commodities

Gold is valuable because of scarcity, durability, beauty, monetary history, central-bank demand, and its role as a trust asset.

Russia has the world's largest natural resource wealth at $75 trillion. The US is second. Saudi Arabia's oil makes it 3rd. But the 'resource curse' means the richest resource nations often have the poorest citizens. Here's the complete natural resource ranking and why abundance can be a trap.

Brazil ships the most coffee by volume and value. Switzerland and Germany rank high because they re-export processed coffee, and Colombia and Ethiopia earn more per tonne than the volume leaders. Here is how the ranking works and who keeps the money.

Brazil produces nearly 40% of the world's coffee — more than the next three countries combined. Vietnam is the world's top Robusta producer. Ethiopia is coffee's birthplace. Global coffee production is worth $50 billion at origin but $460 billion at retail — the biggest markup in agriculture. Here's the full coffee production ranking.