In this episode, ECIPE’s Fredrik Erixon and Oscar Guinea talk about the EU’s revised Product Liability Directive (PLD) and how it risks fuelling many new class action lawsuits. Is it really good for Europe’s economy that it imports more of America’s litigation culture for managing collective redress?

Together, they look into how the PLD expands “product” to include software, AI systems, algorithms, and digital files, and how new evidentiary presumptions and disclosure rules could lower the burden of proof for claimants.

The discussion links the PLD to Europe’s growing “mass litigation” infrastructure (funders, specialised law firms, claim-bundling platforms), warns about forum shopping and Single Market fragmentation, and contrasts litigation-heavy models with Nordic approaches centred on public enforcement and alternative dispute resolution.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

On this episode of ECIPE’s Global Economy Podcast, our Director, Matthias Bauer, welcomes Nicky Stewart, Senior Advisor at the Open Cloud Coalition, for a conversation on cloud markets in Europe, and how policy debates focus too heavily on market concentration and hyperscalers rather than on contractual lock-in, licensing practices, and lifecycle design.

Drawing on ECIPE’s study Cloud Resilience and Security: Why Exit, Portability and Lifecycle Design Matter, the episode explores switching barriers, multi-cloud strategies, public procurement, competition enforcement under the DMA, and the importance of resilience and cybersecurity for Europe’s digital economy.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Nicky Stewart is currently Senior Advisor at the Open Cloud Coalition. In the past, she led the Cabinet Office government/industry Commercial workstream for G-Cloud. Nicky left the government in 2011 and was the former Commercial Director of UKCloud. She has been a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Cloud Computing Contracts and has taken an active role in the European Commission’s Cloud Special Interest Group. She was the vice chair of techUK’s Central Government Council and is on the Open Cloud for Research Environments Expert Advisory Board. Nicky is regularly quoted in the trade and national press on cloud issues.

In this episode, Fredrik Erixon speaks to Jeffrey Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center about the legality of the “Liberation Day tariffs”. A ruling by the Supreme Court is expected soon, and Schwab is the plaintiff lawyer behind the case V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump. Schwab lays out his case and explains the constitutional limits of presidential tariff powers. They explore the legal arguments, implications for businesses, prospects for potential refunds, and the expected timeline for the Court’s ruling.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Jeffrey Schwab serves as Senior Counsel and Interim Director of Litigation at the Liberty Justice Center, where he litigates cases to protect civil liberties and constitutional rights. Jeff has a particular interest in protecting the right of free speech and enforcing constitutional and other legal limits on government.

He served as counsel for Mark Janus in Janus v. AFSCME, the landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court found that public employees could not be compelled to pay money to a union without their consent. He currently leads Liberty Justice Center’s efforts to enforce the Janus decision and protect public employees’ rights not to be forced to join or pay a union.

Jeff has also served as lead counsel in Liberty Justice Center cases challenging restrictions on ride-share vehicles and home-sharing hosts, the implementation of a tax on Internet streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify on Chicago residents, and campaign finance laws that seek to benefit certain political contributors over others. Additionally, Jeff challenged an Illinois law limiting which courts people who seek to vindicate their constitutional rights against the state can file.

He is admitted to practice in Illinois and is licensed in the US Supreme Court, the First, Second, Third, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as federal district courts in Illinois.

In this episode of our Global Economy Podcast, our Director, Oscar Guinea, talks with Lucian Cernat* about the latter’s new paper, Trade Policy 3.0: Three Scenarios for Tomorrowland.

Their conversation outlines the evolution from trade policy 1.0 to 3.0 and how geopolitical tensions, resilience, and economic security shape today’s landscape. They cover the WTO’s role, lessons from COVID-19, and three future scenarios (immunity, sclerosis, and contagion), offering insights into the shifting global trade environment.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Read Lucian’s study here.

Lucian Cernat is the Head of Trade in Goods, Tariff Negotiations, Technical Barriers to Trade, Customs and Rules of Origin at DG TRADE in the European Commission. Previously, he held the position of Head of Global Regulatory Cooperation and International Procurement Negotiation at the European Commission. Until 2008, he held various positions at the United Nations in Geneva dealing with trade and development issues. He has authored more than 20 publications on the development impact of trade policies, WTO negotiations, EU preferential market access, regional trade agreements, competition policy, corporate governance. Prior to his UN experience, he has been a Trade Diplomat with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and part of the negotiating team of bilateral FTAs with the EuroMed area and Baltic countries, preceding Romania’s accession to the EU. Lucian Cernat obtained a PhD from University of Manchester and a postgraduate diploma from Oxford University. He is also the author of Europeanization, Varieties of Capitalism and Economic Performance in Central and Eastern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

*Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not represent an official position by the European Commission.

ECIPE’s Fredrik Erixon talks to Professor Jonathan Barnett, from the University of Southern California, about his recent book The Big Steal: Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property.

