What Banks Do with Our Money

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.