Joseph Belbruno Blog

  Here is how Europe can get its act together December 8, 2025 4:00 PM GMT+11 Updated 2 hours ago European Union flags fly outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, September 19, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - There was a telling moment two weeks ago when Marco Rubio went to Geneva to thrash out a peace plan for Ukraine. Asked what he thought about Europe’s proposals, the U.S. Secretary of State said he was not  aware of them. Another revealing incident came last week when Ursula von der Leyen presented a plan to use Russia’s frozen assets to lend Kyiv up to 165 billion euros. Asked what Donald Trump thought of the “reparations loan”, the European Commission president  said Scott Bessent had given it a positive reaction. She did not explain why she had spoken to only the U.S. finance minister rather than its president. Perhaps, as Bloomberg has  reported , it was because the United States is trying to d...

  A line in the sand moment for Europe and the U.S. The “something” in Tusk’s formulation, looming across the Atlantic and casting a shadow across European capitals, is the specter of President Donald Trump. The return of his “America First” brand of politics this year has already provoked rounds of continental hand-wringing over the future of U.S.-Europe relations and the geopolitical perils that Europeans must face alone. Over  golf games  and White House confabs, a host of European leaders have wooed Trump, flattering and praising him while attempting to disabuse him of his conspicuous affections for the Kremlin and contempt for the European project. Those entreaties have not quite worked and more damage control seems needed. The late Thursday release of the White House’s National Security Strategy, a document sketching the president’s foreign policy priorities and their ideological underpinnings, landed like a grenade in Brussels. Instead of focusing on the geopolitic...

  Navigated Menu Back Financial Times Financial Times Europe 8 Dec 2025 Buttons.Search Options US eco­nomy is at the mercy of cronyism Rana Foroohar rana.foroohar@ft.com Settings Print Share Listen There’s a large body of empir­ical evid­ence to show that coun­tries with high levels of cor­rup­tion also have weaker growth and share price returns, as well as higher levels of eco­nomic and mar­ket volat­il­ity. So, what to make of the fact that crony cap­it­al­ism is now becom­ing a fea­ture of the US mar­ket? From tar­geted reg­u­lat­ory enforce­ment to tar­iff carve-outs, con­tracts awar­ded to friends and fam­ily, and other forms of horse-trad­ing going on between the Trump admin­is­tra­tion and coun­tries and com­pan­ies around the world, it’s hard to argue that Amer­ican oli­go­poly isn’t on the rise. The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Sal­man, for example, is enga­ging in sens­it­ive national secur­ity con­ver­sa­tions with Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump, even as the Trump fam­ily ...