The arrival of the earliest English settlers in Jamestown is one of the cornerstones of American history. But few people know that the voyage was inspired and made possible by a financial innovation — the joint-stock company — that emerged in direct response to Queen Elizabeth’s outreach to the Muslim world. The Virginia Company was chartered by King James ...

  Nationalizing your biggest bank is never a happy affair but, if you have to, do it quickly. Ukraine moved swiftly last weekend — alongside the International Monetary Fund — to clean up its banking system by taking over Privatbank, securing a stable deal for depositors and preventing systemic risk. There was a $5.5 billion capital shortfall to be filled, ...

  For decades, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (or TCM) have disputed accusations that their craft is a pseudo-science, a placebo, exploitative of endangered species, poisonous and ineffective. Now China’s government is fighting on their behalf. On Christmas Day, it passed the country’s first law regulating TCM, with the aim of placing it on an equal footing with science-based Western ...