Washington's Other Handout
While taxpayers and lawmakers fret about the $700 billion bank bailout, the Treasury and Commerce departments are among a list of agencies that waste as much as $100 billion a year on contracts, often managed in secret. (March 2009)

China in Africa: Young Workers,
Deadly Mines
Children in Congo risk their lives digging cobalt and copper ore with their bare hands for Chinese companies. (Sept 2008)

Busting the Chip Cartel
U.S. antitrust prosecutors sent 15 executives from four companies to jail for price fixing of memory chips. There was a rub: The collusion failed. (June 2008)

The Subprime in the Schoolhouse
The mortgage contagion has hit state-run investment pools that handle $200 billion in funds for schools and cities. Taxpayers are in the dark. (Jan 2008)

Ethanol's Deadly Brew
Thousands of Brazilian sugar cane workers are injured and scores die each year in the rush to produce a fuel that Presidents Bush and Lula celebrate as a path to energy independence. (Nov 2007)

Unsafe Havens
U.S. money market funds have invested $11 billion in subprime debt, much of it managed by Bear Stearns. (Oct 2007)

The Insurance Hoax
Property insurers use secret tactics to cheat customers out of payments—as profits break records. McKinsey's advice to Allstate: Use "boxing gloves" instead of "good hands."
(Sept 2007)

The Secret World of Modern Slavery
Steel used to build cars and appliances in the U.S. starts with forced labor in Brazil. (Dec 2006)

Playing the Odds
Doctors disagree on how to treat the more than 230,000 men who will learn they have prostate cancer this year in the U.S. (Sept 2006)

The Man Taking Apart AIG
Gerry Pasciucco's job is to wind down $2 trillion in derivatives trades and then shut down the business whose name is synonymous with the near collapse of global finance.

Geneva Banks: Against the Wind
Buffeted by the UBS scandal and Madoff losses, Swiss money managers are offering to help crack down on tax evaders and planning for a world with less secrecy.

What Volcker Wants
The former Fed chairman is pushing Obama to overhaul U.S. financial regulations. The president is listening—up to a point.

Thailand: Coping With Chaos
Investors are returning to the Land of Smiles even in the face of political street violence. The royal succession may be the greatest test yet of their confidence.

The Feud Shaking Turkey
A billionaire press baron is clashing with the prime minister over newspaper reports that attempted to link a fraud committed in Germany to Erdogan's political party.

Bluefin Blues
Hagen Stehr, one of Australia's richest men, built a fishing empire that helped deplete the tuna prized for making sushi. Now, he may become the industry's unlikely savior.