MANY OF THE world’s richest deposits of iron ore and copper predate the breakup of the last supercontinent, Pangaea, around 200m years ago. Tectonic shifts subsequently scattered the global economy’s two favourite metals around Earth’s surface. An abundance of the iron ended up in what are now Australia and Brazil. Prodigious seams of pre-Pangaeatic copper settled in places like central Africa. More
Long long ago, colleagues would suggest changes to documents sequentially. They would make comments and add revisions to a file on their own computer, and then send it on to the next person. It was inefficient and opaque. The era of the shared doc has made this process much more user-friendly and transparent. But like all social activities, it has the great drawback of exposing you to other people. More
A shopping spree looks set to begin in the world of luxury. Prada, one big-name Italian brand, is said to be in talks to buy another, Versace. On March 13th Donatella Versace stepped down as chief designer of the firm founded by her brother. Giorgio Armani, the 90-year-old founder of his eponymous label, has said he isn’t ruling out a merger as he plans for retirement. Last month the family that owns Ferragamo, one more Italian brand, had to reassure staff that it is not up for sale after its chief executive abruptly left. More
For Global companies, there is no place quite like America. As growth in China and Europe has slowed, its economy has continued expanding at a decent clip. America remains by far the world’s biggest consumer market, accounting for almost 30% of total spending, and is home to the largest stock of foreign direct investment (FDI), at around $5trn. More
THERE ARE few more potent symbols of American capitalism than a Walmart supercentre, its endless aisles heaving under the weight of as many as 150,000 different products, from fresh avocados to fancy Zojirushi rice cookers. Similarly, there are few more visible emblems of the ties that bind America’s and Mexico’s economies than those supercentres catering to shoppers south of the Rio Grande. More
THE BATTLE for control of Seven & i, the Japanese owner of 7-Eleven, has taken a number of surprising turns since Alimentation-Couche Tard (ACT), a Canadian retailer, offered to acquire the company in August. Seven & i has been looking for ways to wriggle out of the takeover ever since. First came a rival proposal for a management buyout orchestrated by the company’s founding Ito family, which collapsed owing to difficulties securing funding. Then earlier this month the company appointed its first foreign chief executive, Stephen Dacus, an American. Mr Dacus has outlined a sweeping restructuring plan including an initial public offering of its American subsidiary next year, the sale of York Holdings, its supermarket chain, and a hefty share buyback. More
Two months on from its release, DeepSeek’s R1, which wowed experts and caused American tech stocks to crash in January, is still unbeaten. The Chinese firm’s artificial-intelligence (AI) model remains the best open-source offering released by any lab, anywhere in the world. Back home it has spread like wildfire. It is catching on in the rest of the world as well. More
On March 20th the 109 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—a group that includes the grand duke of Luxembourg, a former Costa Rican president and an Oscar-winning actress from Malaysia—will gather at a luxury resort in Greece to elect their new president. The job is one of the most powerful in global sport. More than 200 countries take part in the games. The IOC’s budget is in the billions of dollars and many sports rely on it to survive. The outgoing president, Thomas Bach of Germany (pictured), has been a steady hand on the tiller. During his 12 years in office he has overseen a steep rise in revenue while steering the games through the Russian doping scandal and the covid-19 pandemic. His successor will take charge at a time when difficult decisions loom. More
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