Javier Blas and Jack Farchy

Javier Blas and Jack Farchy are senior reporters at Bloomberg News. Their book, The World for Sale, is published by Random House Business in the UK and Oxford University Press in the US

The cash kings of Covid

March 2020 was a grim moment for most people. The coronavirus pandemic had spread beyond China’s borders and was rampaging through Iran, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US. But for Glencore, the world’s largest commodity trading company, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Glencore’s oil traders, who operate from an office a few