Wanted: Islam’s VoltaireCorbisTO MOST Western ears, the very idea of punishing heresy conjures up a time four or five centuries ago, when Spanish inquisitors terrorised dissenters with the rack
Regulating executive compensation: Pay and politics
So far, Congress is taking a surprisingly sensible approach to the problem of payIllustration by David SimondsTHE boardrooms of America were ready for misery. What else could result from Congress&rsqu
Illiberal politics: America's unjust sex laws
An ever harsher approach is doing more harm than good, but it is being copied around the worldiStockphoto IT IS an oft-told story, but it does not get any less horrific on repetition. Fifteen years ag
Business in Japan: No exit
What Japan needs is more bankruptcies, not fewerIllustration by Claudio MunozJAPAN has long practised a form of familial capitalism. In good times industrial collusion, overseen by bureaucrats, is pra
Fund management: Competitive failure
Mergers between fund managers will not bring fees down. Customers couldIllustration by Claudio MunozECONOMISTS tend to think that an industry divided between hundreds of players, each with a tiny mark
Reforming financial regulations in America: Better broth, still too many cooks
Barack Obama’s plan for regulatory reform is not bold enoughAFPFINANCIAL regulation in America has two problems: there is both too much of it and too little. Multiple federal agencies oversee th
Wall Street and the taxpayer: Thanks, for nothing
Banks should be encouraged to pay back governments—but not to rewrite historyIllustration by S. KambayashiTHERE is a new kind of queue in banking, and it is not formed of terrified depositors tr
Deforestation and carbon credits: Seeing REDD in the Amazon
Saving rainforests needs both property rights and paymentsStill PicturesFORESTS lock up a lot of carbon. Cutting them down accounts for around 20% of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases. O
The worrying European elections: Trouble at the polls
Many of Europe’s voters do not like the European Union. Most of the rest don’t care. They shouldIT WAS formally one election to a single body, the European Parliament. Yet in truth what to
Gordon Brown stumbles on: Reprieved
The prime minister’s survival is probably bad news for his party, but not necessarily for his countryReutersGORDON BROWN may lack the political graces but one quality he has in abundance: sheer
Public debt: The biggest bill in history
The right and wrong ways to deal with the rich world’s fiscal messBrett RyderTHE worst global economic storm since the 1930s may be beginning to clear, but another cloud already looms on the fin
Russia's uneasy handover
The new Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, faces an unpalatable legacy
MOST elections have an element of uncertainty about them. Not Russia's. This weekend, barring a miracle, Dmitry Medvedev, Vlad