Household wealth The balance-sheet boom Household wealth, and debt, is forecast to swell in 2015 WITH the excesses of Christmas nearly over, Britons are planning their budgets for the new year. Their decisions will be crucial for the economy. After p...
Brazil's economy Rough weather ahead The mistakes Dilma Rousseff made during her first presidential term mean her second will be stormy WHILE Dilma Rousseff prepared to be sworn in for a second term as Brazil's president on January 1st, the skies ove...
Climate change and geoengineering Fears of a bright planet Experiments designed to learn more about ways of geoengineering the climate should be allowed to proceed SHINY things absorb less heat when left in the sun. This means that if the Earth could...
greece and the euro Crisis revisited The euro is still vulnerable, and Greece is not the only problem IT WAS almost exactly five years ago that the euro crisis erupted, starting in Greece. Investors who had complacently let all euro-zone countries bo...
Turkey and the European Union Media freedom RIP? A fresh round of arrests takes relations with the European Union to a new low WE HAVE no concern about what the EU might say, whether the EU accepts us as members or not. The latest outburst from Recep...
World economy Past and future tense The world economy in 2015 will carry troubling echoes of the late 1990s A FINANCIAL crash in Russia; falling oil prices and a strong dollar; a new gold rush in Silicon Valley and a resurgent American economy; weakn...
Astrophysics Dust to dust A dramatic recent discovery in physics is looking rather dodgy IN MARCH Chao-Lin Kuo, an astrophysicist at Stanford University, filmed himself knocking on the door of his colleague Andrei Linde. In the 1980s Dr Linde was one...
Our country of the year Hope springs This has been a bad year for nation-states. But someand one in particulardeserve congratulations EVEN with the best will in the worldwhich, in 2014, has not been conspicuously forthcomingthe outgoing year could no...
Russia and the rouble As ye sow, so shall ye reap The collapse in the rouble is caused by Vladimir Putin's belligerence, greed and paranoia VLADIMIR PUTIN has successfully suppressed dissent, squeezed out opposition and clamped down on the media, but...
The European Commission Friends in the right places The British are down, the Germans and east Europeans are up I AM French, I am deeply French, but here I will stand as a European commissioner. Thus Pierre Moscovici, a French former finance minister...
