Andrew Watt

Just how much do we have to see before Europeans stop saying that the US has become an unreliable ally?
It is officially pursuing key interests that are diametrically opposed to European interests & values.
For at least as long as the Trump administration wields power the US is not an EU ally.

Update
The important ramifications of the European Court of Justice Ruling on the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive are analysed by two colleagues @etui.bsky.social in this double-barreled blog:
Part I: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-cjeu-rul...

Part II: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-cjeu-rul...

substack.com/@paulkrugman...
In difficult, worrying, often depressing times, @pkrugman.bsky.social (and Robin Wells) is an inspiration. To all who (still) believe in the value of respect for facts, analytical rigour, open debate, public spiritedness, hard work (and a sense of humour).

Indeed without such cooperation, competition btwn jurisdictions for mobile taxpayers will drive top income & wealth-tax rates -> zero, while immobile labour will be forced to shoulder the increasing public costs associated w/ ageing, climate change, security. The far right will reap the harvest
2/2

Swiss voters reject 50% inheritance tax for super-rich Overwhelming majority opposed wealth tax in contentious referendum

on.ft.com/4pJGoQ4
We will not be able to introduce meaningful taxation of large fortunes, even if it is in the interest of the vast majority of voters, unless there is international cooperation. The risk of the tax base walking away is otherwise too great, and voters know this.
1/2

Germany’s Merz to demand EU relax petrol engine ban Coalition led by conservative chancellor agrees push to allow hybrid cars to aid struggling automotive industry

It could be argued that car firms should receive subsidies or loans to facilitate such investment (check dividends first), but financing it out of a continued stream of profits from fossil-fuel cars is perverse, turning the policy goal on its head.

on.ft.com/3KhkEMo
2)2

Quite the argumentation!
Allow us to make profits with petrol and diesel engines beyond 2035 (nine years hence!) because we need funds so that we can invest in battery-vehicle technology. Which we will do. Promise!
It is the precisely the ban that creates the incentive to invest in BEVs.
1/2

Our annual occupational safety and health (OSH) conference is back, and this year's theme couldn't be more topical:

OSH in the age of artificial intelligence 💻 📱 🤖

After Landmark EU Court Judgement: The EU Minimum Wages Directive Is Alive and Kicking The landmark ruling validates the directive's approach to adequate wages and collective bargaining, dealing only minor setbacks to its implementation across Europe.

Update
Recommended commentary on the importance of the European Court of Justice ruling on the Minimum Wage Directive by Torsten Müller @etui.bsky.social and @thorsten-schulten.bsky.social

www.socialeurope.eu/after-landma...

As I have argued previously, this is partly because the fiscal measures are poorly targeted (among other things overly driven by defence).
bsky.app/profile/andr...
2/2

After two successive years of contraction in Europe's largest economy, the German Council of Economic Experts expects little more than stagnation (0.2%) in 2005. Even next year the recovery will be weak, in spite of the expansionary fiscal package.
1/2

Luftverkehrssteuer: Union fordert günstigere Flugtickets Die Luftverkehrssteuer soll im kommenden Jahr sinken, um die Flugbranche zu entlasten. Geht es nach dem Unions-Experten Stracke, sollen auch Reisende davon profitieren - am besten schon zum nächsten S...

Update
Further evidence that Germany's welcome fiscal loosening is poorly targeted: taxes on air travel are to be cut. www.tagesschau.de/inland/luftf...
Faced on the one hand with the climate crisis, on the other with a debate about financing welfare spending: Make Flying Great Again?

Robin, what alternative to joint EU debt issuance would be "governing like a geopolitical force"?

Workers have been collectively going on strike for fair pay and better conditions for a long time.
As far as we know, for more than three thousand years.

For a shorter and less technical critique see this paper by Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi: iep.unibocconi.eu/europes-inte...

Astonishing how a natural home bias in consumer preferences is not allowed for in the original analysis biasing the estimates upwards.

2/2

I've often heard the claim that inner-EU regulatory barriers are equivalent to a tariff of almost 50%. It always felt wildly implausible. Good that it is now being subject to serious scrutiny 👇
It doesn't hold up.
Policymakers are looking for the keys under the lamppost, not where they lost them
1/2

Update
Today what was forecast 👆 came to pass. In the European Parliament the centre-right EPP voted with all shades of the right, against the centre & left, to gut EU legislation on corporate responsibility to ensure environmental and social sustainability

bsky.app/profile/nvon...

#SeenThisMovie

Honourable mention to Euractiv, thanks Nikolaus!

Update
The Court now has a good summary explanation in English
curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/p1...

Noticeable that this important ruling has not, as far I can see, been picked up by leading European media. 🙄

Beyond its immediate impact on wage setting, if it had ruled differently the Court wd have dealt a harsh blow to confidence in the EU as a vehicle for social progress and cohesion and not just for market opening
(positive vs negative integration).
ETUC statement: www.etuc.org/en/pressrele...

2/2

It is a huge relief that the European Court of Justice has rejected the demand by Denmark and Sweden to annul the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive.

A resume of the judgement in FR is here: curia.europa.eu/juris/docume...
1/2

The @etui.bsky.social is holding its annual Future of Work conference on 10-11 February 2026

If you want to present work in this area, submit an abstract
🚨 by November 14th 🚨

Details see:

www.etui.org/events/futur...

Bidenomics: Truly Transitory Inflation, Remarkably Successful on Employment & Growth—But Unable to Break Through the Media Misinformation Machine My attempt to set forth a balance sheet: Bidenomics was an extraordinary success. The economy healed fast; the story never did. A brief moderate transitory inflation. A long and strong jobs and...

Update
@delong.social has just issued this assessment of Biden(omics). He details its overwhelmingly positive impacts, and shows the failure to cut though media misrepresentation to which several commentators also drew attention: open.substack.com/pub/braddelo...

A short overview of last week's event on the challenges facing the EU and German economies, with Peter Bofinger and Laszlo Andor.
🚨 Link to Prof. Bofinger's slides at the bottom!

EU’s biggest political group bets on far-right support to cut green rules Push to slash red tape drives an ever-bigger wedge between Europe’s traditional centrist coalition.

www.politico.eu/article/epp-...
Apart from the substantive damage to the EU's green agenda, this is an extremely worrying development: the centre-right (EPP) is demonstrating its willingness to get into bed with the hard right. This opportunism puts the pro-European, pragmatic coalition at risk.

In Germany around half of all employees receive a Christmas bonus payment #Weihnachtsgeld.*
But this is true of more than three quarters of workers in firms with a collective agreement, but only about 40% of those without.

* Often a fixed % of the monthly wage, sometimes a fixed absolute amount

Seen thru this lens, Biden(omics) appears all the more clearly as a tragedy of historical proportions. Had he been fit, his genuinely pro-worker policies would have tied in many of the forces discussed here and likely avoided the loss of swing states.
@mcopelov.bsky.social @deanbaker13.bsky.social
2

The ascension of America’s Catholic right Catholics and labour groups are re-emerging as a powerful force in the new political landscape — and their votes are up for grabs as never before

Very interesting article, unfortunately paywalled, that shows just how fragmented and complex class, party-political, racial and religious allegiances have become in the US.

www.ft.com/content/e0a2...

@jonathanhopkin.bsky.social

1

If you are in Brussels, don't miss our event tomorrow with Peter Bofinger and Laszlo Andor. Details 👇

My point is, exactly, that it is not a matter of (increasing) total spending.
It cannot, I think, sensibly be disputed that Russia has weakened itself militarily and economically by its attack on Ukraine and that this theatre ties up the bulk of its remaining capacity.