With trade talks collapsing between the US and China in Shanghai, there’s even less hope of any resumption in American farm exports, which were once portrayed as the foundation of any agreement. That’s not good enough, according to President Donald Trump. Had a trade detente materialised, those expecting a rapid return to the status quo on farm trade likely would ...

Can the company behind Aston Martin avoid tapping its shareholders? Yes, if everything goes to plan. The snag is that Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc is proving increasingly accident prone. Shares in the sports car maker fell as much as 22 percent. That’s all too familiar. The stock dropped 26 percent and 18 percent on consecutive days last week. ...

Backyard industrialisation has been tried; it was a miserable failure. During the so-called Great Leap Forward in China under Mao Zedong, peasants were encouraged to erect steel furnaces in their back yards. Predictably, most people had no idea how to build a mini steel plant much less make steel, and there was no market for their wares. The result was ...