In The Lord of the Rings, tGollum famously called the engraved golden ring “my precious”. These days, plenty of jewellery owners might catch themselves saying the same, given how sharply precious metal prices have risen. Fortunately for Gollum, this ring did not contain a natural diamond. Our clients who have read our 2025 Q4 Econoviews have seen this graph recently. But an up ...
Time Is On Your Side
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to meSpeaking words of wisdom, let it beAnd in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of meSpeaking words of wisdom, let it be(The Beatles) Just a few weeks into 2026 uncertainty reigns. Geopolitically the world is moving from one regime to a new yet unknown one. Many countries are experiencing domestic t ...
When growth meets decline - 23 of 26 EU countries grew their economies while cutting CO₂ emissions
For decades, economic growth and rising CO₂ emissions moved in lockstep. This map shows how that relationship has changed across the European Union. Between 2010 and 2024, most EU economies expanded while cutting their carbon footprint, a pattern known as absolute decoupling. But the strength, drivers, and interpretation of this decoupling vary across countries. The map sho ...
#MacroFriday: China's Export Engine still Roars
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 ...
Vibe Coding in a world of Napi’s and Sapi’s
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 ...
Turning scarcity into a competitive advantage, with KPIs as a compass
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 ...
#MacroFriday: A Gloomy Year-End for the US Labor Market
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 reaf ...
Whoever Has the Electrons Has the Future
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." ...
Europe’s EV hesitation: short-term relief, long-term risk
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 acros ...
#MacroFriday: Fed cuts rates again as balance sheet contraction ends
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 ...