Longreads

What the Libor and ISDAfix scandals reveal about manipulation of the global economy by banks:

"All of these stories collectively pointed to the same thing: These banks, which already possess enormous power just by virtue of their financial holdings – in the United States, the top six banks, many of them the same names you see on the Libor and ISDAfix panels, own assets equivalent to 60 percent of the nation's GDP – are beginning to realize the awesome possibilities for increased profit and political might that would come with colluding instead of competing. Moreover, it's increasingly clear that both the criminal justice system and the civil courts may be impotent to stop them, even when they do get caught working together to game the system."

Illustration by Victor Juhasz The deal was announced quietly, just before the holidays, almost like the government was hoping people were too busy hanging stockings by the fireplace to notice.…

Yet it’s not entirely fair to complain about the authenticity of Pad Thai. It’s the noodle that’s the most Thai, and at the same time, the least. Before the 1940s, Pad Thai…

The financial crisis had many causes—too much borrowing, foolish investments, misguided regulation—but at its core, the panic resulted from a lack of transparency. The reason no one…

By Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall PAIK THAY, Myanmar | Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:18pm EST PAIK THAY, Myanmar (Reuters) - On a hot Sunday night in a remote Myanmar village, Tun Naing punched his wife…

An extended conversation with the legendary linguist Graham Gordon Ramsay If one were to rank a list of civilization's greatest and most elusive intellectual challenges, the problem of "decoding"…

Steve Jobs, at a press conference regarding the Apple iPhone 4 reception problems – AKA "Antennagate" – in July 2010. Photograph: David Paul Morris/Getty Images Apple's new maps offering has drawn…

In the 1970s, the Hite Report stated that only 1% of women had ever used one. Today, the figure is over 50%. Photograph: Courtesy Good Vibrations. Such was the media excitement inspired by the…

'I'm no better than the next person' … Stevie Wonder. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe 'All right, mate?" chirrups Stevie Wonder in a mockney accent last tried by Dick Van Dyke. He is tired, hardly…