There’s no question that Germany has done relatively well during this annus horribilis, and that the administration of Chancellor Angela Merkel deserves most of the credit. But the country could soon have a different problem. The same government policies that worked so well in the first phase of the corona-recession could do major damage in the second phase and thereafter. ...

In the UK, Conservative party campaign ads often warn of “tax bombshells” about to be dropped by a profligate Labour party. Yet allies of Chancellor Rishi Sunak recently briefed the media about a Tory “tax bombshell” to pay for the billions splurged by the government during the Covid-19 crisis. An explosion duly followed in the ranks of his party. Sunak ...

The European Central Bank (ECB) has a problem, and, no, it is not the exchange rate. The recent appreciation of the euro may have caught all the headlines, but it pales in comparison with the broader challenge the pandemic poses for monetary policy. Rather than simply talking down the currency, the ECB must take more substantive steps to support economic ...