Learn
Click any business to see — in plain English — what those companies actually do, where the money comes from, what makes the industry tick, and how it behaves in different economic scenarios.
Filter by scenario
Pick a macroeconomic situation to see which businesses tend to hold up — or struggle — in it. Based on what their industries have actually done in past cycles.
Business
Software that learns from data and answers questions — and the trillion-dollar industry building it.
Business
The tiny pieces of silicon that run every phone, laptop, car, and data center on Earth.
Business
Launching satellites, people, and cargo into orbit — the trillion-dollar industry above your head.
Business
The world's biggest mass-market industry, in the middle of a generational shift from gasoline to batteries.
Business
Oil, gas, and renewables — the businesses that power everything else.
Business
Hundreds of millions of passengers a year — and one of the toughest industries to make money in.
Business
The hotels, online booking sites, and home-rental platforms that move trillions of dollars of tourism.
Business
Bigger than movies and music combined — and increasingly run like a subscription business.
Business
From fast fashion to $5,000 handbags — built on brand power that takes decades to create.
Business
The companies that invent, test, and sell prescription drugs — a decade of work for every blockbuster.
Business
Banks take deposits, lend them out at higher rates, and try to keep the difference — a 400-year-old business model.
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The boring, essential business of picking up garbage — and one of the most recession-proof industries in the world.
Business
Regulated electric and water companies — boring on purpose, paying steady dividends for a century.
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Companies that build fighter jets, missiles, ships, and tanks — paid by governments, regardless of economic cycles.
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Apartments, malls, warehouses, cell towers — owning the buildings other businesses operate inside.
Business
The mobile carriers and cable companies that connect every phone, home, and business to the internet.
Business
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestlé, McDonald's — boring, profitable companies that show up in nearly every kitchen on Earth.
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Companies that take small premiums from many people, then pay out claims when bad things happen — and invest the cash in between.
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Razor-thin margins on enormous volume — and one of the most predictable, recession-resistant businesses around.
Business
Visa, Mastercard, and the modern fintechs that take a small slice of every electronic dollar that moves.