Capitalogix

Size Matters: Comparing the U.S. to the Rest of the World

This week, I saw a chart that ranks countries by the number of Olympic medals won in relation to their GDP and population.

Sometimes it helps to employ unconventional perspectives when thinking about the size of things.

So here's an interesting map from the American Enterprise Institute that shows how massive and productive America's $18 trillion economy is on a global scale.

The map compares the gross domestic product of U.S. states with the national GDPs of other nations.

America's largest state economy is California. In 2015, the Golden State's GDP was about $2.46 trillion.  As a separate country, California would have been the 6th largest economy in the world last year (just behind the U.K. and slightly above France's GDP of $2.42 trillion). But France's population is about 66.48 million, while California's is only about 39.14 million — meaning California produces about the same as France – with about 40% fewer people.

America’s second largest state economy is Texas.  In 2015, the Lone Star state's GDP was about $1.59 trillion.  This would have ranked Texas as the world’s 10th largest economy last year.  To compare, Canada’s GDP last year was $1.55 trillion. However, to produce about the same amount of economic output as Texas required a workforce in Canada (18 million) that was 50% larger than employment in the state of Texas (12 million). That is, it required 6 million more workers in Canada to produce the same output as Texas last year.

Check out the rest of the states in the map below:

  

 via AEI.

Based on population, the US is the third-largest country in the world.

To put that in perspective, below is a a map that renames each state with the country that has the closest population to it.

 

via Business Insider.

The map, below, is interesting in a different way.  I'm sure you've heard that "a picture is worth a thousand words."  Here, a couple dozen words capture the world.

 

by Michael Tompsett via Fine Art America.

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - August 28th, 2016

It has been so long since I had to think about the definition of "is" ...

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Power of Disadvantage. (LeadershipFreak)
• Election Update: National Polls Show the Race Tightening — But State Polls Don’t. (FTE)
• U.S. Has Revealed Its Top-secret Playbook for Using Drones. (BusinessInsider)
• Not Even Your Vibrator is Safe from Data-mining, Hackers Prove. (Mashable)
• Silicon Valley Comes up against the Great Firewall of China. (Telegraph)

 

Trading Links:

• High-Frequency Boys Lose Some Flash. (QuantNews)
• Why Fed Won’t Hike Interest Rates until after the Elections. (Apple)
• Fed Admits Another $4 Trillion in QE Will Be Needed to Offset an "Economic Shock". (ZH)
• Why Kobe Bryant is Launching a $100 Million Venture Capital Fund. (Inc)
• John Kasich: 20 Years after Reform, Welfare is Still Broken. (New York Times)

Gymnastics Comedy Clown

With the Olympics over, I was worried you might need a quick fix of talent.

Paul Hunt is a gymnastics coach who does surprisingly impressive comedic performances of women's gymnastics routines.

Here are a few worth a glance. 

  

via YouTube.

 

and 

 

 

via YouTube.

 

and

 

 

 

via YouTube.

So, how did this come to be?  Hunt has been coaching gymnastics in Utah since 1974.  While demonstrating a backflip for a female student, he realized the comic value of a man performing women's gymnastics.  

The rest ... Well, I guess you just shouldn't fight your Unique Ability.

Wolf Pack Leadership

I'm a city boy (and decidedly not an expert on wolves), and the following leadership parable might be more instructive than true ... Regardless, it's a lesson worth sharing.

So, what can this picture of a wolf pack teach us?

 

  

The first 3 are the older or sick & they set the pace of the group ... They are pushed forward by the pack.  If they weren't, they would be left behind and lose contact with the pack.

The following 5 are the stronger wolves supporting those older wolves.

In the center follow the remaining members of the pack.  And, towards the back, are a group of  5 more strong wolves as protection.

Last, alone, follows the leader. It controls everything from the rear.

That position can control the whole group, decide the direction to follow & anticipate the attacks of opponents.  The pack follows the rhythm of the elders & the head of command that imposes the spirit of mutual help not leaving anyone behind.

As an entrepreneur, it's easy to want to be on the front lines.  The company and its employees are your responsibility ... So, you must manage them hands on.  Right?

In reality, that's not the case.

If you surround your people with strong leaders, you can invest your time on the company, instead of in the company, stopping in to provide the occasional directional encouragement.

Building a team you can trust not only frees you up, but strengthens the weaker people as well.

What do you think?

