Enrico Colombatto

  Over the past decades, Western governments have frequently been at loggerheads with big business. Officials argue that efficiency requires tech companies to spread high fixed costs on large quantities of output to exploit significant economies of scale. This situation, they claim, makes it difficult for new firms to enter the market. Thus, lack of […]

  European nations have never been able to develop a credible joint military capability. In 1954, France torpedoed the attempt to establish the European Defense Community (outlined in the 1952 Treaty of Paris), and NATO has remained the only common defense umbrella. It is based on American resources and equipment plus American, French and British […]

  As the first-half mark of this decade approaches, global policymakers are striving to project optimism. Growth rates are low but still positive, they say. Central bankers created inflation but have largely succeeded in taming it. Job vacancies are soaring, and unemployment rates are nothing to worry about. Finally, in many advanced countries, public indebtedness […]

  The United States economy has had a good run. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth is encouraging (2.5 percent in 2023 and more than 3 percent during the last 2023 quarter), and the February 2024 price inflation rate was down to 3.2 percent  – higher than expected but still a commendable result. The labor market is […]

Europe’s economy has recovered from the dislocations and restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the overall picture remains disappointing. During the past decade, the average annual growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) in the European Union was about 1.5 percent, and preliminary estimates for 2023 are below 1 percent. Some believe that the […]