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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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