José Mujica, nicknamed Pepe Mujica, was President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. A former Tupamaros freedom fighter in the 60s and the 70s, he was detained, like a hostage by the dictatorship between 1973 and 1985. He advocates a…
Already sold most of Greece's airports, gas transmission, oil refineries, power company, post office, national highways, water company. The creditors also want Greece's government ministers removed from oversight of national assets -- they'll be replaced with managers appointed by the…
It’s no secret that Nike and adidas aren’t the best of friends; with lawsuits, poached superstar endorsements and defecting designers, the Three Stripes has made serious attempts to dethrone its all-conquering arch-rival in the past few years. While in the…
In spite of French-led U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 creating a no-fly zone over Libya with the express intent of protecting civilians, one of the over 3,000 new Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department on New Year’s Eve,…
If luxury spending was indeed driven by the rich, the luxury industry would be a niche sector serving a fortunate few, rather than a dynamic, global business selling to a consumer market measured in millions. During the past 50 years,…
There’s nothing like the expectant feeling of hope in the air, and we got a sense of that after a Tunisian street vendor set himself alight and ignited the so-called Jasmine Revolution and then the Arab Spring. Many around the…
The other day, after resetting my online banking password, I received a message in all caps: CONGRATULATIONS! I like to imagine the ripple of applause spreading from desk to desk as news of my triumph arrived at the bank’s headquarters.…
The fuerdai, China’s second-generation rich kids, are the most loathed group in the country. They’re also its future. Emerging from a nightclub near Workers’ Stadium in Beijing at 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday in June, Mikael Hveem ordered an Uber.…
There are many reasons to admire Iceland, but here is another one: it has just sentenced five senior bankers and one prominent investor to prison for crimes relating to the economic meltdown in 2008. And with these two separate rulings…
The German discount supermarket Lidl and its sister chain Kaufland have benefited from almost $900m (£576m) in public development money over the past decade, the Guardian can reveal. The companies, owned by the large retail company Schwarz Group and controlled…
The jury may be out permanently on the old question of if money can buy happiness, but that hasn’t stopped wealthy Chinese families from trying. There is a growing trend among China’s richest to use their wealth to move themselves…
The red flags and marching songs of Syriza during the Greek crisis, plus the expectation that the banks would be nationalised, revived briefly a 20th-century dream: the forced destruction of the market from above. For much of the 20th century…
Sharing meals is a meaningful tool for trust building in nearly all cultures. But in some cultures, sharing drinks particularly alcoholic drinks is equally important. I once conducted a training program for a German couple moving to Japan, assisted by…
Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup—practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on his popular ben’s…
More than 1,200 years ago, while Europe was in its Dark Ages, the Muslim world was ruled by a dynasty of Islamic leaders who embraced free thought and creativity from all corners of the globe. Never before had history witnessed…
There is no fool like a fool with children. Parenthood makes pinheads of us all. I considered myself perfectly sane until I became pregnant and found myself importing a specific model of buggy from New York on the basis that…
This new system, Bruce Nussbaum writes, isn't just about startups and venture capitalists; it's based on a community of makers. You won’t learn about it in business school, hear about it from Wall Street, or see it in Palo Alto.…
Growth is anemic at best and socio-economic inequality is on the rise. How did the European project go so wrong? Not long after the Berlin Wall fell a quarter of a century ago, the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States…
In the distant future, no one needs to work. Energy is available wherever people can set up a solar panel, windmill, or hydro-turbine. A.I. Wish units, distant descendants of today’s 3D printers, are capable of producing anything a person can…
Marinaleda, in impoverished Andalusia, used to suffer terrible hardships. Led by a charismatic mayor, the village declared itself a communist utopia and took farmland to provide for everyone. Could it be the answer to modern capitalism's failings? I was leafing…