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:
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.
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.
I was in Indonesia last week – and had some exotic experiences.
That picture was taken in Bali, where I first met my wife many years ago.
Indonesia is famous for coffee. For example, "Sumatra" is their biggest island – with “Java” coming in close behind (and both are synonymous with coffee).
They also make one of the most expensive coffees in the world … Luwak Coffee.
It is a very particular coffee, created using a very particular process.
In traditional coffee production, the cherries are harvested, and the beans are extracted, before being shipped to a roaster, ground into a pulp, and brewed by a barista at your local Starbucks.
In contrast, with Luwak coffee, something different happens.
The coffee cherries are harvested by wild animals.
Specifically, they’re harvested by the Asian Palm Civet, a small, cat-like animal that absolutely loves the taste of coffee cherries.
But,if the civets eat the cherries, how can they still be used to make coffee?
Here comes the gross part—the civets eat the coffee cherries, but their digestive tract can’t effectively process the beans, only the flesh surrounding them.
When the partially digested, partially fermented beans are eventually excreted, coffee producers harvest them. The beans are then cleaned, roasted, and used to make astonishingly expensive (“with retail prices reaching up to $700 per kilogram”) coffee.
Now is the coffee that mind-blowing to warrant a price north of $300 a pound?
No, not really. In fact, many critics will openly call it bad coffee, or as Tim Carman, food writer for the Washington Post put it, "It tasted just like...Folgers. Stale. Lifeless. Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water. I couldn't finish it."
To be fair, the Luwak coffee industry is an experience. When I toured a plantation near Ubud, Bali, a smiling tour guide greeted and led me on an in-depth exploration of the forested property, where I was allowed to immerse myself in the various spices, roots, beans, and civets used to produce this one-of-a-kind coffee. Here is a video I shot of the process.
This chart shows the country to which each state exports the most. The states that border Mexico send a lot of goods there, while 35 states have Canada as their biggest export partner.
By 2030, more than 70 percent of people will live in cities. In many respects, these cities matter a lot more than the countries that they’re in.
Mega-city clusters will dominate the world economy. In many countries, the capital city or financial center often represents up to half or more of the national GDP. By 2030, we could have as many as 50 such urban hubs anchoring the global system.
This map attempts to accurately represent not only where people will be, but also the economic value of what they will do. It looks at the entire world’s population and plots it by density, and then superimposes the largest urban archipelagos, the mega-cities, with those ovals to show the value of those cities vis-à-vis the national economy.
It isn't as hard to predict as you might guess. To predict the number of 18-year-olds in fifteen years, start with the number of 3-year-olds now.
Here is a fascinating look at a thousand years of history (via border changes). Watch as the empires, nations, kingdoms, armies and republics come-and-go in fast forward.
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.
Posted at 07:31 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Ideas, Market Commentary, Trading, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)
Reblog (0)