Essays & News

Following the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, policymakers unintentionally created a regulatory gap that gave nonbanks – enterprises without a banking license that are allowed to offer some banking services – a considerable competitive advantage over banks. It is a problem that is now coming back to haunt them. Fifteen years ago, all eyes were on […]

As the NATO summit starts in Vilnius, just next door, in Belarus, Russian tactical nuclear weapons are being deployed, and there is uncertainty over the presence of the notorious Wagner Group militia units there. So, as Western leaders such as United States President Joe Biden, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and all other NATO leaders […]

While the U.S. and the euro area appear to have avoided the worst, much depends on how central banks will react to unanticipated news in the coming months.   Inflation is still high, but under control – or so the world of business and financial markets believes. In the euro area, year-on-year consumer prices rose […]

The EU’s latest AI draft legislation risks stifling innovation in Europe and opens the door to misuse by governments. The European Parliament has recently endorsed preliminary legislation referred to as the AI Act, geared toward the regulation of artificial intelligence. Much like the financial industry’s regulations, this legislation adopts a “risk-based approach.” This method prioritizes areas […]

   … ein äusserst kunstreich erdachtes, mit fablehafter Kombinationskraft in zahllosen Gedankenetagen aufgebautes, mit bewundernswerter Geisteskraft zusammengehaltenes  –  Kartenhaus. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914)   Take Away Although pushed into the wastebin of economic theories more than 100 years ago, Marxism much more than any other ‘ism’, is liable to recurrent fads and the periodic rediscovery […]