Mittal Fame and fortune

In the old days, steel was the backbone of the Luxembourg economy. So much so that what was good for Arbed - the national steel company that was later merged into Arcelor - was almost by definition good for the country. That’s no longer true. The Grand Duchy’s prosperity now depends much more on its open and lightly regulated financial sector than on its fairly high-cost steel production. But this traditional attachment explains why the Luxembourg government seems to be finding it hard simply t...