Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
SubscribeSign In
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Middle East war
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
    Most Read
    • Iran warns of potential change in nuclear doctrine if Israel targets facilities
    • UK executives dump shares on fears of Labour capital gains tax raid
    • Reeves weighs capital gains tax hike to help plug UK’s Budget gap
    • Florida surveys wreckage left by Hurricane Milton
    • French PM Michel Barnier unveils shock therapy in 2025 budget
  • UK
    Sections
    • UK Home
    • UK Economy
    • UK Politics
    • UK Companies
    • Personal Finance
    Most Read
    • UK executives dump shares on fears of Labour capital gains tax raid
    • Reeves weighs capital gains tax hike to help plug UK’s Budget gap
    • Ex-Darktrace head Poppy Gustafsson named UK investment minister
    • The battle of Labour’s three brains
    • Why are a rising number of young Britons out of work?
  • Companies
    Sections
    • Companies Home
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
    Most Read
    • Starboard plotted a campaign against Pfizer’s chief. Then a blank email dropped in his inbox
    • Private equity groups’ assets struggling under hefty debt loads, Moody’s says
    • Stellantis unveils management shake-up at global car brands
    • The ‘80-hour circuit breaker’: Wall Street banks tackle workloads of junior staff
    • Why Kamala Harris chose to appear on the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast
  • Tech
    Sections
    • Tech Home
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Semiconductors
    • Cyber Security
    • Social Media
    Most Read
    • AMD rolls out new AI chip to rival Nvidia
    • Checking out of Hotel California
    • Why Big Tech makes such a poor babysitter
    • How Google plans to deflect and delay a historic break-up threat
    • US weighs Google break-up in landmark antitrust case
  • Markets
    Sections
    • Markets Home
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Crypto
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Wealth Management
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
    Most Read
    • TD Bank to pay $3bn in US case over money laundering lapses
    • How Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ gets its ships
    • Warren criticises accounting watchdog over BDO audit failures
    • China’s real intent behind its stimulus inflection
    • Former UBS chief Ralph Hamers joins AI wealth management start-up
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    Sections
    • Opinion Home
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
    Most Read
    • Why Kamala Harris chose to appear on the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast
    • The battle of Labour’s three brains
    • The Ritz, London: Is this where I fall back in love with fine dining? — review 
    • How anime took over the world
    • China’s real intent behind its stimulus inflection
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
    Sections
    • Work & Careers Home
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Europe's Start-Up Hubs
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
    • Working It
    Most Read
    • The ‘80-hour circuit breaker’: Wall Street banks tackle workloads of junior staff
    • Trump pledges to end double taxation for expat Americans
    • Herman Chinery-Hesse, tech entrepreneur, 1963-2024
    • Labour must keep listening to business
    • Would you trust a self-hypnosis app?
  • Life & Arts
    Sections
    • Life & Arts Home
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
    Most Read
    • The Ritz, London: Is this where I fall back in love with fine dining? — review 
    • How anime took over the world
    • South Korean author Han Kang wins Nobel literature prize
    • Introducing Ventete, the world’s first inflatable bike helmet
    • Peter Schlesinger: ‘It was drug-ridden back then — but a wonderful place’
  • HTSI
MenuSearch
  • Home
  • World
  • UK
  • Companies
  • Tech
  • Markets
  • Climate
  • Opinion
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
  • Life & Arts
  • HTSI
Financial Times
SubscribeSign In

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)
  • Thursday, 10 October, 2024
    Free LunchGerman economy
    Germany’s choice Premium content

    Should Europe’s largest economy embrace the future or double down on past successes?

