The world is fretting over the demise of global supply chains and the threat of deglobalisation, with the US trying to lure manufacturing activity back home — or at least closer. Yet supply chains have actually evolved for the better in some places — particularly in Asia — despite all the challenges since 2020 as Covid roiled global trade. The ...

Thailand has a plethora of innovative startups, from artificial intelligence to agricultural technology, but their progress is stymied by a huge problem that threatens the nation’s economic development: Big Business. Corporate-linked investors dominate the nation’s funding scene, said Charle Charoenphan, co-founder of Techsauce, a Bangkok-based startup accelerator and organiser of an annual summit bearing the same name. That’s hurting the ...

  Biotech, social media and cryptocurrencies are the usual hotspots for crazy asset prices. This year, though, one of the highest valuations offered in any US acquisition is for the sewer system of a tiny township in Pennsylvania. NextEra Energy Inc, the world’s biggest utility by market capitalisation, announced in June it was buying the wastewater system of Towamencin township, ...