When an institution of government decides that it is alright to privatize profits on the way up but nationalize subsequent losses on the way down, you know that something deeply undemocratic is playing out. The ideas that have been ventilated this week by Hank Paulson, supported incidentally by the major...

How can we explain financial markets? This week, millions of investors are trying to make sense of the past few weeks. Why did bank shares collapse so much? Can any rebound be sustained and what might be around the next corner?

Before we try to answer these questions, it is...

This Easter week, an interesting way to look at the U.S. financial markets is through the prism of religion -- and, in my case, Catholicism. Easter is the holiest and most dramatically tragic week of the Christian calendar. We begin with the euphoria and adulation of Palm Sunday. From these...

The other day, I listened to Latin American economists and business leaders discuss the US recession. The Mexican central bank governor, referring to the carnage on Wall Street, the sub-prime crisis, and the credit crunch, jokingly remarked: ''At least WE didn't cause it this time."

He was referring to the...

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Venice was the centre of the trading world. Crusaders and merchants of all sorts came through this great city to travel to and from the Holy Land. The streets were awash with coins from all over the world. Thus the money changers of St...

On Tuesday, September 19 2006, Ireland was holding its breath. The worst storm in years was about to upset the most over-hyped jamboree in the sporting calendar -- the Ryder Cup. The country had been bombarded by one of the most expensive sports advertising campaigns ever. Our appetite was whetted...

The Irish are conflicted. We are obsessed by the American election -- in which we can't vote, and of which the outcome will have no legal bearing on us. Yet at the same time, we are turned off by an upcoming European Union referendum, the Lisbon Treaty, where Ireland will...