There is such a thing as a free lunch, at least if you are a bank. Imagine this: I offer to lend you as much money as you like at 0.5 per cent interest and then I will immediately borrow it back at...

Here is a fun fact. Between 2000 and 2007, the top five executives of Lehman Brothers pocketed $1 billion. At Bear Sterns the top five guys made even more: $1.4 billion over the same period. So on...

Here in the depths of the bust, it is tempting to feel nostalgia for the boom. Let’s not. The bust has been brutal but the boom wasn’t so great either. The British economy actually grew more in...

As the Eurozone contemplates the possibility of Greek default, American pundits are boasting about US federalism. American states, they say, would never allow the fiscal irresponsibility that...

The economy was supposed to bound out of a deep recession like a tiger: hungry, with spring in its step, full of pent up demand. But this one looks more like a sickly kitten, its weakness palpable to...

Britain, along with much of the western world, has (barely) managed to crawl its way out of recession. That it has done so is mostly thanks to unprecedented and, I dare say heroic, government easing....

Of all the things that the modern British state provides, what could we do without? Britain has to cut state spending, and while we might argue about how much and how soon, there is no question that...

The euro, which has been falling for months, rallied yesterday as markets grew slightly more confident that Germany would bail out Greece. For years, the strong economies of Europe have insisted that...

So Goldman Sachs are the first out of the traps to make it clear just how sorry they are for making so much darned money. Partners at the firm have announced that they are rationing themselves to...

House prices in the Dona Marta favela overlooking Botafogo beach in Rio de Janiero have quadrupled in the past year. Part of the reason is Brazil’s booming economy, probably more is President...