Almost all the world's hard drives are made in one Thai plant, and that plant is underwater. Are we going to keep facing economic disaster as a result of natural disasters, or will global supply chains have to adapt to a more ...READ»
As storms become more powerful and more damaging, will living on the coasts become simply impossible? Insurance companies might try to price you out before we find out.READ»
New evidence suggests the Arab Spring wasn't caused by the slow boiling of political grievances, but by a sudden rise in food prices. Next year, prices will soar even higher.READ»
Oil prices--which spiked during the start of revolts around the Middle East--have now come down due to low demand and a sluggish economy. Will the extra oil produced once the area calms down be enough to save the economy?READ»
Almost every car company in the world relies on Renesas computer chips for its electronics. Unfortunately, a factory where Renesas chips are made is in Naka, Japan. Devastated by the March earthquake, the factory had to get quickly back into chips.READ»
New renovations will let even "Post-Panamax" ships cross the isthmus, altering the economics of global shipping to the advantage of countries that produce cheap goods for the developed world.READ»
The droughts in Somalia are creating the latest refugee crisis. At the same time, Western countries are clamping down on asylum claims. But a new type of city could house refugees and give them a chance to form their own economies.READ»
When we outsourced manufacturing to China and Japan and Taiwan, we may have lost something far more important than low-wage jobs. We may have lost the ability to innovate and grow.READ»
Bluefin--the most prized of all tunas--are quickly going extinct. The tsunami may have set back plans to keep toro refrigerated for future sushi lovers, but fish farmers are close to a breakthrough.READ»
Now that a major online role-playing company has effectively created a functioning market for in-game currencies, gold farming is going to become a viable part of the global economy.READ»
That the world's population is cramming into cities at a rapid pace has countless environmental benefits. A big one is that as people urbanize, we chop down fewer trees.READ»
One man's waste can quite literally be another's gold. Biogas is a clean, odorless, and life-changing source of energy that saves women from spending all day looking for firewood, and thus saves the forests that are home to tigers.READ»
In the latest installment of the Butterfly Effect: Predator drones are just the start of unmanned, autonomous warfare technology. But as the tech becomes more democratized and more deadly, what happens when anyone can assemble an army of killing machines?READ»
In the latest installment of the Butterfly Effect, we look at what might happen if interest in soccer continues to grow: TV deals, a World Cup victory, and the American Dirk Nowitzki.READ»
In the latest installment of the Butterfly Effect: The Chinese middle class is eating more and more meat, and Beijing wants to keep prices low. That means finding a way to feed all those pigs with grain imported from land cut from the Brazilian rainforest, leading to conflict within the BRICs.READ»
Adam Segal, one of the Council on Foreign Relations' top experts on China and technology, talks to Fast Company about what's special about Chinese cybercriminals, Chinese fears of NSA backdoors, and bored East Asian teenagers.READ»
In the latest installment of the Butterfly Effect we look at how mining the key ingredient in electric cars could end up enriching potential enemies of America, and force another round of innovation to build an even newer kind of battery.READ»
In this installment of the Butterfly Effect, climate change is creating incredible economic opportunity in the Arctic, leading to saber rattling from Canada and Russia. Whichever region benefits the most will have enormous geopolitical consequences.READ»
