Few people would believe Lehman Brothers would fall or Block Buster Video would collapse–But now they are all a distant memory of the past. As economic downturns occur with more frequency, navigating new and old industry becomes more and more dicey. Businesses die when old inefficient models are not discarded and murkey business practises kill growth.

People look to business as an indicator of national economic health. Currently, according to Ibis World data the top industries in the world are Health Insurance, Pension Funds and Commercial Real Estate, with China, USA and Japan and the being the top three manufacturing hubs in the world by World Economic Reports. The headless horseman of outsourcing manufacturing vs. in-house services and corporate leadership seems to be losing contact with each other.

The US, China and Japan once again are the top service economies in the world today, yet the disconnection from production seems to be mounting a palpable disadvantage for some. Africa too as a top destination for natural resources still has not been able to gain its industrialized-footing. Rather the continent’s nations continue to serve as “host economies.” Without production capacity or the services sector of Richer nations, Africa merely “hosts” foreign businesses and investments. Part of its struggle of course is its longtime fight with corruption and the opacity of its business environments which make doing business in African countries difficult and trust low. This means less opportunities for new business, jobs and tax revenue–the hinderance destroys the possibility of a moving economy for local and international business as well.

Afganistan, Gambia and Mauritius are listed as the worst countries to do business in, while New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong are the best. China has continued to open operating in a move toward services and technology. But many nations, like India are improving their markets through growth in technology, services and the medical industry.

While Latin America still has its own struggles, the nations have improved their bilateral agreements across the world, reaching more markets than in the past. As an added boon, many Latin American (and India) countries send a huge number of immigrants and labor into the USA accounting for staggeringly large remittances that bolster local markets without the need for major FDI or homegrown investment.

For America, the major task post Covid-19, will be getting the capitalist wheel turning again. It will be fundamental to rebuild the nations fundamentals to keep it from failed-state status as many other growing economies grapple to provide basic services for its populace.

Nations everywhere will have to evaluate their business climate to deduce how they will move forward in the new ever-changing world economy. It may be that nations will need to overhaul their business and market ecosystems to make business easier to maintain and attain, hiring more efficient and customer populations more fiscally robust to create a thriving economy.