News
Ultrafast lasers: The thin end of the wafer
11+ hour, 58+ min ago (605+ words) Emerging Europe The thin end of the wafer The memory crunch is a fab story. The quieter squeeze, one step later, in advanced packaging, runs through a few makers of ultrafast lasers. Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal on…...
Pursuing the CEE dream
1+ day, 9+ hour ago (152+ words) Radu Magdin is a global analyst and consultant, and former prime ministerial advisor in Romania and Moldova. Central and Eastern Europe is becoming Europe's engine, not its edge. That transition needs a coherent agenda, not mawkish sentimentality. That determination is…...
Retail investing: A stake, not a say
1+ day, 11+ hour ago (670+ words) Emerging Europe A stake, not a say Retail apps turned owning shares into a quick phone tap. The money seldom reaches the firms it tracks, and the votes pool in very few hands. Omar Arnaout runs XTB, a brokerage that…...
Bulgaria and the euro: Small change
2+ day, 11+ hour ago (702+ words) Emerging Europe Six months on, Bulgaria's feared price shock never came. Romania, watching closely next door, should note where the real trouble truly lies. Just after midnight on January 1, with fireworks bursting over the headquarters of the Bulgarian National Bank…...
Ukraine reconstruction: Brave money, later
3+ day, 11+ hour ago (796+ words) Emerging Europe The money to rebuild Ukraine is being lined up behind public guarantees. Most of it moves only once Russia's war has finally come to an end. Dominykas Tuckus had a figure to share. On June 25, at the Ukraine…...
Albania's revolution: Flamingos can't be bribed
5+ day, 8+ hour ago (250+ words) Enio Ja'o is the former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania and head of an NGO supporting the EU accession of the Western Balkans. He chairs the board of a global ESG leadership organisation, a sustainability network,…...
The conference business: Worth the room
6+ day, 11+ hour ago (503+ words) Emerging Europe Conferences spent decades selling the big idea. Now, the business has learned that what people pay for is access, and is rebuilding to suit. When Eric Newcomer hosted the first Cerebral Valley AI Summit in March 2023, he borrowed…...
Slovenia's economy: Modesty forbids
1+ week, 11+ hour ago (659+ words) Emerging Europe Few countries succeed as discreetly as Slovenia does. The low profile rather flatters the place, but capital follows attention, not modesty. Of Europe's smaller countries, it's arguably Estonia that these days gets the most attention. Its digital society…...
The lone founder: Party of one
1+ week, 6+ day ago (661+ words) Emerging Europe Artificial intelligence now turns the lone founder into a credible rival to the corporation, and the steady salaried job into a riskier bet. In February 2025 Maor Shlomo, a programmer in Tel Aviv, put online a side project called…...
NEETs: Job lot
2+ week, 1+ day ago (670+ words) Emerging Europe Raising the retirement age does not lock the young out of work. The real threat to Europe's NEETs is the software devouring the bottom rung. Ane Halsboe-J'rgensen, Denmark's employment minister, watched parliament vote by 81 to 21 in May 2025 to…...