Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
Credit Suisse orchestrated a massive transaction where Ecuador received over a billion dollars in sovereign debt forgiveness strictly on the legally binding condition that the…
Swapping IOUs for coral reefs is the ultimate geopolitical flex. Debt-for-nature swaps allow struggling developing nations to escape crushing foreign debt…
Discover moreBayan Obo mining district in Inner Mongolia secretly dictates the global production of every single iPhone and Tesla by controlling a terrifyingly centralized supply choke point…
Next time you admire your smartphone's sleek screen, thank a giant toxic pit in Inner Mongolia. Bayan Obo alone accounts for nearly half of the world's rare…
Discover moreAbbVie protected its blockbuster drug Humira from cheap generic competition for two decades by deliberately constructing an impenetrable legal fortress of over one hundred…
Why invent new medicines when you can just hire a small army of lawyers to patent the exact same drug 130 times? By weaponizing the intellectual property…
Discover moreStocksy United revolutionized the gig economy by structuring its massive stock photography platform as a worker owned cooperative where contributing artists directly vote on…
Not all tech platforms exist solely to squeeze the life out of independent creators. In stark contrast to extractive giants like Uber or Fiverr, platform…
Discover moreInterpol actively hunts heavily armed stateless pirate fleets that systematically launder thousands of tons of illegally caught Patagonian toothfish through shadowy transshipment…
That $50 Chilean sea bass on your luxury dinner plate might have a serious criminal record. The pirate fishing economy thrives on legal loopholes in…
Discover moreMisfits Market built an empire by monetizing grocery store vanity standards and convincing eco conscious millennials to pay premium subscription prices for slightly deformed…
Capitalism finally figured out how to sell us the ugly tomatoes we previously refused to buy. For decades, grocery stores rejected perfectly edible produce…
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Nigerian citizens actively boycotted the heavily promoted eNaira central bank digital currency forcing the government to desperately restrict daily ATM cash withdrawals in a…
You cannot force people to love a digital panopticon, even if you turn off the ATMs. When Nigeria launched the eNaira, citizens instantly recognized it as an…
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Alipay built a parallel lending system
A purchase history became a loan application. Ant Group used Alipay data to assess risk and issue microloans to millions of people and small businesses…
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An oil investment fell below zero—and into customers' accounts
In April 2020, Bank of China's Crude Oil Treasure product settled against a WTI futures contract at a negative price. Customers suffered heavy losses when the…
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A sentence about neighbors helped collect unpaid taxes
British trials found that reminding late taxpayers how many others had already paid could improve payment rates. The message used a social norm rather than a…
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The fake Birkin bags that fool experts
Some counterfeiters use Italian leather and factory blueprints to copy Birkins so closely that resale authenticators can be fooled. The better the fake looks,…
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When a country’s economy depends on money from abroad
A paycheck earned in Australia or the U.S. can help support a household thousands of miles away in Tonga or Samoa. When workers send part of their wages home,…
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Why rural nurses can be underpaid when one hospital dominates
The nearest alternative job may be a move away. When one hospital dominates an isolated county, nurses have fewer employers to bargain with—and the hospital…
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Colorado luxury ski resort St. Regis Aspen tokenizing its real estate on the blockchain to sell fractional shares
A whole luxury resort is a daunting purchase; a 0.0001% slice is another matter. Developers created Aspen Coin to sell fractional ownership in the St. Regis…
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The Bahamas built digital cash for a scattered island nation
The Sand Dollar is issued by the central bank and represents the Bahamian dollar, rather than a privately issued cryptocurrency. Its design targets places…
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A two-person firm landed a $300 million grid contract
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico awarded Whitefish Energy a huge electrical-repair contract. The company had just two full-time employees when the…
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Tourist spending can pass through a place without staying there
A trip to Machu Picchu involves several purchases—transport, accommodation, admission, food, and guiding. Who owns and supplies those services determines…
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Maersk methanol mega-ships force global supply chains to adopt green financing
Banks participating in the Poseidon Principles tie shipping loans to climate targets. That gives shipowners a financial reason to cut emissions; Maersk’s…
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Epic Games sued Apple over a mandatory thirty percent app store tax that extracts billions from developers
On iOS, developers had to sell through Apple’s app store to reach users. Apple collected a 30% commission on sales, and Epic took that fee to court.
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The ghost kitchens built inside cheap industrial spaces
A customer never needed to find a table at Travis Kalanick’s kitchens: the restaurants existed only for delivery. He put multiple food brands in cheap,…
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A cheap mortgage can trap you in the wrong house
A homeowner with a 3% mortgage may have to borrow at roughly double that rate to move. Even if the house no longer fits or a new job calls, giving up the old…
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The clean-energy transition has a mining bottleneck
Power grids need copper, and lithium-ion batteries need lithium. Building electric vehicles and renewable-energy systems faster also means supplying their…
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Amazon eyed the department stores online shopping helped empty
In 2020, reports described talks to turn Sears and J.C. Penney spaces in Simon malls into fulfillment centers. A building designed to bring shoppers to…
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The country making asteroid mining legal for companies
The legal question was what happens to a rock once a company mines it in space. Luxembourg passed a law allowing companies to own the extracted resources,…
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