The “fetishizing” of economics has resulted in a perpetual cycle of unfulfilled desire and debt and a “post coitum depression”, says Tomas Sedlacek. He is the Czech economist and bestselling author of The Economics of Good and Evil (2011), internationally renowned for challenging assumptions and radically rethinking and humanizing economics. Chief macroeconomic strategist at ČSOB and former economic advisor to President Vaclav Havel, he describes economics as a cultural phenomenon which cannot be free of ethics.

In early June, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would seek withdrawal from, or renegotiation of, the Paris Agreement on climate change. There is a clear danger of overreaction by Europe. Before going too far down this road and committing itself to a confrontational path, however, European leadership should take a step back and assess the situation more broadly, David Livingston and Erik Brattberg of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace comments.