economy

Having lived in Japan, one thing that Japanese people never tire of telling foreigners is that Japan has hardly any natural resources of its own. Often that point is made to aggrandise Japan's achievements in becoming one of the richest countries in the world (at least until the 1990s) despite...

The future of energy may not be in renewables like solar, wind and hydro, but in nuclear energy, and more specifically the long-awaited nuclear fusion (as opposed to the nuclear fission powering all existing nuclear plants). Fusion power plants offer numerous benefits that make them a promising...

This is rather mind-boggling when you think about it. This Dutch bond has been paying interests non-stop for the last 400 years! Perplexity News: Oldest Bond Turns 400 "The world's oldest perpetual bond, issued in 1624 by the Dutch water authority Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams, recently...

The average household income in some constituencies in and around London is around £68,000, over three times that of the poorest constituencies in the country, notably in Scotland. Parts of Dumfries and Galloway have an average income if only £20,000 (about €24,000 at the current exchange rate)...

One of the main arguments for Brexit was that Britain would be able to negotiate its own trade deals with other countries on its own. Nearly 5 years after Brexit has come into effect the UK has only negotiated trade deals with Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and as this video explains none of...

Ashton, an American woman from Illinois with a PhD in human geography, urban planning and architecture, who moved to Freiburg in Germany 5 years ago, decided to compare how much money someone would earn in the US vs Germany was a similar job and life situation once all the taxes, social security...

Most of the news coming from the UK in the last few years has been rather depressing. Obviously the countries suffering from Brexit, but not only. Brexit has exacerbated all previous underlying problems, like the lack of housing and the inefficient NHS. The UK now looks like the sick man of...

The Economist has published for the second year a new ranking of countries by GDP per capita adjusted for prices and hours worked. GDP per capita adjusted for the cost of life is nothing new. It's usually known as GDP per capita at PPP (purchasing-power parity). What's interesting here is the...

It may sound like a strange question. Many Westerners still have an image of Sub-Saharan Africa as an underdeveloped place where people live in huts and hunt with spears like in the early 20th century. But even if some tribes of hunter-gatherers survive in isolated parts of the continent, this...

I have been three times to China, but the first two were about 20 years ago. If there is one country that has changed beyond recognition in 20 years it is definitely China. New megacities have emerged from almost nothing. There are now skyscrapers over 4300 skyscrapers in China, about four times...

The German economy is in crisis. After being dubbed the engine of Europe followed the 2007-8 financial crisis, it is now the slowest growing economy in Europe and many analysts predict that this is only the beginning of the country's economic woes. VisualEconomik underlines three main issues...

German and Japanese car makers are quickly losing market share in China. This appears inevitable Chinese car makers can produce cheaper electric cars that are as good or better than any others. German car makers have also been too slow to adapt to the EV market, trying to prolong the life of the...

The Local : Spanish bank launches account that pays you interest if you run or walk "Spanish bank Abanca has launched a savings account that rewards customers with interest for running and walking — as long as they meet their daily step targets. The B100 'Healthy Banking' account pays...

Here is a new map showing the social security benefits of an average worker as a percentage of their previous earnings in the OECD. The beneficiaries in question are retired workers, disabled workers, and aged widows and widowers. This data does not include unemployment benefits. The most...

The EV and plug-in hybrid car market is evolving quickly in Europe. I have made two maps to compare the market share of newly registered cars in 2021 and 2023. The biggest growth were in Belgium (14% to 41%) and Finland (26% to 53%), a jump of 27 percent points in two years. Turkey had the...

The Greek economy has been the butt of jokes for over 15 years now. This video explains why it failed so spectacularly in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and why it has had such a hard time recovering from it. But the new government has a plan for reforms. Let's see if deeds follow...

Over 10 years ago I wrote an article called What differentiates Europeans from Americans: the cultural gap across the Atlantic. I last updated it 5 years ago to add some more differences I had forgotten. One thing I did not mention, as it's not strictly speaking a difference between the US and...

Tax rates vary hugely between countries. When it comes to personal income tax, some countries have flat rates regardless of income size, while others have progressive rates. But while some progressive rates start from 0%, others start much higher (like in Belgium, from 25%). Some countries have...

GDP per capita is often used as a proxy to determine how much people earn in average in a country. In many cases it can be a relatively good approximation, but sometimes it's completely wrong. This is because the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of all the money produced in a country...

I have been meaning to start a thread like this for many years. I thought it might be too provocative, but I see how many Americans themselves are dissatisfied with their own country and the situation seems to be getting constantly worse. To many outside observers it has been clear for quite...