More than two-thirds of humanity now live in countries where fertility has fallen below the level needed for a stable population. This fundamental demographic shift is transforming economies, raising ...

This Finance survey examines: A bipartisan bill to cap credit card interest rates at 10% has been introduced recently in the House and the Senate: https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/...

Over half a century ago, futurist Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock predicted a transformation to super-industrialism: population explosion, information overload in daily life, and hordes of nomadic w...

On 2 December 2025, the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee announced it would be lowering the capital requirement for UK banks. This column argues that higher macro-financial risk and sharply reduced fiscal capacity point to a need for higher rather than lower bank capital requirements. The most likely practical effect of this weakening of resilience will be higher payouts to bank shareholders, rather than increased lending to the real economy.

YouTube video by Brookings Institution

Positive indications for the performance of services continued to support €-coin, which also benefited from signs of recovery in the construction sector.

Unpacking “creative destruction”

Some unacknowledged truths about money

The US – once the principal architect and guarantor of the rules-based international system – now actively challenges the institutions and norms it created. While policies are evolving, the second edition of the CEPR book, “The Economic Consequences of the Second Trump Administration”, reveals that the direction of travel is unmistakable: towards a world with higher trade barriers, weaker institutions, and more fragile growth.

Europe’s long-term prosperity depends on its ability to generate and absorb disruptive innovation. This column argues, however, that the European Commission’s proposed 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework continues to prioritise large, highly prescriptive, and administratively complex collaborative schemes, and that there is little evidence that such grants foster disruptive innovation. The grants boost recipients’ short-term revenues but shows no long-term impact. Nearly half of the current grant programme is allocated to existing ‘mid-tech’ companies. EU innovation policy needs to shift from supporting established firms to funding bold, bottom-up ideas, especially from small, independent companies.

Europe’s future growth and democratic stability depend on universities stepping up their innovation game

Various adjustments to Britain’s tax and benefit system have created sharp spikes in marginal tax rates. Some families take home less than 40p of each extra pound they earn, blunting incentives to…

The Brunel Centre and Futures West session on their latest policy paper

The UK’s referendum vote to leave the European Union (EU) was followed by an increase in race and religious hate crime of 15-25% in England and Wales. Hate crime is defined as ‘any criminal offence wh...

Economists and experts from around the world debate the key economic questions of our time.

From the Enlightenment to today’s ‘tradwives’, three books look at the tension between production and reproduction

The Prime Minister is facing a crisis of contempt among his own MPs

This week’s IGM European Economic Experts Panel statements: Selecting candidates for membership of the ECB Executive Board based primarily on nationality ahead of competence is likely to have a negati...