How Covid arbitrage became trade of the year

The uber rich in other parts of the world, from the United States to the United Kingdom, also found ways to hide. Jetting off to far-flung New Zealand, seeking out doomsday bunkers, or simply retiring to holiday homes far from the crowds.

IT was a warm spring evening in Taipei and more than a hundred celebrities, founders, venture capitalists and tech executives gathered for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

The headline event, a fireside chat, was just an excuse for Taiwan’s best-connected people to socialise, enjoying the kinds of freedoms the rest of the world lacked amid another wave of Covid shutdowns.

Notable was that many in the crowd weren’t long-term Taiwan residents.