    A bustling street market in Nuremberg, Germany, is filled with shoppers walking past stalls with red and white striped awnings. The street is lined with historic buildings under a clear sky.
  • Sunday, 6 October, 2024
    EU economy
    To really change the EU, the northern flank must take the lead

    Nine like-minded member states would be enough to break the logjams on reform

    Former Italian Prime Minister and economist Mario Draghi
  • Thursday, 3 October, 2024
    Free LunchGlobal trade
    How to fragment the global economy Premium content

    The many ways in which the big blocs can make it hard to stay non-aligned

    Cranes used for shipping containers rise from the Port of Newark, visible across the water. In the foreground, people with bicycles stand near a railing looking out over the water
  • Thursday, 26 September, 2024
    Free LunchFrench economy
    Digging into France’s fiscal mess Premium content

    It has always been a high-tax, high-spend country, so why have things been getting worse?

    A morning rush hour commuter walks near skyscrapers in the La Defense business district in Paris, France. The person is silhouetted against the backdrop of modern glass buildings and reflections.
  • Sunday, 22 September, 2024
    EU foreign policy
    Why Europe needs a foreign economic policy

    Current EU structures discourage joined-up thinking in pursuing geostrategic goals

    Italian former prime minister and economist Mario Draghi (L) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
  • Thursday, 19 September, 2024
    Free LunchGlobal trade
    Must countries choose between the west and China? Premium content

    The ‘in-betweeners’ have profited from diverse trade relations — but may increasingly have to choose sides

    Motorists ride past large green gantry cranes at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in India
  • Thursday, 12 September, 2024
    Free LunchEuropean Union
    Draghi calls for joined-up thinking in Europe Premium content

    When it comes to lifting EU productivity, fortune will favour the bold

    Mario Draghi speaks at a podium with the European Commission logo during a press conference
  • Thursday, 5 September, 2024
    Free LunchGlobal inequality
    Does the US have anything to learn from Europe? Premium content

    A surprisingly varied cast of US commentators cast shade on how the Old World runs its economies

    A farmer stands beside a large tractor, looking over a harvested field of winter wheat in Corn, Oklahoma.
  • Sunday, 1 September, 2024
    War in Ukraine
    G7 leaders are tying themselves in knots over Ukraine loan

    Engineering a $50bn advance from the profits of frozen Russian assets is presenting a challenge

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the G7 meeting
  • Thursday, 29 August, 2024
    Free Lunch
    A self-congratulatory inflation narrative at Jackson Hole Premium content

    ‘Humility and a questioning spirit’, as called for by Fed chair, would be a very good idea

    Jay Powell, left, Tiff Macklem, centre, and Andrew Bailey chat outside at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, with a scenic view of a meadow and mountains in the background at Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park near Moran, Wyoming.
  • Sunday, 25 August, 2024
    European Union
    To succeed, Europe must be a pole of economic attraction

    The bloc’s motto of ‘united in diversity’ should make it choose majority over consensus where possible

    Ursula von der Leyen
  • Thursday, 22 August, 2024
    Free LunchKamala Harris
    Kamala Harris and America’s broken capitalism Premium content

    Economic programme of presidential hopeful echoes recent and old concerns about abusive market power

    Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event
  • Sunday, 28 July, 2024
    Brexit
    Brave thinking can restore some broken links between the EU and UK

    The pre-Brexit economic relationship is out of reach but closer ties are possible if each side moves from entrenched positions

    President of France Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
  • Thursday, 25 July, 2024
    Free LunchArtificial intelligence
    For AI policy, boring is good Premium content

    Technocrats make sensible policy preparations in case a technology revolution does take place

    A booth at an AI conference in Shanghai
  • Sunday, 14 July, 2024
    Renewable energy
    Europe’s battery problems show the governments need to up their game

    Green tech is stalling because businesses lack confidence that leaders will follow up words with actions

    Electric vehicle battery at an Accumotive GmbH plant
  • Thursday, 11 July, 2024
    Free LunchUK general election 2024
    Labour’s ‘seatslide’: when a landslide is not a mandate Premium content

    (And a mandate is not a landslide)

