A spectre is haunting capitals on three continents: the widening gap between political rhetoric and the conditions businesses need to grow. In Berlin, a coalition summit has revived a dictum attributed to a former economics minister—‘the economy takes place in the economy’—and applied it bluntly to the business of governing. Politics, German commentators argue, takes place in politics. The ruling coalition may consult social partners as much as it likes, but it cannot delegate its responsibility to shape the legal framework. If it wants to turn the tide, it must curb the relentless rise in labour costs that is choking value creation. The message is a sobering one for any government that confuses dialogue with delivery.

That same tension plays out at the municipal level in Sweden, where local authorities are learning that a favourable ranking is not the same as a favourable climate. In Halmstad, eight out of ten companies say they want to expand and hire over the next five years—the highest share in the country—yet just as many report being blocked by skills shortages, regulatory complexity and sluggish administrative processes. The frustration, heard repeatedly from entrepreneurs, is not a lack of ideas or ambition but a thicket of obstacles that consume time and energy. Nearby Lomma has tumbled in a national business-climate survey, and the real alarm, Swedish analysts note, is not the drop itself but the weak scores on dialogue and information. Firms do not need more ceremonial words about the importance of enterprise; they need a municipality that listens early, gives clear answers and helps them get things right from the start.

If Germany and Sweden illustrate the slow erosion of business confidence, Colombia offers a stark warning of what happens when that erosion accelerates. The first round of the presidential election left two rupture candidates facing each other in the runoff, while the political centre collapsed. The result, observers in Bogotá stress, is no accident. It expresses a country that is exhausted, insecure and no longer willing to listen to promises of gradual improvement. In societies marked by deep malaise, the language of rupture pulls harder than the language of moderation. A 15-year-old commentator has publicly rejected the logic of voting for the ‘lesser evil’ out of fear, insisting that the decisions made now will shape the country where her generation will live, work and build a future. What Colombia needs, seasoned voices argue, is not redemption or punishment but a return to constitutional respect, independent institutions and the legal stability that allows investment and entrepreneurship to flourish.

Viewed from London or Washington, these disparate scenes converge on a single insight. When governments—national or local—fail to create predictable, business-friendly conditions, trust drains away and the centre gives ground to extremes. The German coalition’s hesitancy on labour costs, Swedish municipalities’ slow response to company needs and Colombia’s polarised runoff are not separate stories; they are variations on a common theme. The coming months will test whether political leaders can reclaim the agenda with concrete reforms that make it easier to start, run and expand a business. If they cannot, the frustration that already fuels rupture candidates in Latin America may well intensify in Europe’s mature democracies too.