Italy’s new government is one of the most extraordinary democratic experiments tried in western Europe since the Second World War. The Five Star Movement and the League have put together a largely inexperienced ministerial team, which is promising a set of policies that seem impossible to deliver. They face formidable constraints, from Italy’s fragile public finances to EU rules that ...

It will take an Ant to move this Hong Kong stock mountain. Until recently, Hong Kong was an IPO desert. Issuance had been falling for four consecutive years as investors grew weary of deal after deal from state-owned Chinese firms. Then came ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.-backed China Literature Ltd., which both ignited interest with their ...

Like ‘gemutlich’ (a German adjective describing fireside coziness), the Japanese word ‘omotenashi’ is hard to define but easy to picture. It’s a cashier greeting you nicely rather than chatting with colleagues and tossing your purchase across the counter — an all-encompassing focus on service and caring professionalism. Long hailed as the epitome of Japanese quality, the concept is for the ...