Europe

  France once took great pride in its position in Africa and its close ties with African countries, especially those in the francophone world. Yet over the past decade, those relationships have steadily deteriorated. The decline accelerated shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron took office in 2017. Remarks he made about African demographics and family […]

  by Tom Bugdalle and Moritz Pfeifer, Institute for Economic Policy, Department of Economics, University of Leipzig We revisit the euro’s promise of convergence through a new Divergence Monitor tracking business and financial cycle synchronization since the 1980s. Business cycles became more aligned after 1999, but financial cycles stayed volatile and split into persistent core–periphery […]

  When it comes to the global tech race, the European Union is so far behind it is not even near the racetrack. Lagging in almost every technological innovation category and falling behind global peers in high-tech manufacturing, the EU has turned, as usual, to regulation: local content rules (LCRs). These are supposed to save […]

  As the story goes, there are no free rides. The costs of each journey must necessarily be borne by someone. They can be broken down into three categories: the monetary costs related to the construction, maintenance and management of infrastructures; the monetary costs related to the purchase and use of vehicles; the costs that […]

  The world’s primary sponsor of terrorism is the regime in Tehran. Not only is it the force behind terrorism, it also seeks the total annihilation of Israel and its people, creates civil wars all over the Middle East, develops missiles and nuclear weapons for these purposes and brutally oppresses its own population. Just two […]