World Finance, Macro Economics, Global Markets, Mega-Trends
H has grabbed the country by the throat, with the low-budget likes of Paranormal Activity and The Purge regularly breaking into the box-office Top 10, while cable’s highest-rated drama, The Walking Dead, leads a crowded TV lineup of witches, vampires, and other ghoulish fare Down to the Morgan Library I bat-flew one afternoon to pay homage to Edgar Allan…
The value of the arts to the economy has always been an elusive figure – until now. For the first time, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the Commerce Department, has quantified art’s impact, finding in a study released Thursday that 3.2 percent – or $504 billion – of the…
Revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in June about the U.S. government’s secret surveillance activities grabbed headlines across the globe. But while the world’s attention has been focused on the United States, prompting important discussions about the legitimacy and legality of such measures, disconcerting efforts to both monitor and censor…
A credibility trap is when the lies and the corruption become so widespread and embedded in a system that they become self-sustaining. It is when almost half of all Congressmen remain in the Capitol after leaving office so that they can make many millions per year peddling influence and crafting loopholes for corporations who are…
More and more of modern life is steered by algorithms. But what are they exactly, and who is behind them? Tom Whipple follows the trail There are many reasons to believe that film stars earn too much. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie once hired an entire train to travel from London to Glasgow. Tom Cruise’s…
Llyn Foulkes in Studio
United Nations’ early assessment of the 2013 crop found farmers were planning to plant more poppy than last year, marking the third annual rise in the drug’s cultivation. UN officials predict the increase will push this year’s crop close to 2007’s record level and again see Afghanistan responsible for more than 90 per cent of…