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What Drives Their High Profits, How to Share Them with Savers, and What’s Driving the New Round of Banking M&A Bankers are among the most disliked – and envied – people in the world: they privatize profits and, in times of crisis, socialize losses. While bailouts can sometimes be unavoidable, they can be prevented with simple rules and strong, independent regulators. And profits, too, can be shared – not through one-off taxes, but by steadily lowering costs for customers and businesses. By contrast, heavy political involvement in banking M&A risks holding back the development of capital markets and reinforcing an economy still overly reliant on banks. Four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we also revisit the country’s economy and the situation of refugees in Europe, caught between the desire to stay and the hope of returning home.

Understanding the Global Success of Populist Leaders How can over 60 million Americans be willing to vote for Donald Trump—a figure widely seen as unfit to serve as President of the United States—in the upcoming November 5 election? What drives the success of populist leaders worldwide, even when history shows their governments often bring widespread hardship, undermine democratic institutions, and weaken protections for private property? In this issue of Eco, leading economists, political scientists, journalists, and public commentators share their perspectives, offering valuable comparisons between trends on both sides of the Atlantic.