    Keir Starmer waves as he stands in front of a lectern with the slogan ‘Change begins’ as supporters standing behind him applaud and wave flags
  • Thursday, 4 July, 2024
    Free LunchGlobal inflation
    Questions in the wake of the global inflation hit Premium content

    There is still too much we do not know about what happened and why

    A woman shops in a supermarket
  • Sunday, 30 June, 2024
    Populism in Europe
    Europe’s cordon sanitaire against the far right may not work

    Nordic examples show that democracy’s moderating influence can sometimes help

    Public singing of the French anthem at the grand Rassemblement National meeting
  • Thursday, 27 June, 2024
    Free LunchTax
    How to tax the ultra-rich the same as you and me Premium content

    G20 should give serious consideration to blueprint for global minimum standard of taxing billionaires

    A female protester holding a sign saying ‘Tax the rich’
  • Thursday, 20 June, 2024
    Free LunchFrench parliamentary election 2024
    An economic test for France’s democracy Premium content

    Any victorious populists — and the EU’s new fiscal rules — face baptism of fire

    A man and a woman standing in front of election posters of the New Popular Front on a wall in Paris
  • Sunday, 16 June, 2024
    Electric vehicles
    Europe must work out what role China will play in its decarbonisation agenda

    Confusion over aims inevitably leads to confusion over means

    An all-electric Mini Countryman on the assembly line in the BMW Group factory in Leipzig, Germany
  • Thursday, 13 June, 2024
    Free LunchWar in Ukraine
    Cutting through the fog of the Russian assets debate Premium content

    Ukraine needs the money Russia owes it, all of it and fast

    A heavily damaged school building
  • Thursday, 13 June, 2024
    War in Ukraine
    Germany, Russia and my grandmother

    The deep reckoning with the German past does not inevitably lead to the right conclusions on Ukraine

    A German military police soldier guards a column of Soviet Red Army prisoners of war captured during Operation Barbarossa
  • Thursday, 6 June, 2024
    Free LunchEuropean Parliament elections
    The economic effects of Europe’s election Premium content

    How a rising right might change the EU’s policy course

    The woman and boy together push the voting paper into the ballot box
  • Sunday, 2 June, 2024
    UK general election 2024
    Labour’s lack of boldness could come back to haunt it

    The party’s fear of looking irresponsible is closing off the prospect of growth-boosting tax reform

    A woman in a green suit smiles for the camera
Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

Useful links

Support

View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

Legal & Privacy

Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyManage CookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

Services

Share News Tips SecurelyIndividual SubscriptionsProfessional SubscriptionsRepublishingExecutive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on XFT ChannelsFT Schools

Tools

PortfolioFT AppFT Digital EditionFT EditAlerts HubBusiness School RankingsSubscription ManagerNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter

Community & Events

FT Live EventsFT ForumsBoard Director Programme

More from the FT Group

Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2024. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.
Edition:UK
International
Subscribe for full access

Top sections

  • Home
  • World
    • Middle East war
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
  • UK
    • UK Economy
    • UK Politics
    • UK Companies
    • Personal Finance
  • Companies
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
  • Tech
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Semiconductors
    • Cyber Security
    • Social Media
  • Markets
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Crypto
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Wealth Management
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
  • Lex
  • Work & Careers
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Europe's Start-Up Hubs
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
    • Working It
  • Life & Arts
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
  • Personal Finance
    • Property & Mortgages
    • Investments
    • Pensions
    • Tax
    • Banking & Savings
    • Advice & Comment
    • Next Act
  • HTSI
  • Special Reports

FT recommends

  • Alphaville
  • FT Edit
  • Lunch with the FT
  • FT Globetrotter
  • #techAsia
  • Moral Money
  • Visual and data journalism
  • Newsletters
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • News feed
  • FT Schools
  • FT Live Events
  • FT Forums
  • Board Director Programme
  • myFT
  • Portfolio
  • FT Digital Edition
  • Crossword
  • Our Apps
  • Help Centre
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In