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Corona bonuses for the public sector, mask vouchers for pensioners, and state-subsidized family vacations – feel-good policies are making a big comeback in the wake of the pandemic. However, the administrative, marketing, and procurement…

History is full of prophecies that have proved wrong. Among these, the one elaborated by the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama about 30 years ago certainly deserves a prominent place.…

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the world’s most comprehensive and intrusive data privacy law. It applies to all enterprises in the European Union (EU) that handle consumer data…

In our previous essay we argued that “neoliberalism,” the version of modern democratic capitalism featuring markets and trade guided by powerful, global public institutions, should not be confused with the…

IREF is a free-market oriented think tank. It promotes ideas, events, and academic research. With regard to research, IREF supports original projects that lead to the production of papers of…

The European Central Bank (ECB) held its latest Governing Council meeting on 14 April 2022 and issued its normal press release. It also included a facile graphic titled ‘Our monetary…

Just two and a half years after planning began, Tesla’s “Gigafactory” on the outskirts of Berlin went into operation at the beginning of April. Meanwhile, the construction of Berlin Brandenburg…

As the COVID period is coming to a close, governments hesitate to cut public expenditure and try to find ways of raising more resources through taxation. In this light, one…

Russia’s President Putin conducts a bloody war in Ukraine. The German government struggles to impose sanctions that could endanger Russian gas supplies. The Wirtschaftswoche headlines: “Putin has Germany under control…

The EU recently announced partial financial sanctions on Russia, designed to keep payments for energy moving. The EU accepted the contention – disproved below – that a bank either gets…