Lena Martin
The geography of debt: why certain nations borrow in currencies they...
In January 2002, Argentina's public debt jumped from roughly 62% of GDP to approximately 164% — not because the government had borrowed more money,...
The hidden cost of being an island nation
Palau is, as of July 2024, a high-income economy. The World Bank's classification puts it in the same tier as Spain, the Czech Republic,...
How insurance companies quietly govern the world’s oceans
The document was one page. Gard AS issued it around March 1, 2026 — a war risk extension withdrawal, cancelling cover for vessels in...
The invisible market that prices human life
In February 2024, the EPA tightened the annual standard for fine particulate matter from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter. The agency's economists...
What happens to a country’s debt when it ceases to exist
In August 2017, Russia's Finance Ministry transferred $125.2 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Final payment on a debt the Soviet Union had contracted more...
Why certain cities became financial capitals — and others, equally positioned,...
In the 1560s, Antwerp ran the most sophisticated financial market the world had ever produced. Bills of exchange, maritime insurance, commodity futures, currency trading...
Why the world’s best agricultural land is increasingly owned by sovereign...
In September 2025, at the peak of the lean season, 21.2 million people — 45 percent of Sudan's analyzed population — were at IPC...
Why landlocked countries are systematically poorer — and the exceptions that...
The container arrives at Dar es Salaam and sits. Goods destined for Zambia, Uganda, and Rwanda spend an average of 25 days at this...
Why the fastest-growing cities in the world are almost all in...
In 1950, Lagos had roughly 300,000 people. The size of Omaha, Nebraska. A mid-century port city on the West African coast, colonial still, unremarkable...
The currency crises that remade continents: a pattern everyone ignores
The package arrived in Bangkok in 1997. It arrived in Moscow in 1998. It arrived in Buenos Aires in 2001 and Athens in 2010....