VoxEU launched in June 2007 with a simple but ambitious idea: that rigorous economics could speak clearly, quickly, and accessibly to the world’s most urgent policy debates. As its founding Editor-in-Chief Richard Baldwin steps down, this column marks this moment with thanks for his vision, his energy, and his service to the economics profession and to the public. When VoxEU launched in June 2007, it was an experiment with a simple but ambitious idea: that rigorous economics could speak clearly,