Articles by Roberto Balbino
Essays and analyses on monetary policy, banking, global markets and geopolitics, in English, Italian and Spanish.
189 articles · page 5 of 8
- EN23 min read
THE ECONOMICS OF LONELINESS
Loneliness Is Expensive. We Pay for It in Housing, Health, Care and Public Money.
- EN20 min read
THE SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY HAS QUIETLY REPLACED OWNERSHIP
You Keep Paying. Someone Else Keeps Owning. How Modern Capitalism Turned the Middle Class from Asset Owners into Permanent Monthly Customers.
- EN24 min read
WOMEN ARE MORE EDUCATED. MEN STILL OWN THE TOP.
Women Won the Education Race. They Are Still Losing the Economic One.
- EN12 min read
The Great European Car Extinction
SEAT, Jaguar, Lancia, Maserati, Saab, Rover — and the brutal economics deciding which historic car brands deserve to survive
- EN16 min read
WELCOME TO STARTUPLAND: WHERE EVERYONE IS A FOUNDER, EVERYONE IS AN ACCELERATOR — AND VERY FEW BUILD A GREAT COMPANY
Great ideas are everywhere. Capital, execution and success are not.
- EN6 min read
THE REAL QUESTION: DID WAGES KEEP UP WITH THE AMERICAN RECEIPT?
Trump says America is getting richer. The paycheck says maybe.The receipt says not so fast: in many parts of the country, the cost of everyday life is still rising faster than the purch power of wages
- EN23 min read
EUROPE’S TAX PARADOX: WHO ACTUALLY PAYS?
High taxes are not necessarily the problem. The real scandal begins when some citizens pay almost everything they owe, others do not, and both receive the same public services.
- EN9 min read
Is Substack Becoming Facebook With a Paywall?
When visibility replaces substance, is Substack still publishing — or just another social network?
- EN15 min read
WHEN “GOOD NEWS” MAKES STOCKS FALL, THE SYSTEM IS NOT BROKEN. IT IS WORKING.
Trump says strong jobs should automatically mean higher stocks, lower rates and even 15–20% GDP growth. That is not how monetary policy, inflation, bond markets or equity valuation work
- EN31 min read
REVOLUT: THE BANK THAT STARTED BY TRYING NOT TO BE A BANK
From a London fintech experiment to a global banking powerhouse: the rise, reinvention and contradictions of Revolut — and how it changed what customers expect from money.
- IT19 min read
MELONI, SOGGETTO: IL GOVERNO PIÙ LONGEVO DELLA REPUBBLICA. OGGETTO:
QUATTRO ANNI PER RESTARE AL POTERE, NON PER CAMBIARE L’ITALIA: CRESCITA DA 0,x%, DEBITO IN RISALITA, SALARI REALI IMPOVERITI, GIOVANI IN FUGA, SOVRANISMO ARRESO ALLA REALTÀ
- ES21 min read
MELONI, EL SUJETO: EL GOBIERNO MÁS LONGEVO DE LA REPÚBLICA ITALIANA. EL OBJETO:
ESTANCAMIENTO, DEUDA, SALARIOS REALES DEPRIMIDOS, ÉXODO JUVENIL Y EL FRACASO DE LA PROMESA SOBERANISTA.
- EN20 min read
MELONI, THE SUBJECT: THE LONGEST-SERVING GOVERNMENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC. THE OBJECT:
STAGNATION, DEBT, FALLING REAL WAGES, YOUTH EXODUS — AND THE FAILURE OF THE SOVEREIGNIST PROMISE.
- IT10 min read
MELONI, SOGGETTO: IL GOVERNO PIÙ LONGEVO DELLA REPUBBLICA. OGGETTO:
Crescita debole, debito ancora enorme, salari reali sotto pressione e una politica migratoria da leggere senza slogan: meno sbarchi non significa meno immigrazione, e i rimpatri restano il vero banco
- EN8 min read
Latin America’s Fintech Stack Is No Longer a Neobank Story
From digital banks to payment infrastructure, SME credit and stablecoin rails: the real transformation of Latin American finance is happening underneath the consumer interface.
- EN14 min read
THE TAX ARCHITECTURE OF THE RICH
How Billionaires and Multinationals Legally — and Sometimes Aggressively — Minimize Their Taxes
- EN14 min read
THE AI BOOM IS NO LONGER A TECHNOLOGY STORY. IT IS BECOMING A STORY.
How the financing of artificial intelligence is quietly changing global capital markets
- EN9 min read
Why Korean Skincare Is Challenging the European Beauty Industry
For decades, European beauty companies dominated the global cosmetics industry.
- EN16 min read
The Global Labour Market in 2026: The Great Reallocation of Work
Jobs are not disappearing. They are moving — between sectors, countries, generations and skill levels. AI is accelerating the process, demographics are making it unavoidable, and migration is becoming
- EN9 min read
LinkedIn: 1.2 Billion Users, Endless Verification, But Where Is the Real Value?
There is something fundamentally wrong with LinkedIn.
- EN13 min read
The Treasury Trap: When Debt Supply Meets the Limits of Bond Demand
The U.S. debt problem is real. The inevitability of a debt crisis is not.
- EN7 min read
Netflix: The Content Machine That May Be Destroying Quality
Netflix is one of the most extraordinary financial machines ever created in the entertainment industry.
- EN9 min read
The Other Side of “The Mafia’s Banker”
An independent reflection on money, trust, responsibility, memory and the price of leaving things unresolved
- EN27 min read
Delaware Is Not a Tax Haven: Understanding the Real Tax, Legal and Corporate Structure of Delaware
Why Delaware became America’s corporate jurisdiction — and why the reality is very different from the offshore myth