I would prefer not to touch upon this sore spot, but unfortunately the current environment leaves me with no other choice. Despite some fragile survey-based optimism about the European industry, industrial production continues to trend lower in the eurozone.   Last week in our MacroFriday, we discussed industrial production in the US, which showed a decade without growth once w ...

From 10 to 21 November 2025, world leaders will gather in Belém, Brazil, for the 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30). The choice of venue, at the mouth of the Amazon, gives both symbolic and practical weight to a crucial moment for global climate diplomacy. Ten years after the Paris Agreement, countries are expected to show whether ambition can still match reality. The setting h ...

Industrial Production in the US has barely risen since 2017, especially excluding high-tech. The blue line suggests little output growth in the broader manufacturing base once high-tech components are excluded. While consumer spending has clearly grown since then, this suggest the continued offshoring of industrial production, something the current US administration is actively ...

In the world of corporate governance, few actors are as influential (and as little understood) as proxy advisory firms. Companies like Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis have become de facto arbiters of shareholder democracy. Their recommendations can sway the outcomes of board elections, executive pay packages, and even major strategic decisions across gl ...

Nuclear fusion is the holy grail for producing energy: virtually limitless clean energy without the waste or meltdown risk of fission. Besides from making reaching climate goals a lot easier, it also provides a solution to the recently more prominent question of energy security and independency. The latest headliness have made updated promises for this exiting new technology, y ...

After last week’s research trip to Boston, where we focused on developments in automatization, robotics and of course AI, we dedicate this week’s MacroFriday to the remarkable surge in construction spending in US manufacturing related to this fields.  Although reshoring manufacturing to U.S. soil might be the current talk of the town, these developments have actually been under ...

Reminiscences of an analyst: the resurrection of the Belgian stock market   Image generated by Gemini   Beautiful Bel20 Year-to-date, the Bel20 net return index delivered a return of roughly 18%. That is almost as much as the Nasdaq composite (+22.8%) and better than the S&P 500 (+17%), excluding the 10% drop of the US dollar. Returns vary strongly amongst indices and with ...

Three years ago, together with Geert Noels and Yanaika Denoyelle, I co-authored “Climate Shock”, a book in which we outlined twenty climate solutions for Belgium and quantified their CO₂ impact. Since then, the world has changed profoundly, and so has the way we approach climate policy. Public interest in climate issues has declined, and political support across Europe is far m ...

This Friday, the global shipping sector may have reached an inflection point. In London, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) gathers its member states to vote on what could become the world’s first binding climate deal for commercial maritime transport. At stake is a carbon pricing framework designed to steer a sector responsible for roughly three percent of global gr ...

The last time we discussed this graph in our MacroFriday was in February, when the gold price hit a record high of 2882 USD per ounce. Eight months later, gold is trading at around 4,240 USD per ounce, marking an impressive 47% price increase.   The high (negative) correlation between the gold price and the US real rate broke in 2022. A key driver of gold's rally since then h ...