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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, 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
  • Sunday, 13 August, 2023
    European Union
    No, there isn’t a ‘democratic deficit’ in the EU

    A busy timetable of polls at national and European level will show that voters’ choices matter

    An anti-government march in June in Warsaw, Poland, led by the centrist opposition party leader Donald Tusk, who along with other critics accuses the government of eroding democracy
  • Thursday, 10 August, 2023
    Free LunchEurope
    Universalism, hypocrisy and European identity Premium content

    Remedy for the flaws of ‘Europeanness’ is to have more of it

    Pedestrians on a street in Frankfurt, Germany
  • Tuesday, 8 August, 2023
    Global trade
    The west shouldn’t give up on ‘gentle commerce’ just yet

    Although it has been strained in recent years, the link between trade and political liberalisation still holds

    James Ferguson illustration of several skyscrapers perched on the edge of a navy aircraft carrier with a civilian jumbo jet taking off from the ship’s runway
  • Thursday, 3 August, 2023
    Free LunchGlobal Economy
    Free Lunch summer reading Premium content

    Good writing on economic phenomena that affect us all

    A close-up picture of a Covid jab being administered into a person’s arm
  • Thursday, 20 July, 2023
    Free LunchEmployment
    There is more slack in labour markets than we think Premium content

    If economies have been overheating, why are average hours worked so weak?

    Workers at a car manufacturing plant in Germany
  • Wednesday, 19 July, 2023
    Global InsightCentral banks
    The EU is doubled up over riddle of Russia’s euro assets

    The fate of hundreds of billions of euros of Moscow’s money hinges on the intricacies of double-entry bookkeeping

  • Sunday, 16 July, 2023
    EU foreign policy
    The EU should aim for its own Belt and Road

    The bloc needs more and closer allies on issues like supply chains, tech rules and climate change

    Emmanuel Macron gestures with his right hand while on a podium
  • Thursday, 13 July, 2023
    Free LunchEU trade
    Ethical consumers and the brave new trade policy Premium content

    Caring about production methods does not violate free trade. It is required by it

    A deforested part of the Amazon rainforest
  • Thursday, 6 July, 2023
    Free LunchGlobal inflation
    What if there is nothing central banks can do about inflation? Premium content

    Except for making things worse after it goes away by itself

    A party boat passes the European Central Bank building in Frankfurt, Germany
  • Monday, 3 July, 2023
    InterviewWar in Ukraine
    Ukraine urges US to follow EU’s four-year funding pledge

    Finance minister Serhii Marchenko says Brussels’ €50bn package is a ‘good signal’ for G7 nations

    Serhiy Marchenko
  • Sunday, 2 July, 2023
    EU economy
    The EU must realise that economic security begins at home

    It will be easier to derisk relations with China if Europeans can build a strong domestic market

    A fitter checks the cable connection on a solar panel in the photovoltaic park of the Enerparc company, in Gaarz, Germany, in 2021
  • Thursday, 29 June, 2023
    Free LunchWar in Ukraine
    How to act if you mean it when you say ‘Russia must pay’ Premium content

    Most countries’ timid approach to Moscow’s state assets verges on hypocrisy

    A girl with the Ukrainian flag covered around her shoulders walks outside a partially destroyed building
  • Thursday, 22 June, 2023
    Free LunchWar in Ukraine
    Ukraine and its partners are beginning to win the peace Premium content

    In contrast with last year’s shambles, solid planning for rebuilding a modern European country is well under way

    A child holding a Ukrainian flag runs in front of a destroyed culture centre building
  • Sunday, 18 June, 2023
    Global Economy
    Go big or go where? The new political dilemma

    Labour’s £28bn plan in the UK is a sign of demands on public purses globally

    Rachel Reeves sitting in a green armchair next to a union jack flag
  • Thursday, 15 June, 2023
    Free LunchMacroeconomics
    Fiscal policy is about to change beyond recognition Premium content

    We must prepare — institutionally and politically — for the permanently higher state investments new times require

    House speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, with US president Joe Biden, right, in the Oval Office at the White House
  • Thursday, 8 June, 2023
    Free LunchRussian business & finance
    Corralling Moscow’s foreign wealth Premium content

    Sanctions are squeezing Russia’s net export earnings — now target the surpluses accumulated since last year

    The gates and building of the Central Bank of Russia, Neglinnaya Street, Moscow
  • Sunday, 4 June, 2023
    War in Ukraine
    Ukraine’s rapid reconstruction will be in Europe’s own interest

    Postwar planning should focus on making the country a hub of the continent’s green transition

    Firefighters at a building in the aftermath of a rocket attack on Kyiv last year.
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