Ernest Hemingway famously observed that debtors go bankrupt in two ways – gradually, then suddenly.
The good news is that, for now, Belgium is still going bust gradually. Government debt is high and creeping up, but the situation is not yet catastrophic.
The bad news is that amid economic stagnation, institutional gridlock and relentlessly rising spending demands due to demography, defence and debt interest, the country’s polarised political system seems unlikely to put public finances on a sustainable footing unless a crisis suddenly strikes.
Read my latest piece for Brussels Times