If you follow the financial news media, you will frequently hear of countries’ largest trade partners being either the United States, the European Union, or China. As a result, it can often seem like the US, EU, and China are at the centre of massive global networks of international trade. In a certain sense, ofContinue reading “The 10 Largest “Relative” Trade Networks”
5 Challenges for Canada’s Economy in 2015
Canada, the world’s sixth largest “developed” economy, has been on an excellent run in the recent past. According to figures from the World Bank, Canada’s GDP grew at a faster pace than those of the United States or Britain during five out of six years between 2008 and 2013, and during 10 out of 15Continue reading “5 Challenges for Canada’s Economy in 2015”
The Physics of Japanese Economics
With the downward revision of Japan’s GDP growth figures last month, the Japanese economy is technically back in recession, projected to shrink by a slight amount during the year as a whole. Even though most analysts had previously forecast Japan’s economy to expand at a rate of 2 percent in 2014, nobody was too surprisedContinue reading “The Physics of Japanese Economics”
Europe and Arabia: A Geopolitical Perspective
As different as the Quran is from the New Testament, or the Constitution of France is from the Constitution of Saudi Arabia (which is, in fact, the Quran), these differences are arguably less important than those which seperate the geography of Europe from the geography of the Arab world. Europe is a region of islands,Continue reading “Europe and Arabia: A Geopolitical Perspective”
The Coming US-Argentine Tango
Argentina has the world’s 20th largest economy, 8th largest territory, and 30th largest population, according to the World Bank. Yet Americans have historically had little to do with the place. The United States and Argentina have never been close allies, nor have they been hated rivals. Today the two countries trade just $15 billion orContinue reading “The Coming US-Argentine Tango”
Ramblings on regional Canadian Politics
(Disclaimer: this article is more or less a rambling thought-experiment, and should not be taken as a concrete prediction of Canada’s future) The province of Ontario has long been the most dominant force in Canadian politics. Though it has never been powerful enough to simply impose its will on the rest of the country, neitherContinue reading “Ramblings on regional Canadian Politics”
The Geopolitics of Ukraine
If you look at the population density map of Ukraine below, you can see that its inhabitants tend to live extremely close to the borders of the country. The largest city in western Ukraine, Lviv, is only 70 km from Poland. The central city of Kiev, which has twice the population of any other UkrainianContinue reading “The Geopolitics of Ukraine”
8 Reasons Canadian Home Prices Might Fall
Canadian home prices have risen by more than 35% since 2006, while American home prices have declined by more than 10%. This has been great for Canadian homeowners and for investors in the Canadian real estate market. It has, however, also terrified many Canadians, causing them to wonder whether it is only a matter ofContinue reading “8 Reasons Canadian Home Prices Might Fall”
Japan from 1995 to 2035
The graph below shows the world’s 20 largest economies, and how many times larger they are today than they were in 1995. As you can see, Japan grew the slowest of the countries on the list. Though it is still the world’s third largest economy, close to double the size of fourth-place Germany and moreContinue reading “Japan from 1995 to 2035”
China’s North-South Split
It would be impossible to understand the United States without knowing a bit about the differences between northeastern states like Massachusetts and southeastern states like Mississippi. To an even greater extent, a similar thing can be said of China. There are many things that make northeastern and southeastern China very different from one another. Now thatContinue reading “China’s North-South Split”
Future Economics 