David Fickling
Bloomberg Opinion columnist
David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.
Food subsidies perpetuate hunger
If you want an image of subsidised food in the world, you might think of Egypt, where the price of flatbread is fixed and more than half the population lives on loaves costing just 0.05 Egyptian pounds (8 baht) thanks to heavy government support.
Chinese food will determine spread of pandemics
With the world's largest high-speed rail network, a payments system that's largely conducted via phone apps, and half the world's solar-power plants, China often looks like a country at the technological frontier. When you consider how it feeds itself, though, it's still just catching up.
The 2010s wrecked the planet
The past decade hasn't done much to inspire optimism about the future of the planet.
Trade war's about to hit pockets
Americans better make the most of their Labour Day discount shopping. It could be the last they see for a long time.
East Timor risks its freedom under China's BRI
Given a sad history of exploitation by foreigners, the young democracy of East Timor can hardly be blamed for being hell-bent on self-sufficiency. But its current drive to cement its independence risks squandering the faltering progress the country has made. If the government doesn't tread carefully, a future of debt peonage to China beckons.
The trade war could be fuelling the Amazon fires
The fires currently consuming Brazil's Amazon rainforest seem a world away from the tense diplomacy in the US trade war with China. In truth, they're more closely connected than you might suspect.
The world's last coal plant will soon be built
Fossil-fuel advocates have a favourite rejoinder to those who predict a global shift to renewable energy: Coal has never been more popular.
US needs help to take on China
Imagine if Canada decided to bring the US to heel over its abusive trade practices.
Boeing's 737 Max defence is a mess
For decades, business schools have taught Johnson & Johnson's handling of its 1982 Tylenol scandal as a textbook example of good crisis management.
The trade war hurts US more than China
Trade wars are good, and easy to win. So President Donald Trump said last year as he embarked on his first round of tariffs on foreign imports.