Jan 11th 2014

The $9 trillion sale

The world this week

Leaders

Privatisation

The $9 trillion sale

Governments should launch a new wave of privatisations, this time centred on property

France’s economic woes

Can François do a Gerhard?

The president is talking reform. It is in his interest, and his country’s, that he should carry it out

Securitisation

It’s back

Once a cause of the financial world’s problems, securitisation is now part of the solution

Britain’s planning laws

An Englishman’s home

The shortage of housing is a gathering national crisis. Rev up the bulldozers

Drug legalisation

Of bongs and bureaucrats

How to tax and regulate marijuana

Letters

Letters

On France, hotels, Heathrow, Iran, William Petty, films, our "country of the year"

Briefing

State-owned assets

Setting out the store

Advanced countries have been slow to sell or make better use of their assets. They are missing a big opportunity

Privatisation in Greece

Hellishly Hellenic

The problems and promise of state holdings

United States

The economy

Is this the year growth takes off?

Marijuana legalisation

High time

Tobacco and health

Where there’s smoke

Robert Gates’s memoir

Everything was political

Criminal justice

Fishy tales

Chris Christie

A bridge too far?

Lexington

The Robin Hood trap

Positive parenting

Beyond the naughty step

New Orleans mayoral election

No switch for Mitch

The Americas

Correction: Argentina’s maize harvest

Tensions in Argentina

Holding the ring

Reforms in Cuba

Seat belt, mirrors, brake

Mexico’s cowboy pilgrims

Saddle up, kneel down

Asia

Bangladesh’s election

Another beating

Cambodian democracy

Bruised, bloodied and probably broken

Politics in India

Stirring the pot

Banyan

The trouble with democracy

China

Urban renewal (1)

New frontiers

Urban renewal (2)

Not so grim up north-west

Death of a film mogul

Kung fu fight king

Middle East & Africa

Syria, Iraq and al-Qaeda

The jihadists may have gone too far

Israel and Palestine

He may be getting somewhere, after all

Egypt and its referendum

Back to the bad habits of the past?

Rural decline in Iran

Nothing idyllic

South Africa

Family feuds

Europe

France

François Hollande, liberal?

Angela Merkel’s pelvis

Dangerous even at low speed

Balkan politics

Serbian shenanigans

Latvia’s government

New currency, new leader

Italian politics

Left upset

Charlemagne

Aegean stables

Britain

House-building

Breaking the stranglehold

Ornithological trends

This bird has flown

The coalition

Off the chart

Chiltern Railways

The engine that could

Broadband

More haste, less speed

Affluent Liverpool

Penny lane

Atlantic storms

Tiddly om…

Legal aid

Crime doesn’t pay

Bagehot

The weathermaker

International

Jewishness

Who is a Jew?

Business

Big carmakers

Kings of the road

Electric cars

Charging into America

IBM

A cure for the Big Blues

Samsung

Fluffed lines

German weapons firms

No farewell to arms

Cruise operators

Sailing into headwinds

Cosmetics

Because it’s no longer worth it

Schumpeter

From dodo to phoenix

Finance & economics

The return of securitisation

Back from the dead

The return of IPOs

Back with a boom

Turkey’s economy

The mask is off

Euro-area economy

In the danger zone

Private placements

Ex uno, plures

New York city’s retirement funds

Pension complex

Energy subsidies

Fuelling controversy

Free exchange

This time is worse

Science & technology

Astronomy

Planetology comes of age

Academic publishing

No peeking…

Biomedical research budgets

The party’s over

The Richard Casement internship

Diabetes and insulin

Not-so-bitter pill

Books & arts

Protest in Russia

Riotous assembly

Rubbish

Plastic arts

Literary ladies

Come the X-chromosome

Chinese fiction

Learning to live

New cinema: “Her”

I me mine

Economic & financial indicators

Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates

Output, prices and jobs

The Economist poll of forecasters, January averages

Markets

The Economist commodity-price index

Obituary

Mikhail Kalashnikov