The race is on to supply more of the cobalt needed for batteries in the fast-growing market for electric vehicles - and that means fresh competition for the big players Glencore Plc and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sometimes there's nowhere to go but up. But the climb back to economic health isn't necessarily easy, as South Africa, once the continent's top economy, is finding out.

Apple Inc., which issued the biggest green bond ever sold by a U.S. corporation last year to finance projects fighting global warming, is doing it again.

For decades, economics textbooks argued that suddenly weaker currencies are a boon to growth, because they make a country's exports more competitive or profitable on the global stage, which in turn boosts domestic production and employment. What if that theory no longer holds?

Yes, we've seen some significant job losses in that area - but free-trade deals aren't the main reason. And American manufacturing output is stronger today than it has ever been, according to economists.

What if manufacturing came back to the U.S., and there weren't enough people to fill the jobs?