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What a year!
Europe’s reckoning in a new and unpleasant world. The end-of-year Bureau conversation was devoted to a look back on a turbulent past 12 months marked by intense geopolitical shifts where the existing US-led world order felt increasingly hollowed out. Long-held assumptions about European security and prosperity are breaking down, forcing urgent, transformative decisions on defence, economics and Europe’s place in a multi-polar world. Thus, a moment of reckoning has come for Eu

Karl Pichelmann


Trump's economic warfare: doubling down ahead?
The first Bureau conversation after the summer break took the form of a free-flowing economic tour d´horizon. Inevitably, the discussion...

Karl Pichelmann


Geo-financial risks in the new world disorder
Before the Bureau’s summer recess, the conversations in June and July 2025 touched upon various geo-economical aspects of present-day...

Karl Pichelmann


Making sense of all that trumpery: trying to escape from Triffin’s dilemma?
Within its first two months, the new Trump administration has attacked US institutions, alienated trade partners and allies, decimated...

Karl Pichelmann


The good hegemon has gone astray.
The Bureau conversations in February and March 2025 were devoted to the question how to navigate the geopolitical and global economic...

Karl Pichelmann


Fasten your seatbelts: Trump 2.0 unleashed
The Bureau conversation discussed the outcome of the US presidential elections and the likely political and economic implications of...

Karl Pichelmann


Policy Pivot, Rising Threats: The IMF World Economic Outlook
The Bureau conversation discussed the IMF World Economic Outlook released on October 22. In a nutshell, the global battle against...

Karl Pichelmann


A new Rodrik Trilemma haunting the global economy?
The Bureau conversation discussed the spectre of a new trilemma haunting the world economy as put forward by Dani Rodrik in a recent...

Karl Pichelmann


The revival of interventionist economic policies: a farewell to the neoliberal era?
The Bureau conversation examined the implications of the recent widespread embrace of industrial policies, tariffs, and subsidies, and...

Karl Pichelmann


United in Diversity!?
Perennial tensions in the EU integration process. This lecture given at the University of Economics in Vienna offers a whirlwind tour of...

Karl Pichelmann


The new EU fiscal framework: a typical compromise deal
The envisaged reform of the fiscal rules gives EU Member States greater independence on agreeing debt and deficit plans with the European...

Karl Pichelmann


A perspective on labour market developments
A contribution (in German) to a book on social democratic positions and perspectives. Arbeitsmärkte im Spannungsfeld demographischer,...

Karl Pichelmann


Devil takes the hindmost? A banking crisis déjà vu.
The Bureau conversation took up the current turmoil in the banking sector looking into the causes and origins of recent bank failures,...

Karl Pichelmann


Settling for "a new macroeconomic normal"?
The Bureau conversation discussed the likely features of "a new macroeconomic normal" following the inflationary shock in the wake of the...

Karl Pichelmann


Record low unemployment: a seismic shift in labour markets?
Participants in the Bureau conversation discussed recent developments in the labour market and medium-term prospects, with some...

Karl Pichelmann


"Gear up for a loss of at least 5% in material consumption!"
The Bureau conversation centred around the contention of an inexorable decline in domestic material consumption possibilities in the...

Karl Pichelmann


An inevitable recession ahead?
The first Bureau conversation after the summer break took the form of an economic tour d´horizon. The lead speaker alluded to the...

Karl Pichelmann


The spectre of stagflation
Once again, the world economy is haunted by the spectre of stagflation – the possible return of simultaneous high inflation and...

Karl Pichelmann


European integration and populism
EU institutions and policy settings have been prone to populist attack from both the purely economic and the more cultural ‘nativist...

Karl Pichelmann


The economic consequences of Putin´s war
The conversation served to provide a quick interim assessment of the economic consequences of Putin´s war. Deploring the escalating human...

Karl Pichelmann
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