The European flaw
July 17, 2025The level of American household debt is at its lowest in 50 years. But how is this possible, you might ask, in an alarmist context where politicians and analysts keep sowing panic about the unsustainability of U.S. deficits? The equation is simple, and I’ve been emphasizing it for years: public deficits generate private surpluses. In…
Central Banks: The Hidden Engine of European Rearmament
March 9, 2025In 2015, during a joint NATO exercise, German soldiers were faced with such a severe weapon shortage that they had to replace unavailable machine guns… with broomsticks. Ironically, their leader at the time, Ursula von der Leyen, now President of the European Commission, is now trying to embody the continent’s “rearmament” ambitions. Talking about money…
Central Banks: The New Weak Link in Our System?
February 22, 2025The European Central Bank announces a loss, the largest since its creation, of 8.3 billion euros for the 2024 fiscal year. By choice, or by lack of rigor, it has paid to banks interest rates far too high in relation to the returns on the various bonds that it holds. At the current stage we…
The ECB: Both a Solution and a Problem for European National Policies
June 24, 2024The European Union is repeating the same mistakes the United States made during the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s. Europe needs fiscal stimuli and budget deficits. Unemployment and the decline in purchasing power are not the result of “budgetary indiscipline,” but rather stem directly from weak demand. This lesson from the…
How do we escape Europe’s purgatory?
March 7, 2021There are good reasons to fear the future of Europe – and to fear for the future of Europe – when a moderate and deeply pro-European figure like Clément Beaune launches what is basically a petition in Les Echos, as he did on March 3rd. But let’s be real, because the old timers who…