Pharmaceutical companies have sought for years to protect their expensive brand-name drugs by paying generic rivals handsome sums of money to put off efforts to introduce cheaper, generic alternatives that could steal market share. The controversial practice, known as “pay for delay,” occurs as part of patent litigation settlements and typically buys a brand-name drug company [...]

The Roman Empire did not fall in a battle of war. There was no single big clash of arms that drove it to its knees. It was corroded from the inside. At one stage, the wealthy held so much gold coins that there was not enough currency to keep services to the public going. By [...]

You have seen how a handful people were lucky enough to win a big lottery or hit that $1 million jackpot at a casino. (And you wished them happiness with their new wealth, of course.) How often have you wondered if it is worth playing the lotto or gambling? In short, what are the odds [...]

Some people profiteered from the spill by charging BP outrageous rates for cleanup. Others profited from BP claims money, handed out in arbitrary ways. So many people cashed in that they earned nicknames — “spillionaires” or “BP rich.” Meanwhile, others hurt by the spill ended up getting comparatively little. In the end, BP’s attempt to [...]

Quantitative easing (QE) is a simple electronic method by which a government or central bank “prints more money” to support private banks. In short, another bank bailout. The money is not actually physically printed at a mint or based on the value of gold or anything else; it is, believe it or not, created out [...]

Gold is virtually indestructible; almost all the gold ever mined still exists today… all 165,000 tonnes (182,000 tons) of it, only enough gold to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools. All it would neatly fit under the Eiffel Tower. That is not a lot. That is because you’ll have to drill through 250 tonnes of rock, [...]

Edward Lloyd opened his coffee house in Tower Street in London in 1688. One corner of the coffee shop was reserved for ships’ captains where they could compare notes. Wealthy individuals who frequented Lloyd’s coffee house would each take a share of the risk of insuring the ships and their cargoes, signing their names one [...]

Marie de’ Medici (1575 – 1642) was a member of that famous Italian family and, as wife of Henry IV, queen of France. Like most French royals, she had expensive tastes in clothes. So much, in fact, that she almost bankrupted France with her extravagance. Marie was not the first royal with expensive habits. Francis [...]

Australians are the heaviest gamblers in the world; an estimated 82% of Australians bet. That is twice as much per capita as Europeans or Americans. Yet, Australia, with less than 1% of the world population, has 20% of the world’s poker machines. Thus said, the world’s biggest gambler is a Greek, Archie Karas, who at [...]

When Melville Stone started the Chicago Daily News in 1875, the price was a penny. At first, circulation was high but then dropped off sharply. Stone discovered that the problem was a shortage of pennies in the area. He brought in barrels of pennies and then persuaded merchants to start an “odd-price sale,” selling goods [...]