"History suggests that once a country crosses the threshold of negative population growth, there is little that its government can do to reverse it." This line is an excerpt from a 2023 NYT article: Can China Reverse Its Population Decline? Just Ask Sweden. Another 2023 quote: "The negative population growth trend cannot be reversed, but behavior and expectations...
Demand vs supply
Demographics
16 Feb, 2023
The UN still projects that "The world’s population is expected to increase by nearly 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from the current 8 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050 and could peak at nearly 10.4 billion in the mid-2080s." Early 2023, China admitted a population decline (eg, CNN, DW, Reuters). In Europe, the average fertility rate in 2022 was at or below...
Life is colour, warmth and light
16 Nov, 2022
I've borrowed my title from a 1915 war poem by Julian Grenfell (1888-1915), called Into Battle. For some time, I've been aiming to write about my (daily) gratitude for the colours, the light, and the warmth. That line in Julian Grenfell's poem captures my meaning well. Without our sun, there is no life. My interest in this topic may well be the result of the dark...
Will the war with Russia prevent a global recession?
30 Jun, 2022
Late 2008, the India-based Economic Times published this article: Is war a solution to global recession? Recently, I had a similar thought; see my blog title above. Mid April 2022, the "veteran investment strategist" David Roche argued on CNBC that this isn’t a recession – it’s a ‘war-cession’. Unless Putin will be assassinated, this conflict is likely to expand...
Why do we have labour shortages?
24 Jun, 2022
Recently, someone said to me - jokingly - that I am an example why we have labour shortages. Indeed, one could argue that I could work and that I do not work. However, my (post 2013 burnout) situation is already lasting for nearly 10 years. The post-Covid-19 situation is only since 2022. Where did all workers go? Clearly, the 2020-2022 Covid-19 fatalities do not...
There is no easy escape from the global debt trap (FT)
28 Nov, 2021
Financial Times title: There is no easy escape from the global debt trapFT subtitle: No matter what happens to near-term inflation and growth, the world is too indebted for rates to rise much higherOpinion by: Ruchir Sharma (see Note below)Date: 22 November 2021 "One of the big mysteries in the global economy is why, though inflation is making a strong comeback,...
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