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Martin Sandbu

European Economics Commentator

Martin Sandbu is the Financial Times's European economics commentator. He also writes Free Lunch, the FT's newsletter on the global economic policy debate. He has been writing for the FT since 2009, when he joined the paper as economics leader writer.

Before joining the FT, he worked in academia and policy consulting. He is the author of three books, on business ethics, the euro, and on the economics of belonging.

Sign up to the Free Lunch newsletter here.

Email Martin Sandbu @MESandbu  on X.com (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Sunday, 2 November, 2025
    EU tech regulation
    Don’t let Europe’s deregulatory temptations weaken its democracies

    A good tech strategy would aim not just to catch up but to cultivate better alternatives

    Montage of a European flag merging into digital code
  • Thursday, 30 October, 2025
    Free LunchTechnology
    The four horsemen of Europe’s tech dependency

    Saddle up for how the digital economy shapes geopolitical power

    Premium content
  • Thursday, 23 October, 2025
    Free LunchSovereign debt
    Are we worrying too much about public debt?

    Aggregate numbers — public or private — are not what should keep you up at night

    Premium content
    The dome of the US Capitol building against a clear blue sky, with an American flag flying nearby.
  • Sunday, 19 October, 2025
    War in Ukraine
    On Russian assets, Europe fights with one hand tied behind its back

    The proposed reparation loan is a step forward but remains full of contradictions

    Friedrich Merz and Volodymyr Zelenskyy walk past EU, Ukrainian, and German flags after a press conference.
  • Thursday, 16 October, 2025
    ReviewEconomics books
    The untold power of land: territory as the world’s most enduring asset

    Forget Big Tech — about one-third of real global wealth is tied up in ownership of the ground beneath our feet

    An aerial view of a gently rolling landscape divided into squares and strips of fields.
  • Thursday, 16 October, 2025
    Free LunchTax
    The smart money in public finance

    Squeezed finance ministers should go big or go home

    Premium content
    Rachel Reeves stands outside a doorway holding a red folder labelled ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’ and smiles slightly.
  • Thursday, 9 October, 2025
    Q&AAsk an Expert
    Can the global economy withstand new shocks? You asked, we answered

    The FT’s Tej Parikh and Martin Sandbu replied to reader questions

  • Thursday, 9 October, 2025
    Free LunchFederal Reserve
    How to be a macroeconomic dove in Trump’s trade war

    The US president is not making it easy, but it’s possible to call for rate cuts with integrity

    Premium content
    The Federal Reserve building in Washington, with its facade reflected on a nearby surface.
  • Sunday, 5 October, 2025
    EU economy
    Europeans need to learn to love risk

    A culture of financial caution stymies innovation and prevents the continent from competing with the US and China

    Ursula von der Leyen, Mette Frederiksen, and Emmanuel Macron stand together in front of a “Copenhagen Competitiveness Summit” sign.
  • Thursday, 2 October, 2025
    Free LunchChinese economy
    How I learnt to stop worrying about China’s surplus

    Lessons from economic history point to the benign effects of ‘overcapacity’

    Premium content
    A Chinese flag flies in front of stacked shipping containers at a port in Shanghai.
  • Thursday, 25 September, 2025
    Free LunchChinese economy
    What we get wrong about China

    An interview with Michael Pettis

    Premium content
    Rows of BYD electric cars in various colours parked closely together, awaiting export at a port in Yantai, China.
  • Wednesday, 24 September, 2025
    The Economics Show podcast34 min listen
    China’s economy vs the world. With Michael Pettis

    Will China’s trade imbalance throw the world off-kilter?

  • Sunday, 21 September, 2025
    Global Economy
    The EU should see public anger at Trump as an opportunity

    Leaders must stop pretending that things are better than they are

    Ursula von der Leyen sits with Donald Trump, both in conversation, with U.S. and EU flags in the background.
  • Thursday, 18 September, 2025
    Free LunchEU economy
    The EU’s secret weapon for economic success

    A pan-European corporate code could unleash the scale and funding the continent’s businesses struggle to achieve

    Premium content
    A masked employee checks a control panel on the production line at a plastic tubes manufacturing company after a green pass check.
  • Thursday, 11 September, 2025
    Free LunchFrench economy
    France tries again

    Paris political class goes round in circles while public finances fall behind those of other countries

    Premium content
    A protester holds a French flag near burning bins as a crowd gathers during a demonstration in Lille.
  • Sunday, 7 September, 2025
    EU trade
    The EU should leave its culture of consensus behind

    Getting comfortable with division at home can strengthen Europe’s hand abroad

    Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz speak at podiums in front of German, French, and EU flags before talks.
  • Friday, 5 September, 2025
    News in-depthMonetary Policy Radar
    Politics increases the chances of significant US rate cuts

    A challenge to Monetary Policy Radar policy rate scenarios

    Montage including a chart and photo of Donald Trump
  • Thursday, 4 September, 2025
    Free LunchWar in Ukraine
    A ‘bad bank’ can solve Europe’s Russian assets conundrum

    If the political will is lacking to seize Moscow’s reserves outright, there are other ways

    Premium content
    People walk across Red Square in Moscow with St Basil's Cathedral and the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin in view.
  • Sunday, 31 August, 2025
    Free LunchGlobal Economy
    Warnings from the citadel of economic orthodoxy

    Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s outgoing number two official, reflects on six tumultuous years for the global economy

    Premium content
    Gita Gopinath speaks at a podium
  • Monday, 25 August, 2025
    EU foreign policy
    Europe is selling its soul to Trump

    What masquerades as pragmatism is self-harming opportunism

    President Donald Trump in the Oval Office with Mark Rutte, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Alexander Stubb, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Ursula von der Leyen, Giorgia Meloni and Keir Starmer
  • Sunday, 3 August, 2025
    Free LunchTrump tariffs
    The brave new world of trade has arrived

    Donald Trump has reset the global trading order. What happens next?

    Premium content
    A sailboat sails past a container ship at the Port of Oakland in California
  • Monday, 28 July, 2025
    EU common budget
    The EU’s budget is setting it up for geopolitical marginalisation

    The good, the bad and the ugly of the bloc’s multiyear spending proposal

    Farmers demonstrate during an EU agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels, in March 2024
  • Sunday, 27 July, 2025
    Free LunchEU trade
    The EU doesn’t need a deal with Trump

    The bloc has the strength not to offer the US anything

    Premium content
    Transshipment containers are stacked at the Westhafen container terminal in Berlin
  • Thursday, 17 July, 2025
    Free LunchMacroeconomics
    Trade and wealth tax myth-busting

    Know your facts before conventional wisdom gets you

    Premium content
    A man holds a sign that reads ‘Tax the rich’ during a protest in London in March against expected UK government cuts
  • Tuesday, 15 July, 2025
    UK tax
    Why a clean sweep on tax reform is the easiest option

    There are three big wins for the UK government if it ditches the hotchpotch of incentives and loopholes

    British Chancellor Rachel Reeves
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