For the European economy, Russia's war has caused a serious energy crisis and sharply rising inflation and has thus hit Europeans' purchasing power and dampened growth. While these current crises are occupying our thoughts, we should not lose sight of the longer-term structural trends shaping our economies.
The crisis, in its later stages, has revealed a number of common issues to which, it seems to me, insufficient thought has been given, and even less action taken. At our last meeting, in October 2008, shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, I examined the problems facing modern democracies in making decisions that require citizens to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gains.