March 12 (Bloomberg) -- For an institution that has been
defunct for almost 150 years, the East India Company still
evokes powerful reactions across the world.
Last year, when the Indian government debated allowing
foreign companies to open supermarkets there, protesters
shouted: “This is the return of the East India Company!” In the
U.K., the East India Company’s extraordinary rise and fall have
uncanny parallels with the stock-market bubbles and government
bailouts that have shaken the economy over the past decade.
