from our blog (http://imagsts.wordpress.com): Political Innovations in Romania Now there's some words you wouldn't expect to find together in a search. Years after the fact it was admitted that the Romanian government had supplied false statistics to the UN in order to qualify as an undeveloped country, which meant extra aid and preferential treatment in trade. Although it turns out there were clear signs in the [relatively] true statistics years earlier, the Romanian economy started obviously declining in 1976. One consequence of stopping education for virtually everyone over 17 is a temporary surge in manpower and a trailing increase in demand for consumer goods. Eventually, there were both skilled labor shortages that dramatically decreased production and increasing difficulties in obtaining consumer goods. After probably 20 years of growth, oil output began to decline - Romania actually had to import oil. Several very new and very large petrochemical plants built with borrowed money coming on line meant Romania had to buy high-priced foreign oil and try to operate its export-oriented logistics system in reverse. Low rainfall caused a drought (obliging the government to import food, notably bread, meat, fruits, and vegetables) as well as lower electricity production. Natural-gas projects encountered a variety of problems. World-wide, interest rates were spiking, which was a financial catastrophe for cash-borrowing Romania. The most obvious blow was on March 4, 1977, when Bucharest and surrounding towns were by slammed by a Richter 7.2 earthquake. This was very similar to the Vrancea earthquake of 11/10/1940 and much stronger than the Richter 5.9 (centered about 100 miles NNE of Bucharest) of 10/27/2004.