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In this paper I analyze how the literary magazines in the early years of Romanian post-communism began to update their strong anti-communist position with a series of doubts concerning capitalism. It was not about capitalism per se, which inspired a rather favorable perception, but about the austerity measures imposed after 1989 during the transition from the communist centralized market to the post-communist free market. Given its generosity toward financing the literary superstructure, the communist regime began to be reconsidered in a rather favorable light when compared to the financially decompressed post-communist present. The inherent comparison between the "generous" communism and the austere capitalism triggered an ideological tension relevant for the postcommunist Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]