Finance & economics

Going for it

What the surging price of gold says about a dangerous world

Financial fears and geopolitical tremors combine to great effect

Economic war

Hizbullah’s sprawling financial empire looks newly vulnerable

Why Israel is now bombing Lebanese banks

Wide Atlantic

The West faces new inflation fears

Having moved in lockstep, America and Europe now have very different concerns

Everyone wins

Trump’s trillion-dollar tax cuts are spiralling out of control

His zany promises would blow up the deficit

Dark commerce

Inside the secret oil trade that funds Iran’s wars

An investigation by The Economist uncovers a multi-billion-dollar, America-defying network

Mein Gott

Germany’s economy goes from bad to worse

Things may look brighter next year, but the relief will be short-lived

Free exchange

An economics Nobel for work on why nations succeed and fail

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson tackled the most important question of all

Buttonwood

Why investors should still avoid Chinese stocks

The debate about “uninvestability” obscures something important

Hammered

China’s property crisis claims more victims: companies

Unsold homes are contributing to a balance-sheet recession

C-BAM!

Europe’s green trade restrictions are infuriating poor countries

Only the poorest can expect help to cushion the blow

The other wall

How America learned to love tariffs

Protectionism hasn’t been this respectable for decades

Buttonwood

Why have markets grown more captivated by data releases?

Especially when the quality of statistics is deteriorating