Together, they discuss how policymakers have weakened IP protections in the last decades, partly because of shifting technologies and new ideas, and distorted innovation incentives. As a result, innovation and value generation have shifted between sectors and business models. The conversation also covers how strong IP rights contribute to long-term, high-value innovation, new entrepreneurship, and competition, drawing implications for Europe and global policy reform.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Order Professor Barnett’s book “The Big Steal: Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property” here.

Jonathan M. Barnett is the Torrey H. Webb Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, and director of the law school’s Media, Entertainment and Technology Law Program. He specialises in innovation law and policy, including antitrust, competition, corporate, and intellectual property law, with a focus on monetisation strategies and organisational structures in content and technology markets. He has published widely in scholarly and policy publications and comments regularly on innovation and competition policy in the press and at professional conferences. Prior to academia, he practised corporate law at a leading international law firm, specialising in mergers and acquisitions.

In this episode of the Global Economy Podcast, ECIPE’s Chief Economist, Erik van der Marel, sits down with Harold James, Professor at Princeton University and a leading expert on globalisation. Together, they dive into James’s book Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalisation, exploring how major economic shocks — from demand-side crises like the Great Depression and the 2008 financial meltdown to supply-side disruptions like the 1840s food crisis, the 1970s oil shock, and COVID-19 — have repeatedly reshaped the course of globalisation, either slowing it down or propelling it forward.

During their conversation, Erik and Professor James discuss the potential for a renewed wave of globalisation following the current negative supply shock. They trace historical parallels between past technologies — such as steam power and containerisation — and institutions like joint-stock companies that once propelled globalisation forward, and today’s transformative technologies, such as AI, that are likely to do the same. The dialogue also examines US policy, semiconductor bottlenecks, rare earths, the global shift toward services, intellectual property, and the role of education in shaping the future of globalisation.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Order Professor James’s book “Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalisation” here.

Harold James, the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies at Princeton University, is Professor of History and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, and an associate at the Bendheim Center for Finance. His books include a study of the interwar depression in Germany, The German Slump (1986); an analysis of the changing character of national identity in Germany, A German Identity 1770-1990 (1989); International Monetary Cooperation Since Bretton Woods (1996), and The End of Globalization (2001), which is available in 8 languages. He was also coauthor of a history of Deutsche Bank (1995), which won the Financial Times Global Business Book Award in 1996, and he wrote The Deutsche Bank and the Nazi Economic War Against the Jews (2001). His most recent books include Family Capitalism, Harvard University Press, 2006; The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle, Harvard University Press, 2009; Making the European Monetary Union, Harvard University Press, 2012; The Euro and the Battle of Economic Ideas (with Markus K. Brunnermeier and Jean-Pierre Landau), Princeton University Press, 2016; Making A Modern Central Bank: The Bank of England 1979-2003, Cambridge University Press 2020; The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization, Yale University Press 2021; Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization, Yale University Press 2023. He is the official historian of the International Monetary Fund. In 2004, he was awarded the Helmut Schmidt Prize for Economic History, and in 2005 the Ludwig Erhard Prize for writing about economics. He writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate.

In this episode of the Global Economy Podcast, Fredrik Erixon speaks with Stuart Harbinson, former WTO Ambassador and senior fellow at ECIPE, about the state of global trade, the Trump tariffs, and the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

They explore the erosion of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle, the rise of bilateralism, and the threat this poses to multilateral trade rules. The discussion highlights historical lessons, the limits and opportunities for WTO reform, and the role of the WTO Secretariat. Harbinson also offers pragmatic insights into dispute settlement, the MPIA, and possible paths forward for preserving the multilateral trading system.

Read Stuart’s blog “The WTO in the Age of Trump’s Trade Bullying – Should There Be WTO Reform?“.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Stuart Harbinson had a distinguished career in public service in Hong Kong. From 1994 to 2002 he represented Hong Kong, and then the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, in the WTO in Geneva. He subsequently joined the WTO Secretariat as Chief of Staff to Director-General Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi and then became Senior Adviser to Director-General Pascal Lamy. He has rich experience as a former Chairman of a number of WTO bodies, including the TRIPS and Services Councils, and the Dispute Settlement Body. He was Chairman of the WTO’s overarching body, the General Council overseeing preparations for the launch of the Doha round, and of the negotiating group handling the formative stages of the Doha negotiations on agriculture. He has also chaired a number of WTO dispute settlement panels. After leaving the WTO, he worked in the UNCTAD Secretariat and for international law firms in Geneva, and has undertaken several trade-related technical assistance projects. He currently serves as a part time adviser on international trade for Penta Group, the world’s first comprehensive stakeholder solutions firm.

This episode of the Global Economy Podcast, hosted by Philipp Lamprecht, features Dr Bernd Christoph Ströhm and focuses on the geopolitical and economic relevance of the Western Balkans for the European Union.

