economy

Can the EU Replace the US as a Trade Partner? Trump’s new tariffs could cost the EU up to €144 billion in lost trade — but can Europe replace the U.S. as a partner? We break down the impact of the tariffs, explore deals with India, Mercosur, and more, and show why the real solution might be...

This is a great video on the possible future of European integration using a system with different levels of membership based on each country's needs. I heartily agree with the proposal.

Trump has mentioned that he wanted to privatise the US postal service to increase its efficiency. I have read that many Americans believe the US postal service to be grossly inefficient. In reality this is far from being the case. The US postal service is one of the best in the world. According...

There is an interesting study comparing the regional income per capita and income inequality across the Roman Empire and the Han Empire. GDP per capita was considerably higher in the Roman Empire. Nature: A comparison of income inequality in the Roman and Chinese Han empires Abstract The...

The image highlights a striking shift in coin flow patterns before and after the Arab conquests. In the first map (450–630 AD), coin flows center around the eastern Mediterranean, showing Byzantine dominance. After the Arab conquests (713–900 AD), flows shift westward, particularly towards...

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...