Lucian Croitoru conducts in-depth syntheses depicting Romania’s path across time, during these hectic years marked by successive sweeping changes. At the same time, the author makes point-by-point analyses as well, which reveal a sophisticated economics thinker. A remarkable paper on monetary policy […] therefore every respected analyst should take it into consideration.
MUGUR ISĂRESCU

This book emerged from the author’s preoccupation with certain aspects of monetary policy that were seldom a topic of discussion prior to the crisis outbreak in July 2007. The paper includes a succession of individual studies about: (1) inflation and the liquidity trap; (2) the Eurozone and its difficulties; (3) the speculative attack on the leu and the central bank’s reputation; (4) the unemployment rate and monetary policy.
Most of these aspects are approached out of the practical need to change some points of view — considered faultless until recently — and refer both to the Romanian economy, and to the global economy.
Looking back to the crisis that changed the human society, we will find in these pages some answers to the questions regarding the conduct of monetary policy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LUCIAN CROITORU was born in 1957, in Otopeni. He graduated in 1982 from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, with a degree in Economic Cybernetics and Planning. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the same university in 1995. Afterwards, he gained fresh perspectives from post-graduate studies abroad, at the Economics Institute in Boulder, Colorado (1993), the Centre for Central Banking Studies in London (1999) and at the Joint Vienna Institute, IMF (2001). In October 1994 he undertook a research visit at London School of Economics and Political Science — Centre for Economic Performance — and Oxford University, sponsored by the British Academy.
Since 1998, he has been Associate Professor of International Macroeconomics at the School for International Business and Economics within the Bucharest University of Economic Studies.
Over the years, he has been a researcher, partner in various educational & financial programs, and consultant for leading Romanian organizations (Institute of Industrial Economics, Bucharest Investment Group, European Institute of Romania) and international institutions (USAID, IRIS).
During 2003–2007, he worked for the IMF in Washington as Senior Adviser to the Executive Director for Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, the Netherlands, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and the Ukraine.
Lucian Croitoru held, in 1991–1995, an Expert position at the Department for Economic Reform of the Romanian Government. Then, in 1998, he was Senior Adviser to the Minister of Finance. In 2000, he was the personal Adviser to Prime-Minister Mugur Isărescu. In 1998–2003 he was Senior Adviser on Monetary Policy to the NBR Governor (a position he regained after returning from Washington). He is a member of the NBR’s Monetary Policy Committee.
He wrote many articles in Romanian and English in the printed and online media. He is at times invited in TV shows on economics and regularly speaks at national and international conferences. He has published several books on economics over the years.
In 1995, he received the Petre S. Aurelian Award of the Romanian Academy for “the Best Book on Economics”. In 2011, he was the proud recipient of the CFA Romania Award for the research paper titled “Three Unemployment Rates Relevant to Monetary Policy”. In 2013, the present book was awarded the “Eugeniu Carada” Prize for Economics jointly granted by the National Grand Lodge of Romania and the Romanian Academy. In 2000 he became a Commander and then in 2010 Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Romania.