Economist Covers

In the news last week...

Aircraft returned to the skies over Europe after the cancellation of almost 100,000 flights and the biggest-ever disruption to Europe's commercial airspace, caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland.

A strong performance by Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, in Britain's first ever televised prime ministerial election debate on April 15th led to an extraordinary surge in support for the party. The prospect of a hung parliament loomed larger.

Wall Street was stunned as civil-fraud charges were brought against Goldman Sachs. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that the bank deceived investors in a synthetic collateralised-debt obligation built on mortgage assets, by not disclosing that Paulson, a hedge fund that had some say in choosing which securities went into the product, would profit if the CDO performed poorly.