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Leaders

America and Europe clamp down on big tech

Trustbusters say they are going after the tech giants. Markets don’t take them seriously

Related

The EU unveils its plan to rein in big tech

Britain

Britain and the EU edge closer to a trade deal

Lying behind the most contentious issues in the Brexit trade talks is a lack of trust


Christmas Specials

Democracies need to re-learn the art of deception

Although countries continue to spy, propagandise and sabotage, military deception appears to be declining

Middle East & Africa

Why Iran abducted and hanged Ruhollah Zam

The execution may complicate Joe Biden’s plan to re-engage


Graphic detail

Democrats plan on having smaller holiday parties than Republicans

Nearly half say they will celebrate with just their own households


Finance & economics

Buttonwood: Retail investors often learn the wrong lessons from success

A study of Indian IPOs suggest investors confuse luck with skill


1843 magazine

The original home-shopping frenzy

A century before Amazon, one mail-order catalogue transformed retail

More on the US presidential transition

Readers’ favourites

Leaders

Why democracy failed in the Middle East

And how it might, one day, succeed

United States

The end of the embarrassment

The assumption that Republicans will remain in thrall to Donald Trump could be misplaced

Asia

The Japanese authorities understood covid-19 better than most

That has helped keep Japan’s outbreak relatively small

Graphic detail

Only the world wars have rivalled covid-19 for news coverage

In late March, 80% of our articles mentioned “covid” or “coronavirus”


Podcasts

Sound reasoning on current affairs, business and finance, science and technology, and global issues.

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In context: Analysis and predictions for 2021

Special report: Asset Management

The money doctors

The asset-management industry is at last sorting the quacks from the true specialists, argues John O’Sullivan

Passive attack

How index investing is reshaping the asset-management industry

Double trouble

The trouble with delegating choices about what to invest in

Stewards’ inquiry

If investors buy stocks in an index, who watches managers?

Taking back control

Privates are what listed assets are not—niche, illiquid and fee-rich

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