Fines & Frugals

July 24 · 37 min · Season 1 · Episode 9

0:00-37:16

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A European President & US comedian: can you regulate your way to greatness, or only fine the people (ahem, Google) who got there first?

2 years after former Italian PM & ECB President Mario Draghi laid out the path to European greatness, how’s it going and what’s the obstacle to progress? This is your primer for the summer.

Updates & Clarifications

Google’s EU fines: Hours after we recorded, the EU announced a €890 million fine, its first fine under the Digital Markets Act. Google's previous EU antitrust fines include €2.42bn (Shopping, 2017), €4.34bn (Android, 2018 — cut to €4.1bn on appeal and confirmed by the EU's top court this month), €1.49bn (AdSense, 2019 — annulled on appeal in 2024), and €2.95bn (adtech, 2025).
EU’s 21st Russia sanctions package: this passed the afternoon after Google was fined. Greece got its compromise: EU ships can keep carrying Russian LNG to non-EU countries under contracts signed before the full-scale invasion, capped at current volumes and reviewed annually; existing business protected, no new business allowed. The visa ban on Russian soldiers was deferred (after objections led by France and Italy). Austria dropped its veto after the Raiffeisen-related measures were scaled back (its demand to compensate the bank against frozen Russian assets was not granted).
New US Tariffs: the day after recording the Trump administration replaced it’s 10% tarrfis (which in turn replaced its unlawful previous triff regime) it with new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, explicitly including the EU, on the stated grounds of lax enforcement of forced-labour import bans. That's the "new tariffs" Toomas said were coming. The EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the US justification groundless, on being asked whether the EU expected to be included: "Who can keep track of the tariffs going on and off?"
The Frugals: officially Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. Finland is counted as the honorary fifth.
The book Toomas recommends is What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff

Chapters

00:00:00 Introdcuction
00:01:30 This week's show
00:03:04 EU & Google tussle (again)
00:04:45 New US tariffs (strap in)
00:06:16 EU Sanctions Russia (why the delay?)
00:10:51 Ukraine defense shakeup
00:14:54 Dragi Report: backgrounder
00:16:27 "Euro-poors" & the veto problem
00:21:30 Industrial policy, climate policy & single market
00:26:10 How much!? (investment & borrowing)
00:35:37 When is this done?

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CREDITS

Editor Conan Roberts
Animation & Design Roland Seer - Tartu Multifilm @rolandseer
Music by Paabel @paabeltheband (Estonian folk-fusion)
Executive Producer Fred Casella