Thus The Financial Times today. “Biggest decline in more than five years intensifies recession concerns,” elaborates the newspaper. The euro is plummeting, of course. And so are most of the European stockmarket indices. What next? With unemployment just below seven percent, Germany will have to do something about it pretty soon. The articles on many a slump are not worth reading, it goes without saying. The so-called experts are all over the place. As ever, the economists are a pitiful sight when it comes to unexpected jolts. But there is one thing that nobody mentions as a possible cause for the slump: sanctions against Russia. Putin is perhaps the only one who is laughing as he reads the news. Not an economist, he can see the writing on the wall without any problem. “Goodness gracious,” he is now laughing in his office, “sanctions are finally biting!”