Critical reflections inspired by Michael Sandel's views The Bureau conversation was inspired by an article by Martin Sandbu, the FT’s European economics commentator, published on February 7, 2026. In the article, Sandbu reports and reflects on a recent conversation with Michael Sandel. The eminent Harvard political thinker has been a lifetime advocate for a less-market dominated and more civic-minded public philosophy, cautioning against naïve views of a boundless triumph of

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

The first Bureau conversation after the summer break took the form of a free-flowing economic tour d´horizon. Inevitably, the discussion centred around the actions of the US administration both domestically and in the international arena, and the risk of Donald Trump doubling down in economic warfare in the months and years ahead. Regarding US internal economic warfare, now a key Trump administration priority seems to be for the Fed to substantially cut interest rates to redu

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