Group items tagged

While more children are being schooled and the literacy rate is rising, MENA schools are not sufficiently preparing their students for work, especially considering the GDPs of these countries and the percent of these GDPs they are spending on education.

Comparative military spending; you can reorganize data to rank by $; % of GDP, etc.  

hydrogen demand expected to rise. By 2050, green hydrogen could increase the GDP of Egypt, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, and South Africa by $126bn, which is equivalent to 12% of these countries' current GDP. Investment of $450-$900 billion needed between now and 2050. Would be beneficial for climate change while also growing economy.

I like to see that we are trying to find solutions for both the climate and economic problems that are currently happening in countries that do not exactly have the resources to do it themselves. Both problems are intertwined so I hope this is able to help! If we start doing it now that is.

Illustrating how the Bank's role in Latin America and the Caribbean has evolved in recent decades, countries in the region now turn increasingly to the institution for more than direct lending, including such services as risk insurance, commodity swaps, and climate adaptation finance.

The region is doing worse. "Latin America and the Caribbean finds itself in the fifth year of an economic slowdown and the second consecutive year of GDP contraction. Worsening external conditions coupled with domestic challenges have reduced expectations for regional growth to -0.7 percent in 2015, with economic activity projected to drop to -1.3 percent in 2016." But also, Mexico and the Caribbean are experiencing 2% growth, while South America is declining 1.7% or more. Why?

I think it is because (and this is just a theory, I do not know for certain) Mexico and the Caribbean have a direct relationship with the USA, which gives them extra economical assistance outside the World Bank.

BERLIN - The top leaders of Germany and Italy plan to meet Wednesday as part of an intense round of shuttle diplomacy before several critical decisions that face Europe. The region's leaders are struggling to appease voters questioning the price of unity in the euro currency union after three years of financial turmoil.

I find European economics very fascinating, personally. Germany has been saving much of the Euro economy for three years since the economic crash began, but is not facing its own fiscal issues. In addition, the article discusses the actions of Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti, who has been frantically attending meetings and important "coffees" with other European heads of states to prevent their country's growing national debt--already at 123% GDP!!!

What are Germany's own economic issues? It has seemed like the bulwark of Europe for the last five years! Are there things that are being ignored, e.g. migrant labor, cost of universal health insurance and old age pensions? Is Angela Merkel still popular? Who might succeed her? What are her party's politics?

This "Room for Debate" article is about workers' strikes in China. The second response by Yasheng Huang is particularly interesting because it touches on something that we came across in our country jigsaws - even though a country may have an enormous GDP and growing economy, the average citizen is not necessarily well off. Huang writes: "Job creation is one thing; who gains from it is another…Many Western economists are cheerleaders of 'the China miracle,' but for the average Chinese the miracle is far less than what meets the eye." American companies profit from Chinese labor wages being so cheap, but how will things play out on the international stage if wages increase in Chinese factories?

(For people that are having difficulty finding the article for homework, I already posted it on Diigo)

I find it very interesting that specialists view this decrease in an increase of GDP as a good thing. A less rapidly growing China is a more stable China.

very cool infographics on the effect of the recession on EU nations

This article/graphic poses an interesting but subliminal question about the future of the European Union, or t least its fiscal stability. Started as the unifier of Europe, the EU rests on shaky ground; lacking a powerful central authority with which it can enforce its rules, the ability for the EU to maintain itself is through the combined cooperation of European nations. This article points out that these countries have "failed to follow their own [economic] laws," with "Greece as the biggest offender." If the trend continues towards a disrespect for the EU's laws by the member countries, there could be far more Greece-like economic situations in Europe, it seems, thus jeopardizing the future of the organization.

I love graphic representations of Information! Nice find, Curtis! As a point of comparison, The United States has a national debt of 8.68 trillion. In the U.S., this is 60.8 percent of the American GDP. Source: www.visualeconomics.com › All Infographics

This is an interesting article outlining a theory behind our high GDP and per capita income (relative to other developed countries, e.g. in Europe). Enjoy

Article identifying several water statistics- correlation to GDP in many African countries, sanitation issues and causes of death in children

Currently, Shinzo Abe is the most popular prime minister to date and Liberal Democratic Party leads a coalition which has the majority of the Diet's lower house, but he is in talks to dissolve the lower house and have a snap election. Abe promised to end the heavy deflation that has plagued the Japanese economy since the 90's, but since he has come in, the sales tax has increased from 5%-8% and is threatening to rise to 10%, to make up for the deflation of prices. Unfortunately, right now, the way the lower house is set up, postponing this tax increase would cost Abe the support of big businesses and senior bureaucrats. The governor of the Japanese National Bank, Haruhiko Kuroda, believes that raising the tax only stands to help Japan ease its national debt which currently stands at 240% of the GDP. Kuroda fears that if the tax is postponed, Abe will lose credibility with the people, since he promised he would work to fix the Japanese debt problem. Sadly, though Abe promised to bring growth to the economy and mandate his ways to serious economic structural reforms, the majority of his ideas are still sitting soundly in square 1, even with support from the leading coalition in the Japanese Parliament. The only lucky part about this for Abe is that the opposition parties are facing scandals and are not ready for a snap election, so Abe could gain the support he needs to get his ideas moving in the right direction.

The Japanese economy was stagnant from 2002 to 2012. In 2012 Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister, and Haruhiko Kuroda was appointed as the new governor of the Bank of Japan. Abe and Kuroda came in trying to increase inflation from -0.3 percent to 2.0 percent because Japan has seen slow deflation in the 10 years between 2002 and 2012. Questions about the ability of a central bank to increase inflation without increasing national debt, or will money just be pumped into the economy and push the debt crisis further along. Abe and Kuroda hope that the weakened yen will improve Japan's company competitiveness by lowering the cost structure for companies allowing them to produce cheaper products to be consumed in the market. Japan hopes that slowly the price of goods will increase at about 2% a year and hope to see the debt to GDP ratio decrease.

Prime Minister Gil addresses nation about the third economic trimester after ~11% GDP drop since 2020

Haitians resort to participating in gangs due to extreme poverty.

Natural disasters and the inability to generate enough electricity are stalling most sectors of the Chinese economy. People are saying that it is hard to earn money. This may seem like a good thing for the US, but the Chinese economy is intricately linked with the American one -- it is certainly related to the global supply chain issues.

I find this article interesting as you always hear about the "rise of China" in the 21st century, and this article shows that the rise is having a few minor roadblocks.

I agree with Sam Denny that it's not often you hear about the roadblocks to the "rise of China", so this is a novel article in that regard (at least for me). I'd be interested to see how the Chinese government responds to this, if at all.