in the developing countries by reducing  their  costs of capital, and the  direct investment of physical capital would tend to  promote specialisation and  the transfer of skills and technology. However, the eventual outcome of these policies was not what had been expected. Theoretical considerations alone cannot determine the balance between those benefits and the costs of volatility, and the question has had to be tackled by empirical analysis.

A 2006 working paper from the International Monetary Fund offers a summary of the empirical evidence. The authors found little evidence either of the  benefits of  the liberalisation of capital  movements,  or of claims that it is  responsible for the spate of financial crises. They suggest that net benefits can be achieved by countries that are able to meet threshold conditions of financial competence but that for others, the benefits are likely to be  delayed, and vulnerability  to interruptions of  capital flows is likely to be increased.

Policies and institutions
Although the majority of developed countries now have "floating" exchange rates, some of them – together with many developing countries – maintain exchange rates that are nominally "fixed", usually with the US dollar or the euro. The adoption of a fixed rate requires intervention in the foreign exchange market by the country's central bank, and is usually accompanied by a degree of control over its citizens’ access to international markets.

Some governments have abandoned their national currencies in favour of the common currency of a currency area such as the "Eurozone" and some, such as Denmark, have retained their national currencies but have pegged them at a fixed rate to an adjacent  common currency. On an international scale, the economic policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have had a major influence, especially upon the developing countries.

The IMF was set up in 1944 to encourage international cooperation on monetary matters, to stabilise exchange rates and create an international payments system. Its principal activity is the payment of loans to help member countries to overcome balance of payments problems, mainly by restoring their depleted currency reserves. Their loans are, however, conditional upon the introduction of economic measures by recipient governments that are considered by the Fund's economists to provide conditions favourable to recovery.

Their recommended economic policies are broadly those that have been adopted in the United States and the other major developed countries (known as the "Washington Consensus") and have often included the removal of all restrictions upon incoming investment. The Fund has been severely criticised by Joseph Stiglitz and others for what they consider to be the inappropriate enforcement of those policies and for failing to warn recipient countries of the dangers that can arise from the volatility of capital movements.

International financial stability
From the time of the Great Depression onwards, regulators and their economic advisors have been aware that economic and financial crises can spread rapidly from country to country, and that financial crises can have serious economic consequences. For many decades, that awareness led governments to impose strict controls over the activities and conduct of banks and other credit agencies, but in the 1980s  many governments pursued a policy of deregulation in the belief that the resulting efficiency gains would outweigh any systemic risks.  The extensive financial innovations that followed are described in the article on financial economics.

One of their effects has been greatly to increase the international inter-connectedness of the financial markets and to create an international financial system with the characteristics known in control theory as "complex-interactive". The stability of such a system is difficult to analyse because there are many possible failure sequences. The internationally systemic crises that followed included the equity crash of October 1987, the Japanese asset price collapse of the 1990s the Asian financial crisis of 1997 the Russian  government default of 1998 (which brought down the Long-Term Capital Management  hedge fund) and the 2007-8  sub-prime mortgages crisis. The symptoms have generally included collapses in asset prices, increases in risk premiums, and general reductions in liquidity.

Measures designed to reduce the vulnerability of the international financial system have been put forward by several international institutions. The Bank for International Settlements made two successive recommendations (Basel I and Basel II ) concerning the regulation of banks, and a coordinating group of regulating authorities, and the Financial Stability Forum, that was set up in 1999 to identify and address the weaknesses in the system, has put forward some  proposals in an interim report.

Migration
Elementary considerations lead to a presumption that  international migration results in a net gain in economic welfare. Wage differences between developed and developing countries have been found to be mainly due to  productivity differences which may be assumed to  arise mostly from differences in the availability of physical, social and human capital. Economic theory indicates that the movement of a skilled worker from a place where the returns to skill are relatively low to a  place where they are relatively  high should produce a net gain, although it would tend to depress the wages of skilled workers in the recipient country).

