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Avatar photoPeter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger is professor of economics at Würzburg University and a former member of the German Council of Economic Experts.

Madrid Has the Cure for Trump-Era Energy Shocks

Peter Bofinger

Spain's heretical VAT cut tames inflation—a model for Europe as Trump's tariffs and Middle East shocks bite.

Germany’s Middle-Technology Trap: Industrial Policy Blindness and the Path Out

Peter Bofinger

Germany's faith in free markets has left it squeezed between China and America — but a defence-spending loophole offers unexpected hope.

Germany’s Misguided War on Baby Boomers

Peter Bofinger

A prominent economist's attack on an entire generation ignores economic facts and threatens social cohesion.

Europe’s Euro Ambition: A Risky Bid for “Exorbitant Privilege”

Peter Bofinger

Christine Lagarde seeks a greater international role for the euro, but Europe's economic realities present a complex challenge.

Germany Ditches Debt Brake—A Fiscal Revolution Begins

Peter Bofinger

Germany scraps its debt brake, unleashing a 500-billion-euro investment plan that could transform infrastructure, defence, and economic growth.

Capital-markets union: a panacea for Europe?

Peter Bofinger

Financial integration is not the problem, writes Peter Bofinger. It is the still national segmentation of government bonds.

Time for supply-side policy: Thatcher versus Schumpeter

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger explains what lies behind the conflict within Germany’s Ampelkoalition on economic policy.

ECB: now is the time for normalisation

Peter Bofinger

Europe needs massive investment, Peter Bofinger writes. Yet the ECB’s restrictive monetary stance means it is set to fall this year.

Germany: the ‘sick man’ of Europe—but ‘dumb’ as well?

Peter Bofinger

The austerity package stemming from an adverse Constitutional Court ruling, Peter Bofinger writes, defies logic.

Germany’s true economic disease

Peter Bofinger

Germany is indeed ‘sick’, Peter Bofinger writes—but not for the reason most commentators think.

ECB president Lagarde: has she become unstoppable?

Peter Bofinger

Asserting the need for further interest rate rises, Peter Bofinger writes, is not the same as evidencing them.

The failure of Credit Suisse—not just a one-off

Peter Bofinger

The bank was mismanaged but its collapse, Peter Bofinger writes, reveals a system of regulation with as many holes as a Swiss cheese.

The role of public debt in the ‘new normal’

Peter Bofinger

A Schumpeterian perspective provides new insights for fiscal policy in Europe, Peter Bofinger writes.

The digital euro: a flawed concept doomed to flop

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger argues that on the ‘digital euro’ the European Central Bank has dug itself into a hole it would do best to vacate.

A noble award for a ‘popular misconception’

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger questions last week’s award of a prestigious economics prize to an orthodox school which could not anticipate the 2008 crash.

Inflation: saving households from insolvency

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger argues that state guarantees of loans to households could cushion the price shock at negligible cost.

Return to positive interest rates requires a safety net

Peter Bofinger

Peter Bofinger explains how inflation in the eurozone can be tempered without jeopardising recovery.

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ETUI Advertisement

New Edition - Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2025

Can Europe preserve its distinctive social model while simultaneously rearming, reindustrialising, and reorganising its economy in a more conflictual and competitive world? This is the central question raised in this new edition of the Bilan social, a reference publication released every spring for more than 25 years by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Social Observatory (OSE).

READ HERE
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Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, host Mary McCaughey and senior researcher Eszter Sandor unpack the results of the 2025 Living and Working in the EU e-survey. While headline inflation has stabilised at 2.1%, the data reveals a continent gripped by chronic precariousness, with 57% of respondents now at risk of depression. Mary and Eszter explore how this economic insecurity is impacting institutional trust and democratic engagement.

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Read the book "The open future and its enemies" 

A robust democracy must not leave the future in the hands of the alliance between Big Tech and the far right. AI must be politically reined in and democratically shaped so that humanity retains its sovereignty.

Artificial intelligence is regarded as the driving force of progress. Yet it has long since become a challenge to democracy. The book argues that uncontrolled AI will erode our freedom, self-determination and democracy.

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WSI Minimum Wage Report 2026

Minimum wage policy across Europe has shifted significantly, with many EU countries raising wages above average and anchoring them to adequate living standards. This trend is consolidating as countries increasingly adopt the reference values recommended in the European Minimum Wage Directive — recently upheld by the European Court of Justice.

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S&D Group in the European Parliament Advertisement

S&D Africa Days 2026

We are pleased to invite you to save the date for the S&D Africa Days 2026, taking place on 30 June and 1 July 2026, in Brussels. 

At a time when Africa is too often viewed through narrow and one-sided narratives, this initiative reflects a key political priority for the S&D Group: to advance a renewed, forward-looking partnership of equals between Europe and Africa based on equality, solidarity, social justice and shared progress. 

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“What is the actual purpose of the state?” – this central question is the focus of the analysis. At a time when bureaucratic processes are making life difficult for citizens, the paper proposes a three-part model. It aims at a conception of the state as a platform that helps society build the capabilities it needs to address its problems effectively.

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