Since 2010, the United States and China have had the world's largest economies by GDP. But one interesting difference is that the U.S. is the world's biggest importer while China is the world’s biggest exporter. The U.S. is currently China's biggest trade partner, but recent talks about tariffs have [...]
Think of your favorite brand. If it’s a Big Tech company, like Apple or Microsoft, it may be worth something! That’s the takeaway from Forbes magazine’s latest list of the world’s 100 most valuable brands. For this annual report, Forbes estimated the contribution of each company’s earnings from its [...]
Becoming a billionaire is about as probable as being struck by lightning (i.e. NOT likely). If you live in North America your odds of becoming a billionaire are one in 785,166. Your odds of being hit by a lightning bolt are one in 750,000. If you defy the odds, you become [...]
Recent IPOs filed by Silicon Valley firms like Uber, Lyft, and Beyond Meat have garnered significant media attention in recent weeks. While the American news cycle has covered a lot about these newcomers to the stock exchange, they are only a small snapshot of the global network of public [...]
In terms of stability, all countries are not created equal. Some are rich, some are poor, some are violent and some are safe. The Fund For Peace, a U.S.-based NGO, stack ranks 174 countries every year based on how stable a country is. Hard data such as economic indicators, [...]
It’s challenging to get ahead, but it’s even harder to stay ahead. Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc For companies looking to create a sustainable competitive advantage in a fast-moving, capital intensive, and nascent sector like manufacturing electric vehicles, this is a simple reality that must be accounted for. Every milestone [...]
Every year, migrant workers living in other countries send money back to their home countries. The flow of money earned in one country and sent to another is known as remittances. Remittances account for one of the main forms of international money transfers, in addition to foreign direct investment [...]
In 2010, the world’s central banks stopped selling gold and started accumulating it. As gold provides a hedge against economic uncertainty and currency manipulation, the action of these central banks gives us insight as to which countries are most capable of handling an economic storm. Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, [...]
The U.S. has been battling a growing drug use epidemic for several years. This crisis has resulted in an increase in overdose-related deaths as well as an increase in prescription drug spending. By looking at how much people are spending on prescription drugs in each state, we begin to [...]
A country’s total reserves can have a dramatic impact on its economic policies. In this post, we’ll look at the countries with the top reserves, especially China, and how that should impact China’s trade wars with the U.S. Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc Liquid reserves allow countries significant leverage [...]
Beyond a country’s gross domestic product, economists also like to look at a metric known as purchasing power parity. Where per capita GDP shows roughly how much money individual people have, PPP demonstrates how much people can afford. PPP tries to give as much of an apples-to-apples comparison of [...]
Advocates of renewable energy often claim its adoption should be considered an investment because, over time, the benefits of installation far outweigh the costs. Is that really true? Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc Let’s take a look in the U.S. on a state-by-state basis, using data collected from solarreviews.com as [...]
In February 2019, the national debt hit an eye-popping $22 trillion. The projected annual deficit for this year alone is almost $1.1 trillion -- that’s more than the GDP of Singapore, Norway, and New Zealand combined. Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc Recently, The Balance published an article noting major [...]
There are an estimated three quarters of a million franchises in the U.S. alone. While most people think of franchising in terms of fast-food restaurants, the U.S. Census Bureau notes that a number of other industries including fitness, beauty, and automobiles also rely on a franchise model to generate [...]
Cash is king in real estate, but the reality is that most home buyers will need to take out a mortgage in order to afford a house. Many properties require at least a 20 percent down payment (less than that requires private mortgage insurance), while the rest can be [...]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, homeownership rates dropped in the first quarter of 2019 after steadily rising for the past two years. Factors such as student loan debt, financial insecurity, and high housing prices are disincentivizing some would-be homeowners from buying a property of their own. According to [...]
In April 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) report to analyze broader economic trends related to consumer spending. Our new visualization uses the BLS data from this report to paint a picture of how the average American household allocates its budget. Q1 hedge [...]
Spurred by new technology, concerns about the environment, and the rise of industry giants such as Tesla, electric vehicles (EVs) are making a big comeback as an alternative to traditional gasoline-powered cars. EVs can be friendlier for your wallet, too. Gasoline prices are measured as price per gallon. To [...]
Owning a home is one of the biggest financial milestones. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the homeownership rate nationwide is 64.8%, slowly reversing a downward trend that started in 2004. Despite these recent gains, homeownership is still out of reach for many people. One of the [...]
The Economist’s Intelligence Unit recently released its 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living report, which compares 400 individual prices across 160 products and services in 133 cities around the world. Our latest visualization takes 20 of these cities, as provided in the free version of the report, and compares the [...]
According to the World Bank, 10 percent of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 USD per day. While this threshold is shockingly low (it would amount to an income of less than $1,000 per year), residents in some countries can make [...]
Our latest visualization maps out how much state and local tax the richest 1 percent of a state pays, compared to the poorest 20 percent of the state. The data comes from a report titled Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States. The [...]
