Europe does not feel like a continent in crisis. Trains still run. Shops are open. Institutions function. Yet something has shifted beneath that surface of order. Across the European Union, living standards are under quiet pressure. Housing absorbs more income than it used to. Energy has become a permanent line item to worry about. Wages rise, but rarely fast enough to restore the balance people remember. This is not collapse. It is adjustment, and adjustment has a direction. More analysts are beginning to describe this phase as an EU late empire moment. Not because Europe is finished, but because systems … Continue reading Why the EU Is Becoming a Late Empire