Hanoi / AFP Three Russian fraudsters, including one who tried to escape prison using a spoon and a toothbrush to dig a tunnel, have been jailed in Vietnam for using fake ATM cards to steal $13,400. The men, aged between 30 and 43, were detained last October pending trial when one of them made a last-ditch attempt to flee. ...

  Don’t expect a second War on Poverty, regardless of who wins the US election. Picking up where Lyndon Johnson left off in the 1960s would seem a logical response to the campaign’s relentless criticism of economic inequality. But appearances are deceiving. Most proposals to reduce inequality — conspicuously from Hillary Clinton — are aimed at the middle class. Spillovers ...

  One of the surprises of the 2008 global financial crisis is that the “great recession” that followed did not trigger much of a protectionist backlash. Developments this week suggest that, in the absence of more enlightened and coordinated political leadership, this may be changing. As output collapsed after the financial system’s “sudden stop” in the fall of 2008, and ...