Why Argentine orthodoxy has worked no better than Turkish iconoclasm

WHEN an emerging market loses favour with its creditors, how should its government respond? The policy prescriptions do not typically include intimidating the central bank, railing against the “interest-rate lobby”, falling out with allies, eschewing the IMF’s help, pouring scorn on the dollar or appointing the president’s son-in-law as finance minister. Turkey has done all […]

A millennium of Christianity: What makes Russian Orthodoxy unique?

The faithful in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are marking 1030 years since their ancestors adopted Christianity – the faith that would ultimately become Orthodoxy, made unique by ten centuries of divergence from Western branches. Switching an entire nation’s religion was obviously not a single day’s business – Kievan Rus’, the enormous nation that incorporated parts […]