For many decades, Western living standards have been boosted by a massive “peace dividend.” For example, U.S. defense spending fell from 11.1% in 1967, during the Viet Nam War, to 6.9% of GDP in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, to just over 3.5% of GDP today. If the U.S. defense spending as a share of GDP was still at the Viet Nam-era level, defense outlays in 2021 would have been $1.5 trillion higher- more than the government spent on Social Security last year. Project Syndicate, March 2, 2022
Through 2045, baby boomers and the silent generation are projected to pass on $84.4 trillion to the next generation. Of that total, $11.9 trillion is headed to charities while the remaining $72.6 trillion is going to heirs. Financial Advisor IQ, January 21, 2022
College graduates are overestimating their starting salaries by a whopping $50,000. Undergraduate students across all majors and institutions overestimated their starting salaries by 88%. Ten years into their careers, students anticipate making more than $200,000, well above the average mid-career salary of $132,497. CNBC, April 29, 2022
If the state of California was itself a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest economy in the world, and for 15 minutes on April 30, 2022, 100% of the state was powered by clean energy. Electrek, May 2, 2022
Russia’s $1.7 trillion economy is one-tenth the size of the European Union’s, and its $62 billion military budget is just 8% of America’s. Project Syndicate, March 17, 2022
The phrase “menu costs” is often used by economists to describe how e-commerce has enabled inflation – if a restaurant wants to raise its prices, it needs to reprint all of its menus, often at significant expense. If however, the restaurant menu is a QR code, raising prices is just a matter of changing numbers on a single web page. Articleqs.com, April 22, 2022
“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.” Mark Twain
