This is the second of four reports on Germany’s various crises, the history that produced them and how Germans, other than the neoliberal elites who now hold power, think about their way forward. Part 1 of this series is here. POTSDAM—A single, brief phrase always comes to mind when I think of Germany. Whatever may... Read More

The situation in this world is becoming increasingly muddled and unpredictable. Trump has misjudged the Chinese, Putin is not backing down and Iran is too big a chunk for the Americans. In addition, there is historic instability in the financial markets. Introduction We sent greetings at the end of 2024 with the card below. “Anything... Read More

This is the first of four reports on the crises that now beset Germany — what they are, the history that produced them, and how Germans think about finding their way forward once again. I thank Eva–Maria Föllmer–Müller and Karl–Jürgen Müller of Bazenheid, Switzerland, for their unsparing assistance as I reported and wrote this series.... Read More

A U.S. economic ‘re-balancing’ is coming. Putin is right. The post-WWII economic order ‘is gone’ The post-WWII geo-political outcome effectively determined the post-war global economic structure. Both are now undergoing huge change. What remains stuck fast however, is the general (Western) weltanschauung that everything must ‘change’ only for it to stay the same. Things financial... Read More

In this incandescent juncture, what matters is off the record. Let’s start with that phone call. The Kremlin readout is quite sober – but it does reveal a few nuggets. There is no comprehensive deal – yet – between Moscow and Washington. Far from it: we are just in the initial tentative stage of talking... Read More

The new guard of kleptocrats are seeking quick deals on Gaza and Ukraine, not because they want peace but because they’ve found a better way to make themselves even richer Anyone trying to make sense of the Trump administration’s policy towards Gaza should have a thumping headache by now. Initially, US President Donald Trump called... Read More

Putin will never sacrifice Russia’s “indivisibility of security” demands posed to Washington in December 2021 – and met with a no-response response. The “ceasefire” announced with trademark bombast by Team Trump 2.0 should be seen as a tawdry kabuki inside a cheap matryoshka. As we peel off the successive masks, the last one standing inside... Read More

If Europe pretends to replace the U.S., it is going to be extremely expensive, very politically costly, and it will fail. President Trump wants Ukraine settled, full stop. This is so that he can move ahead quickly – to normalise with Russia, and begin the ‘big picture’ project of setting a new World Order, one... Read More

The SMO will keep rollin’ on. And as the Europeans want it, to the last Ukrainian. Let’s start with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Road to Damascus moment: “Frankly, it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers, the United States helping Ukraine and Russia, and it needs to come to an end”. Now that’s a... Read More

There should be little doubt about how a lasting peace can be established in Ukraine. In April 2022, Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of signing a peace agreement in Istanbul, with the Turkish Government acting as mediator. The U.S. and U.K. talked Ukraine out of signing the agreement, and hundreds of thousands of... Read More

The US president looked like a gangster as he roughed up Zelensky. But he wasn’t the one who stoked a war that’s killed huge numbers of Ukrainians and Russians If there is one thing we can thank US President Donald Trump for, it is this: he has decisively stripped away the ridiculous notion, long cultivated... Read More

Hans Vogel argues that Europe’s elites lack a moral compass. However, they do apply moral standards: to their opponents in their zeal to cling to power. At the end of the Second World War, savage reprisals were taken against those who had worked with or for the Germans. Many who had collaborated were left unharmed,... Read More