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Martin Sandbu

European Economics Commentator

Martin Sandbu is the Financial Times's European economics commentator. He also writes Free Lunch, the FT's weekly newsletter on the global economic policy debate. He has been writing for the FT since 2009, when he joined the paper as economics leader writer.

Before joining the FT, he worked in academia and policy consulting. He is the author of three books, on business ethics, the euro, and on the economics of belonging.

Sign up to the Free Lunch newsletter here.

Email Martin Sandbu @MESandbu  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Thursday, 21 December, 2023
    Free LunchMacroeconomics
    A new start for Europe’s stability and growth pact Premium content

    Hopefully, an end to ‘computer says no’ budgeting

    The EU flag next to the flags of individual nations in the bloc
  • Sunday, 17 December, 2023
    War in Ukraine
    ‘Ukraine fatigue’ is a problem of western leaders’ own making

    The public in allied countries has been led to expect war to be easier than it is

    Volodymyr Zelensky stands at a podium and holds his hand across his chest
  • Thursday, 14 December, 2023
    Free LunchUS economy
    A Bidenomics score chart Premium content

    A boastful administration that has much to be boastful about

    Electrician apprentices practice working on a programmable logic controller in Kentucky
  • Thursday, 7 December, 2023
    Free LunchMacroeconomics
    The IMF would like the EU to please get a move on Premium content

    The fund’s number-two policymaker talks to Free Lunch

    Gita Gopinath gestures with both hands as she speaks
  • Monday, 4 December, 2023
    European Union
    Trivial concerns threaten big decisions on Europe’s future

    EU leaders must display political will at this month’s summit and push ahead on aid to Ukraine, enlargement and budget

    Charles Michel and Volodymyr Zelenskyy
  • Thursday, 30 November, 2023
    Free LunchWar in Ukraine
    Can financial engineering solve the dilemma over Russia’s blocked reserves? Premium content

    Special purpose vehicles for victory

    A girl stands near her destroyed building
  • Thursday, 23 November, 2023
    Free LunchUK public finances
    Autumn Statement: a very British (tax) affair Premium content

    The problems with letting the fiscal rule tail wag the budget dog

    The Treasury building in London
  • Sunday, 19 November, 2023
    German economy
    Berlin is hoist with its own legalistic petard

    The repercussions of Germany’s top court striking down a domestic budgetary manoeuvre will spread to EU politics

    Three judgeds in red robes put their hats on
  • Thursday, 16 November, 2023
    Free LunchChinese economy
    Can China get its economic mojo back? Premium content

    Beijing’s path back to growth may be a European one

    People at Shanghai’s commercial and tourist area
  • Thursday, 9 November, 2023
    Free LunchArtificial intelligence
    In AI, focus on technocrats not terminators Premium content

    Boring regulation, not sci-fi heroism, is what is needed

    Members of the press outside the Bletchley Park Estate where the AI Safety Summit was being held
  • Sunday, 5 November, 2023
    War in Ukraine
    The west must not prevaricate when it comes to seizing Russian reserves

    Confiscating and deploying them for Ukraine’s benefit is the morally obvious next step

    People walk past a poster depicting Ukrainian servicemen and a slogan which reads “Bring the victory soon” in Kyiv
  • Thursday, 2 November, 2023
    Free LunchUS economy
    What the US got right that Europe did not Premium content

    America’s post-pandemic recovery has left Europe in the dust

    Pedestrians on Wall Street
  • Thursday, 26 October, 2023
    Free LunchRussian politics
    The Schrödinger’s cat of Russian foreign reserves Premium content

    Now you see them, now you don’t

    The Spasskaya tower of the Kremlin and Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow
  • Sunday, 22 October, 2023
    EU economy
    Narcissism of small differences delays accord on EU fiscal rules

    The 27-nation bloc must strike a deal soon in order to prepare for much bigger economic and geopolitical challenges

    The European Commission headquarters in Brussels
  • Thursday, 19 October, 2023
    Free LunchPoland
    Liberal democracy strikes back in Poland Premium content

    The economics of the European country’s restoration

    People queue outside a polling station in Warsaw
  • Thursday, 12 October, 2023
    Free LunchGlobal Economy
    Three ways to think about the future world economy Premium content

    How to make some sense of our ignorance

    A security guard stands in the middle of the frame below the flags while a suited delegate with a green folder walks past
  • Thursday, 5 October, 2023
    Free LunchCarbon tax
    Global carbon pricing has a bright future Premium content

    Resistance is futile

    People watch smoke and steam from a coal-fired power plant in Poland
  • Thursday, 28 September, 2023
    Free LunchEU trade
    Europe should worry but not panic over China Premium content

    Lack of nuance makes for bad policy

    A truck lifts a shipping container at the port in Duisburg, Germany
  • Sunday, 24 September, 2023
    EU enlargement
    A multi-speed Europe holds the key to EU enlargement

    A Franco-German report proposes four overlapping circles from an inner core to the new European Political Community

    The European Commission building in Brussels. The power of the purse is strong: if countries paying most of the bills see such reforms as worthwhile, it will be difficult to be a holdout
  • Thursday, 21 September, 2023
    Free LunchWar in Ukraine
    What next for Europe’s sanctions on Russia? Premium content

    The EU must confront its €300bn question

  • Thursday, 14 September, 2023
    Free LunchChile
    (Mis)remembering Chile’s military coup Premium content

    There is no economic justification for abandoning democracy

    Soldiers positioned on a rooftop fire at Chile’s presidential palace on September 11 1973 during the military coup
  • Sunday, 10 September, 2023
    Brexit
    The EU’s transformations will reshape its ‘British question’ too

    Ukraine’s likely accession to the bloc and the process of internal reform will have a transformative effect

    Charles Michel, president of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
  • Thursday, 7 September, 2023
    Free LunchGreen solutions
    In green tech, overcapacity is a boon Premium content

    We cannot produce too much of the stuff that will help us decarbonise

    A female employee assembled lithium-ion battery modules at a BMW manufacturing plant
  • Monday, 4 September, 2023
    European Union
    The EU is poised for a giant leap towards further integration

    There is increasingly serious talk in the bloc about all manner of far-reaching reform

  • Thursday, 17 August, 2023
    Free LunchChinese economy
    Debt overhang economics with Chinese characteristics Premium content

    Beijing should avoid the mistakes the west makes again and again — but it probably won’t

    Construction cranes in Shanghai with the city landscape stretching into the background
Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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