ATHENS — Economics has an intractable “women problem”. High-school girls avoid it. Female undergraduates abandon it. And the problem runs deeper than the difficulty of attracting enough women to mathematics, science and engineering.

ATHENS — Of all European politicians who never led their countries, Jacques Delors and Wolfgang Schäuble had the greatest impact on Europe.

ATHENS — Europe is languishing in a long-term economic slump whose origins lay in Wall Street’s near-death experience in 2008.

ATHENS — The quiet days of August are a good time to contemplate the year ahead. Peering at my 2024 calendar, the European Parliament elections loom largest.

ATHENS — In 2008 Europeans earned, in aggregate, 10 per cent more than Americans. By 2022, Americans were earning 26 per cent more than Europeans. This week, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that Europeans are becoming poorer not just collectively but also privately.

ATHENS — Last week brought a rare good-news story: Artificial intelligence enabled researchers to develop an antibiotic capable of killing an exotic superbug that had defied all existing antimicrobial drugs.

ATHENS — When First Republic Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation organised a shotgun sale of its assets to JPMorgan Chase.

ATHENS — European industry is reeling under the twin threat of high energy prices and President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which, in essence, bribes Europe’s green industries to migrate to the United States.

ATHENS — The banking crisis this time is different. In fact, it is worse than in 2007-08.