Warsh might yet be a good Fed chairman He must stay clear on the object ives of policy and sens ible on how the cent ral bank should con duct itself Financial Times Europe 9 Sep 2026 Mar tin Wolf Eco nom ics mar tin.wolf@ft.com Is it pos sible that Kevin Warsh will prove to be the cent ral banker the US and the world needs? After his speech at the Jack son Hole Sym posium, I am less pess im istic about the pro spect than before. Diffi cult choices — diffi cult intel lec tu ally and polit ic ally — lie ahead. But his speech “In our time” was both clear and sens ible — clear on the object ives of policy and sens ible on how the Fed should con duct itself. This is cheer ing. It could also prove of great future import ance. As I have pre vi ously noted, Warsh has been a con fus ing fig ure. In the past he has presen ted him self as an infla tion hawk, not ably with his wildly pre ma ture con cern over the dangers, not ably to infla tion, of the mon et ar...
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Destroy and kill Iran for all time! US Treasury ratchets up pressure on Iran with sweeping new aviation sanctions A general view of the Treasury Building on day two of a partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 1, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday issued 36 Iran-related sanctions targeting the country's aviation sector and other companies as part of a broad push to escalate economic pressure on Tehran as the war in the Middle East has moved into a seventh month. The U.S. Treasury Department said the action was aimed at grounding Iran's Mahan Air, which was already sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union, and expanding sanctions to all other Iranian airlines. The sanctions also took aim at covert front companies, cargo handlers, foreign intermediaries and deceptive trans-shipment routes that Washington says Iran relies on to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft an...
L'Iran ha sbagliato i calcoli: il tempo non è più a suo favore Per mesi Teheran ha pensato di avere dalla propria parte un alleato formidabile: il tempo. La strategia iraniana si basava su un calcolo. Se l’Iran fosse riuscito a paralizzare Hormuz , attraverso il quale prima della guerra transitava circa un quinto del petrolio mondiale, il prezzo dell’energia sarebbe esploso . L’inflazione avrebbe colpito le economie occidentali, la benzina sarebbe diventata sempre più cara negli Stati Uniti, Donald Trump avrebbe subito un danno politico crescente. Washington sarebbe stata costretta a un compromesso . Sei mesi dopo, quella scommessa non ha funzionato. Anzi, gli ultimi dati indicano che il tempo potrebbe essere diventato il nemico dell’Iran . Il regime di Teheran non ha perso la capacità di fare danni. Può ancora colpire petroliere, basi americane e infrastrutture nel Golfo. Può scegliere un’escalation più violenta. La sua milizia alleata nello Yemen, gli Houthi, ha ripreso a pre...
Europe Hits the Snooze Button Sunday’s victory of the anti- immigrant, anti America, pro Russia and pro-China Alternative for G e r m a n y party, or AfD, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt shook Europe to its core. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union party was the hardest hit. The CDU had ruled the state since 2002 and saw its vote share collapse from 37.1% in 2021 to 17.2%. Saxony-Anhalt is the eighth-largest of Germany’s 16 states by land area; measured by economic output per person, it is among the poorest. State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern this month are likely to bring more good news for the AfD and further setbacks for the Christian Democrats. Mr. Merz may lose his job as the bad news rolls in, but concerns about an extremist takeover of Germany are premature. Winning pluralities in a handful of former East German states is a significant achievement, but the AfD is still very far from taking over Germany as a whole. France, where Mar...
Merz on the ropes as election defeat shows centre is crumbling Financial Times Europe 8 Sep 2026 ben.ha l@ft.com Ben Ha l Whether or not the far-right Altern at ive for Ger many party has a path to power in the small east ern state of Sax ony-Anhalt, its crush ing vic tory in Sunday’s regional elec tion is a ter rible reflec tion on the coun try’s crum bling polit ical main stream. It spells ser i ous trouble for Chan cel lor Friedrich Merz and his Chris tian Demo cratic Union, whose share of the vote col lapsed. A score of 44 per cent would be the highest out come for a far-right move ment in a regional or national elec tion since the second world war — and this for a party whose regional branch has been cat egor ised as extrem ist by Ger many’s domestic secur ity ser vice. The CDU vote has sunk even fur ther than polls pre dicted, more than halv ing to 17.4 per cent since the last state elec tion in 2021. When Merz cam paigned for his party’s lead er ship in 2018, he...
Vox rides high in Spain over Ceuta backlash Financial Times Europe 8 Sep 2026 BARNEY JOPSON AND CARMEN MUELA — MADRID In a new sign of rightwing parties cap it al ising on anger over immig ra tion, a poll yes ter day showed that Vox — which takes a hard line stance — is ranked as the most “capable” of man aging the issue, includ ing by some main stream con ser vat ive voters. The poll from 40dB under scores the toll the Ceuta crisis is tak ing on Sánchez, one of the few European lead ers who con tin ues to espouse a lib eral immig ra tion policy, less than a year before the coun try’s next gen eral elec tion. The leftwing leader has been thrown on to the defens ive by short com ings in his gov ern ment’s man age ment after more than 70,000 people swam and rushed illeg ally into the Span ish exclave from Morocco in late July. Nearly six weeks on, the crisis remains unre solved. Between 5,000 and 10,000 migrants remain in the north African ter rit ory with a pop u...
The world’s $2tn interest bill Mount ing bor row ing costs and record debt are squeez ing pub lic fin ances, for cing gov ern ments to choose between higher taxes, spend ing cuts and vital pri or it ies such as defence. Financial Times Europe 8 Sep 2026 Data visu al isa tion by Jonathan Vin cent By Ian Smith, Sam Flem ing and Emily Her bert The world’s gov ern ments have cre ated a $2tn mon ster — a debt-ser vi cing bur den that gobbles up tax rev en ues and has the power to over whelm elec ted lead ers. More money is now spent on ser vi cing the national debt than on defence in the UK, France and the US; the same is true for more than a dozen states in the 38mem ber OECD rich coun tries’ club. Their prob lem is that bor row ing costs have climbed to the highest in almost two dec ades just as gov ern ments are tak ing on record debt. The total owed by the US gov ern ment reached a record $40tn last month. This year, OECD nations are expec ted to bor row $18tn between them, a...