There have been many econometric studies intended to quantify those gains. A Copenhagen Consensus study suggests that if the share of foreign workers grew to 3% of the labour force in the rich countries there would be global benefits of $675 billion a year by 2025. However, a survey of the evidence led a House of Lords committee to conclude that any economic benefits of immigration to the United Kingdom are relatively small. Evidence from the United States also suggests that the economic benefits to the receiving country are relatively small, and that the presence of immigrants in its labour market results in only a small reduction in local wages.

From the standpoint of a developing country, the emigration of skilled workers represents a loss of human capital (known as brain drain), leaving the remaining workforce without the benefit of their support. That effect upon the welfare of the parent country is to some extent offset by the remittances that are sent home by the emigrants, and by the increased skill and education with which some of them return. One study introduces a further offsetting factor to suggest that the opportunity to migrate fosters enrolment in education thus promoting a "brain gain" that can counteract the lost human capital associated with emigration. However, these factors can be counterweighed on their turn depending on the intentions that remittances are used for. As evidence from Armenia suggests, instead of acting as a contractual tool, remittances have a potential for recipients to further incentivize emigration by serving as a resource to alleviate the migration process.

Whereas some studies suggest that parent countries can benefit from the emigration of skilled workers, generally it is emigration of unskilled and semi-skilled workers that is of economic benefit to countries of origin, by reducing pressure for employment creation. Where skilled emigration is concentrated in specific highly skilled sectors, such as medicine, the consequences are severe and even catastrophic in cases where 50% or so of trained doctors have emigrated. The crucial issues, as recently acknowledged by the OECD, is the matter of return and reinvestment in their countries of origin by the migrants themselves: thus, government policies in Europe are increasingly focused upon facilitating temporary skilled migration alongside migrant remittances.

Unlike movement of capital and goods, since 1973 government policies have tried to restrict migration flows, often without any economic rationale. Such restrictions have had diversionary effects, channeling the great majority of migration flows into illegal migration and "false" asylum-seeking. Since such migrants work in unskilled industries for lower wages and often zero social insurance costs, the gain from labour migration flows is actually higher than the minimal gains calculated for legal flows; accompanying side-effects are significant, however, and include political damage to the idea of immigration, lower unskilled wages for the host population, and increased policing costs alongside lower tax receipts.

Globalization
The term globalization has a variety of meanings, but in economic terms it refers to the move that is taking place in the direction of complete mobility of capital and labour and their products, so that the world's economies are on the way to becoming totally integrated. The driving forces of the process are reductions in politically imposed barriers and in the costs of transport.

It is a process that has ancient origins, which has gathered pace in the last fifty years,  but which is very far from complete. In its concluding stages, interest rates, wage rates and corporate and income tax rates would become the same everywhere, driven to equality by competition, as investors, wage earners and corporate and personal taxpayers threatened to migrate in search of better terms. In fact, there are few signs of international convergence of interest rates, wage rates or tax rates. Although the world is more integrated in some respects, it is possible to argue that on the whole it is now less integrated than it was before the first world war, and that many middle-east countries are less globalised than they were 25 years ago.

Of the moves toward integration that have occurred, the strongest has been in financial markets, in which globalisation is estimated to have tripled since the mid-1970s. Recent research has shown that it has improved risk-sharing, but only in developed countries, and that in the developing countries it has increased macroeconomic volatility. It is estimated to have resulted in net welfare gains worldwide, but with losers as well as gainers. .

Increased globalisation has also made it easier for recessions to spread from country to country. A reduction in economic activity in one country can lead to a  reduction in activity in its trading partners as a result of its consequent reduction in demand for their exports, which is one of the mechanisms by which the business cycle is transmitted from country to country. Empirical research confirms that the greater the trade linkage between countries the more coordinated are their business cycles.

