We’re back with our MacroFriday, accompanied by our best wishes for 2026! The new year is only two weeks old and the macro-economic candy jar is already filled with plenty of sweets (and sours): changing geopolitical circumstances, PMIs, US inflation, central bank independency, and precious metals becoming even more precious (perhaps a topic for next week). However, we kick off ...

What is Vibe Coding? According to Wikipedia, the term “vibe coding” emerged in early 2025 and is often attributed to Andrej Karpathy, co-founder of OpenAI and former AI leader at Tesla. It even went on to win the Collins English Dictionary “Word of the Year” for 2025. The idea echoes Karpathy’s famous 2023 quote: “The hottest new programming language is English.” Vibe coding re ...

We are entering an era defined by hard constraints: climate change, finite raw materials, ageing populations, rising defence spending, and the need for large-scale investment in AI. At the same time, Belgium faces high public debt, declining industrial competitiveness, limited physical space and limited access to (critical) raw materials. This combination makes major transition ...

Initially, I planned to write about the heavyweight role of the pharmaceutical sector in Denmark’s industrial production growth, but I lost my appetite when I saw the publication of the lagged US jobs reports for October and November. Due to the recent US government shutdown, the October and November labor market data were published later than usual. Nonetheless, the data reaff ...

Last week, I noticed the following news item.   "Approximately 45 data centers in the Netherlands use as much electricity as nearly 1.9 million homes, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Data centers are consuming more and more electricity: in 2017, they accounted for 1.2 per cent of total electricity consumption, while last year that figure rose to 4.2 per cent." So ...

Why the EU set the 2035 ICE ban When the European Union agreed to end the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars by 2035, the decision was not solely about reducing emissions. It was also an industrial strategy. The objective was to provide a clear and credible signal that electrification was inevitable, thereby reducing uncertainty and accelerating investment across ...

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Committee delivered the third consecutive rate cut in the last three meetings, bringing its key policy rate to a range of 3.5%–3.75%. Fed Chair Powell indicated increasing tensions between the two targets of its dual mandate: rising inflation, mainly due to tariffs, and weak labour market conditions, resulting in diverging views on monetary pol ...

Reflections on the VOKA business mission to Bavaria   International missions are, for me, primarily a way to understand how other regions approach technology, innovation, and competitiveness. Not to admire them, but to learn from them, and especially to see where Flanders can choose differently (and sometimes better). The recent VOKA business mission to Munich offered a fascina ...

From moral leadership to self-sufficiency   A few weeks ago, we discussed how the moral narrative in climate policy leads to paralysis today, and why a new perspective is needed[1]. For a long time, Europe relied on a moral narrative of shared responsibility and international cooperation. Climate policy was seen as a collective task in which countries trusted one another and jo ...

Last month’s summit in Berlin on “European Digital Sovereignty” gathered +900 policymakers, industry leaders, investors and researchers from the 27 EU Member States. Initiated by France and Germany, measures were presented aimed at fostering innovative solutions and infrastructures while reducing technological dependencies and protecting strategic assets. The summit served as a ...