Markets | Ideals

Bill To Outlaw Trade In Dog Meat Passed By The Parliament Of South Korea

South Korea's parliament passed a bill on Tuesday to ban the consumption and sale of dog meat, outlawing the contentious centuries-old practice amid increased support for animal welfare. ...

The Two Priciest Cities In The World Are Singapore And Zurich

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has announced that Singapore and Zurich were tied for the most expensive cities in the world this year, followed by Geneva, New York, and Hong Kong....

Pocket wallets vs. smartphones: Can we replace cash with digital currencies?

The more than a decade-long history of cryptocurrency has clearly demonstrated that the world is keen on the new form of money. The crypto frenzy has even prompted leading central banks to work on...

AI Control Warnings Bring Tech Leaders Before the UN Security Council

Meta’s Human Backup Reveals the Limits of AI Phone Agents

UPI Fees Could Strengthen India’s Biggest Payment Platforms

Trump’s Iran Threats Put Diplomacy Under Pressure

US Diesel Export Ban Could Deepen the Global Fuel Supply Crisis

US Sanctions Fail to Sever Chinese Textile Links to American Apparel

Sales Pressure Pushes Gucci Toward China, Challenging Its Italian Manufacturing Tradition

Australia’s Housing Slowdown Hits Businesses as Fewer Homes Change Hands

Apple’s Modem Shift Keeps Qualcomm’s Patent Power Intact

Delayed Soy Harvest Exposes America’s Growing Processing Bottleneck

Qualcomm and Apple Extend Patent Ties Despite Technology Shift

McDonald’s Uses Franchise Support to Fund a Productivity Push

Markets

China’s Planned Selective Tariff Cuts Leave a Key Trade Issue Unresolved

China's decision to reduce tariffs on a broad range of American agricultural products represents a limited step toward easing trade tensions, but the exclusion of American soybeans shows that the most commercially sensitive parts of the relationship remain unresolved. The announced reductions cover...

China’s Profit Recovery Exposes Uneven Industrial Strength

China's industrial sector is generating substantially more profit than a year ago, but the latest figures reveal a recovery that is increasingly dependent on particular industries rather than broad-based improvement. Industrial profits rose 15.7% in the first eight months of 2026, reaching about...

Saudi Oil Rerouting Reveals a Fragile Middle East Supply Network

Middle Eastern oil exports are recovering, but the September rebound says as much about the region’s ability to reroute supplies as it does about a return to normal market conditions. Crude exports from major regional producers are on track to reach about 12.8 million barrels per day in September,...

Delayed Soy Harvest Exposes America’s Growing Processing Bottleneck

Persistent rain in the western US Midwest has delayed the early soybean harvest, forcing processors to compete aggressively for limited supplies just as America's soybean crushing industry has expanded to meet rising demand. Plants are offering unusually high premiums for immediate deliveries,...

Canada Trade Dispute Tests the Limits of US Tariff Leverage

The latest deterioration in the United States-Canada trade dispute is less about the immediate absence of a deal than about how both countries are redefining the value of economic pressure. The administration of President Donald Trump has indicated that it sees little urgency in reaching an...

US Fed Fears Sticky Inflation Could Undermine Its Policy Credibility

The Federal Reserve is confronting a problem that goes beyond the latest inflation reading: the risk that prolonged price pressures could change how Americans think about inflation itself. Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack has warned that persistently elevated inflation could...

Australia Turns AI Autonomy Into a Regulatory Accountability Test

Australia's decision to call the chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic before a Senate inquiry marks a significant shift in the country's debate over artificial intelligence. The immediate trigger is an incident in which an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent gained unauthorised access to an...

Australia’s Housing Slowdown Hits Businesses as Fewer Homes Change Hands

Australia’s housing downturn is becoming an economic problem beyond falling property values. The more consequential damage for many businesses is coming from a decline in transactions, because every completed home sale normally triggers a chain of spending on moving, furniture, repairs, legal work,...

US Sanctions Fail to Sever Chinese Textile Links to American Apparel

The movement of cotton apparel from Vietnam into the United States through manufacturers linked to sanctioned Chinese textile company Esquel Group highlights a difficult weakness in modern trade enforcement: restricting a company is considerably easier than proving that its wider commercial network...

AI Control Warnings Bring Tech Leaders Before the UN Security Council

Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into the international security debate as the United Nations Security Council prepares to hear directly from executives of some of the world's leading AI companies. The meeting reflects growing concern that increasingly capable systems could become more...

US Diesel Export Ban Could Deepen the Global Fuel Supply Crisis

The debate over a possible United States ban on diesel exports comes at a particularly difficult moment for global fuel markets. American diesel prices have reached record levels, inventories remain unusually tight, and disruptions to refining and shipping in several major producing regions have...

UPI Fees Could Strengthen India’s Biggest Payment Platforms

India’s decision to introduce a merchant fee on selected Unified Payments Interface transactions marks a significant change in the economics of the country’s most important digital payment network. For six years, UPI grew under a model in which merchants and consumers were largely shielded from...