Afd's Rise Is Paralyzing Germany's Political Center

Latest stories China's Indonesian nickel boom runs into a limestone wall The chip industry's future is memory by design Bessent's big talk runs into bigger market realities

Firewall against the AfD is becoming a trap
Diego Faßnacht reports that the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt breakthrough has pushed Germany's firewall strategy to its limits, forcing the political center into increasingly fragile anti-AfD arrangements while weakening Merz's reform agenda and deepening paralysis inside the governing coalition.

Bessent goes Japanese as Japan's economy goes German
Scott Foster reports that Scott Bessent's debt-buyback strategy is faltering as bond markets resist US efforts to suppress yields, while Japan's economy increasingly depends on government spending as inflation, yen intervention and weak consumption undermine Takaichi's growth agenda.