The conversation explores the region’s strategic importance amid increasing competition from China and Russia, challenges in the EU enlargement process, and the growing frustration among Western Balkan countries over stalled accession talks. The episode highlights how EU regulations can impose unintended costs on neighbouring countries and calls for more flexible, credible, and inclusive policies. Bernd and Philipp advocate for a more responsive, strategic, and geopolitically aware EU approach to its neighbourhood.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Dr Bernd Christoph Ströhm is a Senior Fellow at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), a Senior Research Associate and Country Expert at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), and a Political Risk / OSINT Analyst at S&P Global.

At ECIPE, his research focuses on Russia’s foreign policy dynamics, the influence of non-EU actors such as Russia and China on Southeastern Europe, the EU integration of the Western Balkans, and the economic and political development of the entire Western Balkan region. He holds a PhD in East European Studies and a master’s in Advanced International Studies.

At the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), he regularly drafts comprehensive macroeconomic analyses and policy forecast reports, assessing economic trends and policy impacts in the Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) region. At S&P Global, he crafts analytical pieces on political risk-inducing events in the CESEE region, including policy changes and protest risks. He also monitors the outcomes of national and regional elections in the Western Balkans, while drafting country reports that evaluate political and governmental stability within the CESEE region.

Bernd worked on numerous publications and different projects, including in-depth analyses of Chinese infrastructure investments in the Western Balkans for the European Parliament, a thorough cohesion policy study on Germany for the European Commission, or a study on free trade policy recommendations for the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). He teaches as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, where he holds interdisciplinary lectures and seminars. His lectures and seminars cover the evolution of the international system, the political and economic situation in the Western Balkans, and the geopolitical and geoeconomic influences of China and Russia on the region, as well as the evolution of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy dynamics.

Frank Lavin joins Fredrik Erixon on the ECIPE Global Economy podcast to discuss his book Inside the Reagan White House: A Front Row Seat to Presidential Leadership with Lessons for Today. The conversation centres on Reagan’s leadership and the philosophical pillars of his presidency.

Lavin reflects on Reagan’s views on government, the Cold War, and his moral approach to foreign policy, comparing it to today’s tendency to use more grievance-driven rhetoric. They also explore Reagan’s ability to unite people across political divides, his optimism, and his focus on individual empowerment. The discussion highlights valuable leadership lessons for today’s political climate.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.

You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Order Mr Lavin’s book “Inside the Reagan White House: A Front-Row Seat to Presidential Leadership with Lessons for Today” here.

Frank Lavin is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford University). He was CEO of Export Now and he is the author of several books on economics and international affairs, including “Home Front to Battlefront: An Ohio Teenager in World War II (War and Society in North America)”.

Frank has had senior posts in national security and international policy in the administrations of the two Bush presidencies and was Director of Politics under Ronald Reagan.

El episodio 4 del pódcast Sin Arancel de por Medio presenta una conversación con Carlos Ruiz-Hernández, ex vicecanciller de Panamá y actual asesor en CSIS y el Inter-American Dialogue.

El diálogo aborda el papel de Panamá en la geopolítica actual, destacando su ingreso al Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, su postura frente a la retórica de Donald Trump sobre el canal de Panamá, y la política exterior pragmática del presidente Mulino. También se analizan las relaciones con China, la salida del país de la Ruta de la Seda, y el papel estratégico de Panamá ante Estados Unidos, la Unión Europea y el cambio climático.

Puedes leer una transcripción completa en español de la conversación aquí.

Lee el post en Substack que acompaña a este episodio aquí.

Suscríbete a Sin Arancel de por Medio en Apple Podcasts o Spotify, para no perderte ningún episodio, y en Substack, donde podrás encontrar información adicional a nuestras conversaciones.

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Episode 4 of the podcast Sin Arancel de por Medio features a conversation with Carlos Ruiz-Hernández, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Panama and current advisor at CSIS and the Inter-American Dialogue.

The discussion explores Panama’s role in global geopolitics, including its entry into the UN Security Council, its stance on Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the Panama Canal, and the pragmatic foreign policy of President Mulino. It also examines Panama’s relations with China, its exit from the Belt and Road Initiative, and its strategic position in relation to the United States, the European Union, and climate change.

You can read a complete transcript of the conversation in English here.

Find the Substack post (in Spanish) accompanying this piece here.

Subscribe to Sin Arancel de por Medio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, to not miss out on the release of any episodes, as well as on Substack, where we will share complimentary information to the conversations.

Carlos Ruiz-Hernández, ha sido vicecanciller de la República de Panamá. Carlos cuenta con una destacada trayectoria diplomática. Entre sus logros destaca la entrada de Panamá como miembro no permanente del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas desde enero de 2025.

En la actualidad, Carlos es asesor principal de política exterior en el Centro de Estudios Estratégicos e Internacionales, conocido por sus siglas en inglés como CSIS, con sede en Washington, y Senior Fellow del Inter-American Dialogue.

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Carlos Ruiz-Hernández has served as Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Panama and has a distinguished diplomatic career. Among his achievements is Panama’s entry as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in January 2025.

Currently, he is a Senior Foreign Policy Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), based in Washington, and a Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue.