The inflation crisis in the Euro Area is over, but the real story is how stubborn services price inflation has become. On Tuesday, Eurostat published its flash estimate for euro area inflation in November, which came in at 2.2% year-on-year, up slightly from 2.1% in October. The HICP inflation estimate for Belgium stood at 2.6%. While inflation remains above the ECB’s target, i ...
What We Get Wrong About Data Centers - and How to Fix It
Data centers have become convenient villains in the public debate. They are blamed for overloading the grid, worsening congestion, consuming “too much” electricity, and wasting heat that evaporates uselessly into the air. And yes, these concerns come from real pressures: Europe’s electricity grids are strained, clean generation is lagging behind demand, and many data centers st ...
#MacroFriday: Japan's Policy Pivot
Japan is slowly transitioning into a new financial era. Headline inflation has remained above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target since April 2022, marking the longest period of above-target inflation in more than 35 years. While the initial surge was driven largely by higher fresh food and energy prices, underlying inflation has also firmed, albeit more gradually. During this period ...
COP30 in Belém: small steps forward, big gaps remain
Two weeks ago, our brief outlined what COP30 needed to deliver: clearer national climate plans, stronger protection for tropical forests, and credible finance for emerging economies. Now that the summit has concluded, the results show meaningful steps forward but stop short of the structural change that science indicates is necessary. Belém did not shift global climate politics ...
Sporting Goods Stocks Are Stumbling. The World’s Biggest Sports Events Might Be Their Comeback Moment.
Image generated by Gemini After a bruising two years marked by falling discretionary spending, bloated inventories, and rising costs, the global sporting-goods sector is searching for its next turnaround story. Investors may not need to look far: the world’s largest sporting events are lining up like a perfectly staged relay. Between the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2026 Winter O ...
#MacroFriday: Big Tech, Big Returns
Of course, our MacroFriday is focused on macro-economic developments, but some companies have grown so large and/or important that their impact on the economy and financial markets can no longer be overlooked. One such company is Nvidia, which has rapidly become the largest company in the world. On Wednesday, investors followed the publication of Nvidia’s third-quarter results ...
Winds of Resilience: Europe must accelerate wind energy to stay competitive and sovereign
Europe’s wind industry has been one of its greatest industrial achievements. For decades, European engineers and companies have defined global standards in turbine technology, offshore construction and system integration. The sector contributed in 2024 more than €54 billion to Europe’s GDP and exports €13.8 billion worth of high-value equipment and services each year[1]. These ...
A New Way to Value (Tech) Stocks: The Rule of X – Upside-Down & Inside-Out
How to Value (Tech) Stocks Traditional ways to value companies (such as multiples, sum-of-the-parts, discounted cash flows…) already existed long before Econopolis was founded. However, for emerging subindustries (like software SaaS), these tools often fail spectacularly. A young tech company often reinvests every dollar of revenue back into growth, resulting in negative earni ...
Can the Amazon breathe life into climate diplomacy?
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 ...
#MacroFriday: The Continued Downtrend in German Industrial Production
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 ...