Most of the world's $7-10 billion in illegal ivory harvested each year is thought to flow to China, where it is whittled into carvings considered to be luxury items among China's professional class (link in Chinese). To meet this demand, poachers kill …

China recently overtook Japan as the world's top consumer of luxury goods, according to a report by the consultancy McKinsey, and much of that is coming from the country's second- and third-tier cities. You could see it in Changsha, capital of Hunan …

The Swiss National Bank—effectively one of Europe's premier investment houses as well as a Very Serious Central Bank–offered a reminder Monday that it's not only wild-eyed gold bugs that have been stung by the rout in the shiny stuff. The central bank …

Gold is a nearly perfect form of money. It is one of the few things on planet earth that contains all of the following attributes; beauty, scarcity, virtual indestructability, and is also transferable and divisible. However, even after five thousand …

Gold futures suffered a sudden, brief drop in prices early Monday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, with market watchers blaming the move on everything from a “fat finger” to trader liquidation to price manipulation. According …

NEW YORK—A large trade in the gold futures markets on Monday briefly pushed prices down more than $30, puzzling traders in an otherwise upbeat market. Trades equivalent to 1.1 million troy ounces of gold, worth about $1.3 billion, changed hands in the …

AT&T chose Vegas to announce its new "Sponsored Data" plan, which will allow AT&T wireless customers to access online services of participating (paying) companies without using any of their monthly data allowance. How completely appropriate that the …

The Cumberland Island National Seashore is the most restricted park in the National Park Service system with daily visitors strictly limited; the only lodging is the Greyfield Inn. On our cruise, we were thrilled to glimpse … We also stopped to read …

Helms the third largest department in U.S. politics, overseeing a budget of $48 billion, a staff of 240,000 and 22 agencies, including FEMA, Customs, INS, the Secret Service and cyber security, which she describes as the fastest-growing threat to the …