globalEDGE Blog Podcast

The shift to green technology has been highly covered throughout media and it is agreed on by many exports that improving society’s sustainability will be key in our future economic, technological, and health advancement.  Recently, the United States’ Exxon Mobil declared its new plan to increase investment in an emerging area of carbon reduction: carbon capture technology.  Although this move may appear to be simply another example of a company moving toward sustainability, there is a much bigger implication at hand.

The media industry has changed drastically with the development of the internet. While television and print are still used, an ever-growing amount of people are getting their information from online news websites and social media platforms. With these large shifts, the structure in the way that these companies monetize their content is bound to change as well. Given the strong connection between social media platforms and news content, there are going to be disputes over how the companies in these industries interact. Recently, Australia enacted legislation to address the way that news content is shared online.

Gas prices across the globe have seen dramatic changes over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet within the last month, many different factors have been giving rise to a series of high gas prices.

As world governments begin to roll out COVID-19 vaccination initiatives, they are faced with a dilemma. Are they allowed to discriminate against who can travel or visit restaurants, and theatres based on whether a person is vaccinated? Proponents of these restrictions say opening businesses to vaccinated persons is a solution for allowing the economy to safely heal. On the other hand, some say these types of restrictions may unfairly discriminate against minorities who are less likely to have access to a COVID-19 vaccine, or younger people who won’t be able to get access to a vaccine until later phases of vaccination initiatives. Some countries are already experimenting with these types of restrictions.

Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that directs a review of supply chains that have been negatively affected due to the pandemic. The review is focused on four products—semiconductors, minerals and rare earths, pharmaceuticals, and advanced batteries. The goal of this executive order is to increase the domestic production of these products as well as increase imports from ally countries. The order mainly prioritized and placed heavy emphasis on semiconductors, as it included a $37 billion fund to dramatically increase semiconductor or “chip” manufacturing in the U.S.

The issue of data collection, monopolies, and the power that private companies have versus what the government has access to has been a constant power struggle over the past 20 years as technology has become more and more accessible. One company, in particular, has been raising fears throughout many different countries: Google. Google currently has a 90% share of the market, raising concerns about it being a monopoly. In the United States, the Department of Justice and 11 states put forward an antitrust lawsuit against Google on October 20, 2020, claiming that Google is illegally protecting its monopoly. On the other hand, Brazil has been dealing with the ramifications of its antitrust lawsuit with Google since 2018. This is an update to antitrust cases that have been going up against Google throughout these past two years. The lawsuits in Australia and Spain were covered in an earlier blog.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began last year, billions of dollars have been poured into the development of vaccines to protect people against the coronavirus. There are currently 12 developers working on—or that have produced—a coronavirus vaccine, including developers in China, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Germany. Out of these 12 developers, 10 of these vaccines have been approved for use in one country or more. Because of the amazing and swift work of these developers, over one hundred million doses have been given worldwide, but the distribution of these vaccines is stirring discontent and requests for better vaccine distribution between all countries. Only 42 countries have begun administering the first doses of coronavirus vaccines, while there are over 130 countries that have not vaccinated a single person. Out of those 42 countries, 10 countries have been able to obtain and administered 75% of all of the coronavirus vaccines produced. This blog will dive into the current statistics on country vaccinations, why this problem persists, and which countries all of these vaccines are going to.

The price of copper recently rose over $9000 per metric ton for the first time since 2011, and other commodities like oil, corn, and other metals like iron ore and nickel are seeing an increase in values as the economy shows potential signs of growth.  On top of the hope for economic growth, the possibility of rising inflation and a new focus on expanding the infrastructure of the renewable energy and electric vehicle markets has sent the price upward.

A slew of new Business Beats have been posted to the globalEDGE website this month.  Hosted by Jade Sims, the Assistant Director for International Trade Programs at the Michigan State University International Business Center, these podcast-style discussions cover a wide range of global business topics and feature a variety of guest speakers from the professional business world, academe, and government agencies that lend their insights to listeners.  Head to the Business Beat page on globalEDGE by clicking the "Get Connected" drop-down menu and choosing the "Business Beat" header to explore some of the engaging discussions we recently added to our site.

While many businesses have suffered due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, some industries have seen extraordinary growth. With legislation limiting or preventing the ability of restaurants to host guests, the demand for take-out and delivery options has risen dramatically. The food-delivery industry experienced record levels of growth throughout 2020. The top four companies accumulated around $5.5 billion dollars in revenue in the seven months following the beginning of the first lockdowns. This dwarfed the $2.5 billion dollars of revenue from one year prior over the same period.