Essays & News

  Recent developments in politics, economics and social cohesion are troubling for Europe. France is on the brink of bankruptcy, with deficits still around 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Other countries – including Germany – are not much better off when one considers not only the official debt but also implicit debt. Implicit […]

  In July, JPMorgan Chase announced its decision to start imposing fees on fintech companies for access to customers’ bank account data. The largest lender in the United States sent out pricing sheets to data aggregators (intermediaries linking banks with fintech platforms), detailing new fees that vary by use case. Payment-focused startups will likely incur higher charges, […]

  Over the past two decades, the European Union has experienced deindustrialization (a reduction in industrial capacity), partly due to the shift of manufacturing overseas, which has created strategic vulnerabilities. This issue is particularly pronounced in essential sectors such as batteries, semiconductors, renewable energy, aerospace and defense. The Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine […]

  The 30th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) will be held this November in Belem, Brazil. The global climate summit will review progress and possibly intensify efforts to address climate change. While the detailed agenda has not yet been released, three issues are […]

  After United States President Donald Trump’s bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, a summit was held in Washington, D.C., with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the leaders of major European countries, NATO and the European Commission. The staging of these meetings was already significant. Alaska, once Russian territory, sits where the U.S. meets geographically with […]