Economists calculate the costs of unemployment to society in terms of the amount of aggregate income that is foregone because of resources left idle. That is a worrying number right now. Figures just released by the International Labour Organisation show ...

Take the UK, for example. “Only 12.5 percent of FTSE 100 directorships are held by women,” says Susan Vinnicombe, professor of organisational behaviour and diversity management at Cranfield School of Management and co-author of the school̵...

This is no way to run a currency. When Libya descended into civil war in February, central bank governor Farhat Omar Bengdara left the capital Tripoli because communications had failed and he couldn’t carry out the routine daily transactions that the Ba...

Many still think of Paraguay as the ‘forgotten country’ – and although that label is no longer valid, it’s not hard to see where it came from. Paraguay is bordered by much more populated countries – Brazil, Argentina and Boli...

“Nothing is more useful than water; but it will purchase scarce any thing; scarce any thing can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exc...

It is not surprising that the world’s bond markets have looked less and less appealing since their role in the financial crisis and their performance subsequent to it. What is more, experts predict that there is not likely to be much pick up in deve...

When FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced in December last year that the 2022 football World Cup would be played in Qatar (to the astonishment of almost all observers), it was a victory for more than just the soccer fans of the tiny Arabian Gulf state. I...

But if the global credit crisis and subsequent economic fallout has taught investors one thing, it’s that we are not living in normal times – this evidenced by central banks across the Western World employing quantitative easing measures (with...

There is no doubt that cash is an expensive convenience. Its anonymity offers the opportunity for tax avoidance and money laundering, both of which cost governments billions. The business costs of handling cash are escalating, too. According to a recent s...

When the achievements of Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company’s president and chief executive, are finally added up, the occasion of January’s Detroit motor show will figure large. It was then, in a genuine shock to other automobile firms, that Mr...