Thomas Fricke

Thomas Fricke is Director of New Economy Forum and Chief Economist at the European Climate Foundation. Based in Berlin, Thomas is focused on the ECF’s efforts around managing the transition to low-carbon economy.

Prior to joining the ECF in December 2013, Thomas was Chief Economist of Financial Times Deutschland, where he wrote a weekly column on the business cycle, economic policy, and international economic issues and was responsible for the economics page and comments. He started his career as a journalist at the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel and later served as economics correspondent at the weekly magazine Wirtschaftswoche in Düsseldorf and at Manager Magazin in Hamburg, where he wrote a monthly column.

In 2007, Thomas launched an Internet economics blog, WirtschaftsWunder, which he continues to run.

He was awarded the Franco-German Prize for Journalism and the Publicist’s Prize of Germany’s Keynes Society. His book “Wie viel Bank braucht der Mensch?” (“How Much Bank Do We Need?”) was published in March 2013, and it won the getAbstract International Book Award in October 2013.

Thomas studied Economics and Politics in Aachen, Germany, and in Paris, where he got a diploma at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and at the Université Paris I – Sorbonne. Following his studies, he worked as a researcher at the Paris-based economics institute Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques (OFCE).

By this expert

German Worries: Fear Fosters Crisis

Article | Jul 20, 2016

Inflation, the euro crisis – for years there has been one worry hype after another. Yet fear frequently turns out to be wrong. We need a committee of wise men in charge of dealing with the real risks.

Crisis After Brexit: Let us put an end to the old Europe of denigrators

Article | Jul 5, 2016

No, it’s not bureaucracy that is to blame - It’s the EU that has a problem, because urged by Germany it has pushed a kind of naive globalization, the outgrowths of which contribute to the upswing of dim-witted populists. Not only in the EU. Time for a new paradigm.

A New Economic Paradigm to Fight Populism

Article | Jun 15, 2016

Globalisation was once considered a doctrine of salvation - but it has produced too many losers and created a breeding ground for heralds of simplistic truths. It is high time for a new doctrine.

Where the SPD and Germany would stand today without Agenda 2010

Article | May 17, 2016

The SPD, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, has been collapsing in the popularity polls ever since they in 2003 launched the reform Agenda. What would have come of the party if it had not been for this insane rush to reform? Possibly Gerhard Schroeder could even still be chancellor today. A case for the time machine.

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