How the market is betraying advanced economies
The idea that ‘the market’ must be the organising principle for collective decision-making should be abandoned.
Does Zuzana Čaputová’s victory signal a new politics in Slovakia?
Zuzana Čaputová emerged as the winner from Slovakia’s presidential election. Although viewed as a step away from populist and nationalist politics, the battle for the country’s political future is only just beginning.
Modern monetary theory: the dose makes the poison
Can government deficits be financed directly by central banks, as modern monetary theory suggests? The question should not be if but how much.
The future of manufacturing—is it in Europe?
Europe can remain a manufacturing hub if it ensures early adoption of game-changing technologies, engages with global supply chains and manages the green transition.
The sustainability imperative—how really to assess the European economy
The European Semester process of macroeconomic country analysis by the European Commission has been driven by economic orthodoxy in support of austerity—when sustainability should be the watchword.
Emissions inequality—a gulf between global rich and poor
When it comes to responsibility for global greenhouse-gas emissions, some are more equal than others.
The new spirit of postcapitalism
Capitalism emerged in the interstices of feudalism and Paul Mason finds a prefiguring of postcapitalism in the lifeworld of the contemporary European city.
‘Full and good employment’ and reviving the European ideal
The logic of a Euro-Keynesian recovery, towards socially useful full employment, leads inexorably to a rediscovery of wider European political ambition.
Normalising fascism in the EU
Uproar followed comments by the Italian president of the European Parliament in qualified praise of Mussolini. They raise big questions about the direction of the European centre right.
PiS attacks LGBT+ rights in Poland, as elections loom
Amid simmering social discontent and with the Catholic Church wracked by sex-abuse scandals, Poland’s clerical-nationalist party is exploiting homophobia to drive a wedge into the opposition.
Memory, myth and ‘post-truth’
In the era of 'post-truth', history isn't what it used to be—which makes solving the problems of the present so much more difficult.
Can data-labour unions break the monopoly capture of data?
Karin Pettersson begins a series of Social Europe columns by arguing it’s time to rethink ‘free’ data as the product of labour.
EU competition policy: a more holistic approach needed
The European Commission looks at mergers only through the narrow, consumer-price lens of its competition policy. The wider public interest is not being served.
Restoring trust in Europe—wage rises and workplace democracy
Flatlining wages, denial of workplace voice and precarity are undermining trust in Europe—and assisting the siren calls of the populists.
Without solidarity, democracy is lost
If Europe’s democratic architecture is cracking, it is because its foundations are weakening. Solidarity is one of them.
Beyond identity politics and culture wars—a new universalism
We used to demand peace and love—now we demand no discrimination and no hate. Why did we lower our ambitions?
The apogee of capitalism and our political malaise
At the heart of the crisis of trust in politics lies the corrosion of public service by the ethos of private gain.