Globalisation can also have a significant influence upon the conduct of macroeconomic policy. The Mundell–Fleming model and its extensions are often used to  analyse  the role  of capital mobility   (and it  was also used by Paul Krugman to give a simple account of the Asian financial crisis ). Part of the increase in income inequality that has taken place within countries is attributable - in some cases - to  globalisation. A recent IMF report demonstrates  that the increase in inequality in the developing countries in the period 1981 to 2004 was due entirely to technological change, with globalisation making a partially offsetting negative contribution, and that in the developed countries globalisation and technological change were equally responsible.

Opposition
Globalisation is seen as contributing to economic welfare by most economists – but not all. Professor Joseph Stiglitz of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University has advanced the infant industry case for protection in developing countries and criticised the conditions imposed for help by the International Monetary Fund. Professor Dani Rodrik of Harvard has noted that the benefits of  globalisation are unevenly spread, and that it has led to income inequalities, and to damaging losses of social capital in the parent countries and to social stresses resulting from immigration in the receiving countries. An extensive critical  analysis of these contentions has been made by Martin Wolf, and a lecture by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati has surveyed the debate that has taken place among economists.

title: International economics


text:
Talk:Church of the Lutheran Confession

Untitled
Link to CLCbookhouse appears to be broken. It is an accurate link, however. It appears that the CLC bookhouse site is currently down. --Lendorien 12:30, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC) Link appears to be working now. -- --Lendorien 13:24, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:CLC-logo.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 06:31, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Issue has been resolved. --Lendorien (talk) 15:16, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Talk:Personal Ordinariate
Apart from the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, the article should really consider verifying whether groups within the Church of the Lutheran Confession have ever sought a similar canonical structure to the proposed personal ordinariates. ADM (talk) 02:12, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Church of the Lutheran Confession


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Petershill F.C.

Petershill Football Club are a Scottish football club from Springburn in the north of Glasgow. Nicknamed the Peasy, they were formed in 1897 and are traditionally one of the stronger clubs at their level, although they have not been as successful in recent years as they have been historically.

They play at New Petershill Park: a modern stadium with a capacity of 2,000 including a 562 all-seated stand. Petershill currently compete in the. The colours of their strip are maroon and white.

An unrelated senior club also named Petershill operated in Springburn between 1877 and 1883 and participated in the early Scottish Cup seasons, before merging with Northern; the year of Northern's subsequent dissolution was 1897, the same as the formation of Petershill, albeit the club history does not mention any link to Northern, nor to Cowlairs, another former SFL team in Springburn which had folded in 1896.

The club share a healthy rivalry with Maryhill.

Current squad
(on loan from Clydebank)

Honours
Scottish Junior Cup
 * Winners: 1911–12, 1915–16, 1917–18, 1950–51, 1955–56
 * Runners-up: 1910–11, 1934–35, 1948–49, 1984–85

West of Scotland League
 * Conference C winners: 2021–22

Other Honours
 * West of Scotland Cup winners: 1951–52, 1957–58, 1968–69, 1995–96, 2006–07
 * Central League champions: 1932–33, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1951–52, 1955–56, 1963–64, 1968–69
 * Central League A Division winners: 1968–69
 * Central League Premier Division winners: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1989–90, 1992–93
 * Glasgow Junior Cup: 1903–04, 1912–13, 1933–34, 1943–44, 1949–50, 1954–55, 1960–61, 1964–65
 * Glasgow Dryburgh Cup: 1950–51, 1951–52, 1964–65
 * Central League Cup: 1973–74, 1974–75, 1991–92, 2009–10
 * Central (Beatons Coaches) Sectional League Cup: 1977–78, 1981–82, 1994–95
 * Evening Times Cup Winners Cup: 1991–92

Former players
1. Players that have played/managed in the Scottish Football League or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league). 2. Players with full international caps. 3. Players that hold a club record or have captained the club.
 * 🏴 Torrance Gillick
 * 🏴 James Greechan
 * 🏴 Alex Massie
 * 🏴 John McKenzie
 * 🏴 Benny Rooney
 * 🏴 Ryan Scully
 * 🏴 Willie Clark

title: Petershill F.C.