In the 1870s, when Boss Tweed’s Tammany Hall controlled New York City, and in the 1950s and 1960s, when Chicago’s Democratic machine was especially rampant, there was a phenomenon that can be called immunity through profusion: Fresh scandals arrived with metronomic regularity, so there was no time to concentrate on any of them. The public, bewildered by blitzkriegs of …

  Lawmakers in India’s upper house of parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved the creation of the landmark goods-and-services tax, or GST. It will pave the way for the introduction of a new national sales tax, creating a common market across the country for the first time. The tax, which has been kept in limbo for a decade, is seen benefiting …

  Investors have been enthusiastic about the potential of online marketplace lenders in recent years, but the industry has hit some significant roadblocks. LendingClub’s stock has fallen almost 60 percent this year. Prosper Marketplace cut about 28 percent of its staff in May. Regulators are starting to circle. The question now is whether these technology-based firms will continue to lose …