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This summary covers The Economist’s May 9th, 2026 Business article on eBay’s revival, published under the headline Unjumbled and listed in the section notes as EBay's stunning revival.

The article argues that eBay, long treated as a faded relic of the early consumer internet, has become interesting again by narrowing its ambitions. Instead of trying to beat Amazon, Walmart or newer specialist marketplaces at their own games, the company has leaned back into the messy, second-hand, enthusiast-driven commerce that made it distinctive in the first place. That shift has helped stabilize buyers, restart sales growth and lift investors’ expectations. It has also made eBay attractive enough for GameStop to attempt an improbable takeover.

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This summary covers The Economist’s May 9th, 2026 Business article on Chinese carmaking, published under the headline Red lights and listed in the contents as Chinese carmaking.

The article argues that the global car industry has reached an uncomfortable reversal. For decades, foreign carmakers went to China to sell vehicles, lower costs and learn the local market. Now many of them are trying to learn how to become more like Chinese carmakers everywhere else. China has become the industry’s most important source of speed, software, electric-vehicle manufacturing skill and competitive pressure. The question is no longer whether Chinese carmakers can catch up with Western and Japanese incumbents. It is whether those incumbents can catch up with China without becoming dependent on the very rivals threatening them.

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This summary covers The Economist’s May 9th, 2026 Finance & economics article on artificial intelligence and China’s office-property market, published under the headline The rent is too damn AI and listed in the contents as AI rescues Chinese landlords.

The article uses a neat irony to explain a real-estate rebound. A court in Hangzhou, one of China’s leading AI hubs, ruled that firms cannot simply dismiss workers and replace them with artificial intelligence. That is good news for employees. It is also good news for commercial landlords, because office towers do not earn rent from software agents. They need people in seats, and China’s newest source of people in seats is the AI boom.

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This summary covers The Economist’s May 9th, 2026 China article listed in the contents as US-China AI negotiations and published under the headline A MAD problem.

The article argues that artificial intelligence is becoming a strategic problem of the sort usually associated with nuclear weapons: both America and China fear the danger, but neither wants to slow down if the other might race ahead. That tension is what makes AI diplomacy urgent and difficult. The technology promises economic power, military leverage and scientific advantage. It also raises the prospect of cyberattacks, biological misuse and systems that become hard for humans to control.

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This summary covers The Economist’s May 9th, 2026 Science & technology article on artificial intelligence and biosecurity, published under the headline Bio hazards and listed in the contents as How AI could enable bioterrorism.

The article’s central warning is not that artificial intelligence has already made biological terrorism easy. It is that the barrier is falling in a field where even a small mistake could be catastrophic. Modern biology has already made genetic information easier to obtain, biological tools cheaper to buy and technical knowledge more widely available. Large language models add a new layer: they can translate difficult scientific literature into usable guidance, help troubleshoot experiments and, in some tests, perform at or above human experts on specialized biosecurity questions.

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A Bright Spot In A Weak Drinks Market

The article uses whisky to explain a surprising corner of Chinese consumption. Most alcohol categories in China are struggling. Beer is weak, wine has faded since its peak, and even baijiu, the country’s dominant spirit, has suffered falling sales as younger consumers drink less and overall spending remains sluggish. Yet whisky is moving in the opposite direction.

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This summary covers The Economist’s April 25th, 2026 Science & technology item listed in the contents as Well Informed: Bone broth's benefits and published under the headline Is bone broth good for you?.

The article treats bone broth as a useful case study in wellness marketing. The drink has become fashionable because it sounds both ancient and scientific: simmer bones and connective tissue for long enough, and the result contains protein, collagen, amino acids and other compounds associated with the body. That makes it easy to sell as a shortcut to weight loss, better skin, stronger bones, joint health and gut repair.

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The article argues that American corporate profits have become the strongest rebuttal to the gloom around the United States. Investors have spent weeks trying to price war in the Gulf, tariffs, erratic presidential threats and fears about American decline. Yet the earnings data tell a different story: big American companies are still producing striking profit growth, and Wall Street is treating that strength as more important than the political noise.

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A Brand Ages Out Of Its Moment

The article uses Allbirds’ strange reinvention to mark the end of an era in consumer goods. The wool-sneaker company became a symbol of Silicon Valley taste in the 2010s. In April 2026 it announced that it would rename itself NewBird AI and turn toward AI-computing infrastructure instead. Investors rewarded the pivot with a sharp jump in the share price, which says as much about the weakness of the old business as it does about excitement for the new one.

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Bluster Meets Markets

The article argues that America under Donald Trump can look more statist than it really is. The president talks as if prices, companies and capital flows should obey political command. Business leaders increasingly speak about industrial policy as a weapon in the contest with China. Yet markets have often proved harder to bend than the rhetoric suggests. Mortgage rates, petrol prices and share prices do not move simply because the White House wants them to.