From our desk.

From Athens to OxyContin. From the Balfour Declaration to Citizens United. One long story about who actually runs the world.

$37 billion in a decade. One purpose. This is what your democracy is competing against.

The last piece in the series. This one is about you - and what you can actually do with any of this.

When loans and sanctions stop working, something else tends to follow. The justifications change. The mechanism never does.

You don't need soldiers to take a country apart. You just need to be the one holding the debt.

Eisenhower saw it coming. He said it out loud. Nobody listened. This is what he warned us about.

The most powerful financial weapon in history made no noise and killed no one. Here's how it was built.

Interest is usually discussed in technical language - rates, spreads, policy. For most of history it was personal: what happened when someone in difficulty was told time itself would cost them? And What Does That Mean for Ordinary People Who Borrow?

Most people picture a bank as a vault. The reality - fractional reserve banking - is stranger, and it raises an uncomfortable question about interest.

Why do you exist? Three traditions. One consistent answer.

Coins, ledgers, debt cancellations, interest bans - money has never worked the same way twice.

What did people do before rules existed? Turns out, quite a lot.

You are destined to many paths, not one. The choices you make at every fork are what decide which one becomes your life.

No human being deserves to be on the streets. Punishing them for being there is not policy. It is cowardice dressed up as order.

The Arabic word for the act of sacrifice on Eid al-Adha is qurbani. It comes from a root that means to draw near. Not to destroy. To draw near.

Muslims sprinkle Arabic words into English sentences for things that already have perfectly good English meanings, then wonder why everyone else feels spoken to in code.

Sarah is not a bad person. She did not pull a trigger. But her money was in the room when the decision was made, and her money helped pay for the thing that fell.

The louder a company shouts about ethics, the more you should probably check your wallet. Enron had a 64-page code of ethics. Then in 2001 the whole thing came apart.

Most people don't know where their bank deposits end up. We break down how traditional banks invest your money - and why it matters.