Leaders | The world economy

The new geopolitics of global business

China and America dominate like never before

TWENTY YEARS ago this week the share price of a startup run by an obsessive called Jeff Bezos had slumped by 71% over 12 months. Amazon’s near-death experience was part of the dotcom crash that exposed Silicon Valley’s hubris and, along with the $14bn fraud at Enron, shattered confidence in American business. China, meanwhile, was struggling to privatise its creaking state-owned firms, and there was little sign that it could create a culture of entrepreneurship. Instead the bright hope was in Europe, where a new single currency promised to catalyse a giant business-friendly integrated market.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Geopolitics and business”

The new geopolitics of big business

From the June 5th 2021 edition

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