Trump’s Tragedy of Errors
Trump’s unchecked Iran war is wrecking supply chains, reigniting inflation, and deepening a global affordability crisis.
Economy
Analysis and debate on the European economy: growth and investment, fiscal and monetary policy, trade, industry and inequality.
China’s Overcapacity Problem Is Europe’s Problem Too — But Not in the Way You Might Think
Bernhard Tröster, Simela Papatheophilou and Werner Raza
As Beijing acknowledges its own overcapacity problem, new research reveals a more complex and more enduring threat to European manufacturing.
The World Needs an Oil Buyers’ Club
Isabella Weber and Gregor Semieniuk
As the world is plunged into another energy crisis, market allocation is leading to grossly unjust outcomes, as the rich outbid the poor.
Europe Is Losing Its Industry To China’s Second Shock
Surging Chinese exports, a sliding renminbi and a depleted European industrial base are colliding — and Brussels has run out of time to respond.
Beyond Affordability: Why an Economy Built Only for Consumers Fails Everyone
Progressive politics has rediscovered affordability, but an economic agenda that ignores the dignity and quality of work is only half a strategy.
Fiscal Consolidation Costs Europe Jobs and Deepens Inequality
Philipp Heimberger and Anna Matzner
New research reveals that EU fiscal tightening reduces output, raises unemployment, and widens income gaps — especially during recessions.
Deregulating Workers’ Rights Will Not Save European Industry — It Will Only Deepen the Crisis
Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès
Blaming labour protections for factory closures is not industrial policy — it is avoidance dressed as reform.
The Digital Omnibus: Eroding Worker Protection and Rights
The European Commission’s “simplification” package is, in fact, a deregulatory intervention that weakens workers’ data rights.
Will the European Union Protect Workers from Deadly Heat?
Marouane Laabbas-el-Guennouni, Andreas Flouris, Sergio Salas, Sebastian Schneider, Marike Schooneveldt, Ivan Ivanov and Dimitra Theodori
Current legal frameworks leave workers dangerously exposed; only a binding directive can close the gaps.
Should Comparative Economics Still Exist?
Branko Milanovic asks whether we should continue to teach comparative economic systems to broaden students’ horizons, or if the global ubiquity of capitalism renders such historical study obsolete.
AI Note-Takers at Work: The Silent Threat to Privacy and Compliance
AI transcription tools promise efficiency but bring legal exposure, surveillance risks, and threats to fundamental rights.
Romania’s Tiger Economy Is Running Out of Fuel
Jeffrey Sommers and Cosmin Marian
The EU’s fastest-growing economy of the past two decades risks stalling unless it dramatically increases its rock-bottom spending on research and education.
Germany’s Middle-Technology Trap: Industrial Policy Blindness and the Path Out
Germany’s faith in free markets has left it squeezed between China and America — but a defence-spending loophole offers unexpected hope.
Industrial Policy 2.0: The Service Sector Path to Shared Prosperity
We must address climate change, inequality, and poverty simultaneously, but prevailing economic approaches are failing; solutions lie in an updated, experimental industrial policy focused on green and productive service job
Europe’s Industrial Crisis: Invest Now or Accept Decline
Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès
Across 18 sectors, only aerospace and defence remain globally competitive—Europe must abandon naivety and act decisively.
After Landmark EU Court Judgement: The EU Minimum Wages Directive Is Alive and Kicking
Torsten Müller and Thorsten Schulten
The landmark ruling validates the directive’s approach to adequate wages and collective bargaining, dealing only minor setbacks to its implementation across Europe.