What the newspapers say: March 7, 2008

Romanians are extremely profitable workers, the latest studies reveal, and this may be the explanation for the recent wave of announced investments in Romania. On the other hand, there is nothing more profitable than decorating an entire city through your own companies, when you are the mayor of that city. Even though this means no one trusts you anymore…

His Majesty King Michael I of Romania is the fourth most trusted man in Romania, with 22.6% of the general trust, behind president Basescu (45%), Liberal-Democrat second leader Theodor Stolojan (29%) and controversial football and real estate mogul Gigi Becali (23%). Still, the King is well ahead of the Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana (20/3%), former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase (19.8%) and the Prime Minister in seat, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu (17.8%), Evenimentul Zilei informs.

The IMAS poll quoted by the newspaper does not refer to Bucharest Mayor Adriean Videanu. Gandul may have an explanation: it is hard to bring Videanu and the concept of trust together in the same phrase, since the newspaper calculated a 4 million euro profit for Videanu since he is the main man in the Bucharest administration. 157 kilometers of street borders imported from China by Videanu’s companies for 50 RON per meter were sold on the market for 150-200 RON per meter.

Evenimentul Zilei has some good news after all: there is room for some general growth of salaries. In Romania, employers win 1.4 euro for each euro invested in an employee, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study reveals, compared to an European average of 1.1. The difference comes from the cheaper labor force in Romania, PwC officials explained.

Politicians, on the other hand, know that one must spend money to make money. For example, the Democrats, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Conservatives spent 22 million RON in the European elections campaign… not much, but almost 9 million RON more than they officially gathered through donations and subscriptions, Gandul reads.