Finance

The Billionaire Prince

Saudi Arabia's Al-Waleed bin Talal is back in the spotlight for allegedly being one of the financiers behind the planned Islamic center in downtown Manhattan. Here are 10 things that you should know about the colorful royal.

BY SIMON HENDERSON | AUGUST 27, 2010

Europe Gets It Right

The continent's surprising comeback.

BY KURT VOLKER, JUAN ZARATE | AUGUST 12, 2010

Bank Shot

Nine years after 9/11, getting between extremist groups and their funding remains an uphill struggle.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | JUNE 21, 2010

Bubble Bath

People didn't drown the markets; a bad system did.

BY CHRYSTIA FREELAND | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Beijing's Billions

China's foreign-policy ambitions could change the way it spends its money abroad.

BY EVAN A. FEIGENBAUM | MAY 20, 2010

The State Department Can’t Be Trusted with Iran Sanctions

The U.S. Treasury is far more willing and equipped to make sanctions truly biting.

BY JONATHAN SCHANZER | MAY 14, 2010

Europe Bought Time and Not Much Else

The bailout may soothe markets, but it won't fix the fundamental problems that have pushed Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy to the brink.

BY URI DADUSH, MOISÉS NAÍM | MAY 11, 2010

Goldman Envy

Wall Street's copycats are even worse than the original.

BY SUZANNE MCGEE | APRIL 28, 2010

Epiphanies: Jacqueline Novogratz

When Jacqueline Novogratz first traveled to Africa in 1986, she meant business -- the serious business of sharing her entrepreneurial know-how with the poor. Now, the founder of the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital firm that works in developing countries, tells FP why she first went abroad and why it's time to end the culture of handouts.  

INTERVIEW BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | MAY/JUNE 2010

Beijing Is Key to Creating More U.S. Jobs

How China's unfair currency policies are exporting unemployment all over the world -- and why baby steps won't solve the problem.

BY C. FRED BERGSTEN | APRIL 14, 2010

How Iraqi Oil Is Changing the World

OPEC could be in for a serious shake-up.

BY STEPHEN GLAIN | MARCH 17, 2010

Money Talks

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | MARCH/APRIL 2010

China's High-Growth Ghost Towns

Visiting the eerily vacant epicenter of unsustainable progress, far out in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.

BY APRIL RABKIN | FEBRUARY 17, 2010

The Rial Problem

While all eyes are focused on the streets of Tehran, the real crack-up may be occurring in Iran's banking sector.

BY JAHANGIR AMUZEGAR | FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Sanctions on Iran Are Working

Ignore the false debate in Washington over which measures to pressure the Islamic Republic are the "smart" ones. Tehran is already feeling the heat.

BY MARK DUBOWITZ | FEBRUARY 10, 2010

The Many Ants of Iceland

With their country's economy in tatters from the financial crisis, Icelanders are turning to some strange methods for reforming their government.

BY ALTHEA LEGASPI | JANUARY 11, 2010

A $123 Trillion China? Not Likely.

The many, many reasons -- from the financial crisis to the country's aging population to environmental limitations -- why Robert Fogel's forecast for China is completely inconceivable. 

BY NICHOLAS CONSONERY | JANUARY 7, 2010

How High the Moon?

Eclipses move markets. Really.

BY MORDCHAI SHUALY | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

It Didn't Happen

The dollar didn't crash. Tariffs didn't come roaring back. The world's growing economies didn't grind to a halt. And other scary tales that failed to come true during the crisis.

BY MOISÉS NAÍM | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

Crude Is the New Carbon

Since the world can't seem to agree on cutting carbon emissions, maybe it's time to try an easier but equally important target: oil.

BY GAL LUFT | DECEMBER 22, 2009

The $2 Trillion Man

How Obama saved Brand America.

BY SIMON ANHOLT | DECEMBER 17, 2009

Punish Iran’s Rulers, Not Its People

The U.S. Congress is looking to penalize companies that help Iran import gasoline. But the plan is a huge giveaway to the very same hard-liners that are driving the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions and oppressing the Iranian people.

BY ALIREZA NADER | DECEMBER 14, 2009

Banking on Coal

Why is the World Bank subsidizing one of the planet's dirtiest fuels?

BY PHIL RADFORD | DECEMBER 9, 2009

How the Tricks That Crashed Wall Street Can Save the World

As countries including the United States reform their financial sectors, they should look inside the banks themselves for the tools for the fix.

BY OLIVER HART, LUIGI ZINGALES | DECEMBER 3, 2009

This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff know financial crises. In the preamble to their book, recommended by FP Big Thinkers Willem Buiter and Mohamed El-Erian, the two trace back the history of how, with each shock and economic trouble, the world believes that this time is different. It's not.

BY CARMEN M. REINHART, KENNETH ROGOFF | DECEMBER 3, 2009

Animal Spirits

In a chapter of their new book, recommended by FP Big Thinker Paul Collier, George A. Akerlof and Robert Shiller explain why stories -- the human narratives we use to make sense of a complicated world -- are vital to understanding economics.

BY GEORGE A. AKERLOF, ROBERT J. SHILLER | DECEMBER 3, 2009

Decline of the Dollar

Don't believe everything you read on the Drudge Report. Well into the next few decades, the global economy will still be all about the benjamins.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | OCTOBER 16, 2009

Sarkozy's Better Half

If the French president has a hope of getting things done at the G-20, it's because of his philosophic finance minister, Christine Lagarde.

BY ANNIE LOWREY | SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Bouncy Castle Finance

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year ago, Wall Street's gone from "too big to fail" to "too big to bail." How did we get here -- and how do we get out?

BY MARK BLYTH | SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

China's Top Muckrakers Stop Digging

Why is Caijing -- long a lone outpost of daring Chinese journalism -- suddenly censoring itself?

BY APRIL RABKIN | SEPTEMBER 4, 2009