Money really is funny stuff. There it sits, in the bank, waiting patiently to be turned into just about anything you need, from a loaf of bread to a Lamborghini. It will always be there for you until, of course, it isn't.

Hard currency is nothing more than a promise,...

My wife's father came from a tiny village in the south of China called Loong Poon Lei, an idyllic corner of the People's Republic.

I was taken aback by the beauty of the place when I visited after a trip to Hong Kong, some four hours drive to the...

A business partner must be chosen with extreme care. No amount of due diligence is enough when entrusting someone with half your fortunes.

Family, on the other hand, cannot be chosen. It is forced upon us whether we like it or not.
A financial decision requires cold calculation, an...

A colleague staggered into the office a couple of days ago weighed down by a rather large, ornately designed cardboard box.

Inside it were dozens of brightly wrapped candies, each the size of a bantam's egg. They were, she told us, a delicacy from her native Iraq, recently delivered by...

Johnny Depp has a lot to answer for. The "mockney" drawl, the swagger and the healthy disdain for maritime authorities he perfected as Captain Jack Sparrow lent a cachet to piracy that had eluded the profession for centuries.

Don't get me wrong -- pirates have always been cool, but not...

Springtime in the Arab world will be forever associated with revolution and civil unrest after the events of last year but in the West it means only one thing: tax season.

The rest of the world barely notices the marvels of nature reawakened for piles of receipts overflowing from shoeboxes...

When we are shown horrific images of war, such as the dying child filmed by the late Marie Colvin in Syria last week, it is hard to imagine any other product of conflict than the tragic loss of human life.

But brutality and bullets are not the only things that...

My son, Charlie, is 4 months old and specializes in eating and growing. He does both at an alarming rate, and so he should, as he is a very happy and very healthy growing boy.

Little does he know, however, that in excelling so superbly in both aspects of his...