 

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - August 21, 2016

Some good stuff this week.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Predictions: What Earth Will Be like 100 Years in the Future. (VisualCapitalist)
• This University Has Almost as Many Olympic Medals as Brazil. (Mashable)
• China’s Latest Leap Forward Isn’t Just Great—It’s Quantum. (WSJ)
• How Each Myers-Briggs Type Reacts to Stress. (PsychJunkie)
• ‘Shadow Brokers’ Leak Raises Alarming Question: Was the N.S.A. Hacked? (NYT)

 

 

Trading Links:

• Here’s How Insanely Rich You’d Be If You Bought Apple Stock instead of Having Kids. (Good)
• Carl Icahn Turns Apocalyptic: "I am More Hedged Than Ever, a Day of Reckoning is Coming". (ZH)
• Here’s Why the Fed Won’t Raise Rates Anytime Soon. (Fortune)
• Asset Managers Must Adapt as 44% Saw Net Outflows in 2015. (FundStrategy)
• Panic? China is Hoarding Cash at the Fastest Pace since Lehman. (ZeroHedge)

The Voice of Nature: Words of Wisdom from Koko the Gorilla

Jennifer and I traveled to the Roaring Lion Ranch in Hamilton, Montana last week.  

 

 

It was an amazing few days in the High Plains ... Especially since there was a major forest fire there just a few weeks ago.

Many fires, like this one, could be avoided with some common sense.

You don't have to be a rocket-scientist to understand the issues.

Koko (the gorilla is that can talk with humans using sign language) was recently informed about some nature-related issues.  Then, supposedly, she was allowed to improvise.

This video is the result.

 

 

 

The Gorilla Foundation via YouTube.

 

 

Regardless of whether the editing was intense or Koko's handlers led the conversation ... it is compelling to watch.

  

Related articles

How Human Should A Gorilla Be?

On TV: KOKO: THE GORILLA WHO TALKS

Rio Olympics 2016

This has been an impressive year for the Olympics, with standout athletes breaking long-standing records left and right.

Michael Phelps won his 23^rd medal (more than half individually) … an achievement that breaks a 2100-year-old record held by Leonidas of Rhodes.

Simone Biles took gymnastics by storm, winning the overall medal and many others.  Nastia Liukin has described her as beyond compare.

Also impressive was Katie Ledecky, and the cool camera pan shot NBC got of her smashing the world record in the 800 Meter Freestyle.

The Olympics are inspiring to me ... and not just the physical feats of prowess ... It is the planning, the preparation, the sacrifice, the competition, and the sportsmanship.

Unfortunately, politics still can get in the way. Below, an Egyptian Judo competitor refused to shake hands with his opponent (from Israel) after losing to him on Friday.

 

via New York Times

 

But, that is the exception, rather than the rule.  There’s also sportsmanship and diplomacy shown between countries that normally show animosity, evidenced by this selfie taken by a South Korean gymnast and a North Korean gymnast.

via Reuters.

 

The only constant is change ... and sometimes it happens slowly.

 

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - August 13, 2016

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Three Ways the Tech Industry (Still) Misuses Metrics. (FastCompany)
• Machine Learning Key Terms, Explained. (KDNuggets)
• We Have Become an Idiocracy. (Time)
• Combat Juggling. (Neatorama)
• How to Use Distraction to Your Advantage. (99u)

 

Trading Links:

• Beaten-Up Hedge Fund Billionaires Reminisce About the 'Golden Age'. (QuantNews)
• A Booming Wall Street Business is Based on Guesstimates, and That Could Be A Problem. (BI)
• Authorities Want to Know If Electronic Trading Giants are Cheating Small Customers. (Fortune)
• Who Owns America's Debt? (Money)
• Megacities, Not Nations, are the World’s Dominant, Enduring Social Structures. (Quartz)

Sometimes "Old" Becomes New Again

One of these things is not like the others ... At the Guns N' Roses concert in Dallas recently.

Do you still remember the good old days?

 

It brought back memories of an earlier time (and it was fun to watch Axl Rose and Slash do their thing).

Sometimes, old songs get a new life when someone else covers the song differently.

50 years ago, Simon & Garfunkel become folk-rock stars with ‘Sounds of Silence’.

 

Recently, someone else made it a hit ... a heavy metal rock band, Disturbed.

 

Here is the video.  Believe it or not, totally worth watching.

 

 

 

 

YouTube.

Surprisingly good.

Is Clinton Pulling Too Far Ahead For Trump to Catch Her?

It has been a rough week for the Presidential prospects of Donald Trump.

According to Betfair, the odds for Clinton to win in November have rallied in the last several days and are back near their highs of the year at slightly more than 75%.

The chart, below, overlays the odds for a Democratic win and the performance of the S&P 500 Index.

  

via Bespoke. 

That being said, in politics, three months is a lifetime;  and Trump has made some miraculous recoveries before in his career.  

In each of the prior times where Clinton’s odds (late April and late June) have approached current levels, they have quickly pulled back.  

Conventional wisdom says that a strong stock market and a good economy are good for the incumbent party.  Consequently, the Dems are feeling confident with the S&P 500 at new highs and jobs data coming in strong for the second straight month.  Will this be where Clinton finally breaks out (or are her odds due for another pullback)?  

We’ll soon find out!