Only a few days after Trump’s inauguration ceremony, the U.S. National Debt will creep across the important psychological barrier of $20 trillion. It’s a problem that’s been passed down to him, but it certainly puts the incoming administration in a difficult place. The debt is burdensome by pretty much any metric, and the rate of borrowing has exceeded economic growth pretty much since the late 1970s. How Trump deals with this escalating constraint will be a deciding factor in whether his administration crashes and burns – or ends up re-positioning America for greatness....

In 2011, around 55,000 electric vehicles (EVs) were sold around the world. 10 years later in 2021, that figure had grown close to 7 million vehicles. With many countries getting plugged into electrification, the global EV market has seen exponential growth over the last decade. Using data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), this infographic shows the explosion in global EV sales since 2011, highlighting the countries that have grown into the biggest EV markets....

In total, there were 492,133 new business applications in January 2021—an increase of over 73% year-over-year (YoY). The region with the highest growth rate was the South at 84% with more than 220,000 new business applications in the region in January of this year. Mississippi had the highest percent increase at 164%, with over 6,000 new applications in January 2021. Here’s a closer look at the number of total applications by state and region:...

Earning trajectory is largely determined by the time a person is 35-years-old 2) Income is positively correlated with age How do these beliefs stand up to the actual income data? As it turns out, quite well. Today’s data, from the IPUMS.org Current Population Survey, is a detailed look at income by age group. The $50K Threshold In the age of LinkedIn bragging it’s no surprise that two-thirds of people who are being paid the market rate believe they’re actually underpaid....

This graphic, using data from a report by Verisk Maplecroft, looks at the world’s top cities for foreign direct investment (FDI) and assesses their relative levels of social risk. In the article below, we’ll take a look at the research methodology to explain how risk was assessed in the report and touch on some key markets that placed high on the ranking. The Relationship Between FDI and Social Risk To look at the relationship between FDI and social risk, the report identified the top 100 cities for FDI in 2020, using data from fDi Markets (the Financial Times’ foreign investment monitor)....

The EV/EBIDTA ratio breaks down into two parts: Enterprise Value (EV): Adding debt to market capitalization, while subtracting cash gives us the enterprise value. This gives us the total value of a company. EBITDA: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization or, EBITDA, provides a popular way to look at earnings. By removing these expenses, we obtain a clearer look at operating performance. Overall, EV/EBITDA shows the relationship between a company’s total value and its earnings, and is often seen as the price-to-earnings ratio’s sophisticated sibling, used to view companies the way acquirers would....

Both figures surpassed analyst expectations by a wide margin, and in January, the unemployment rate hit a 53-year low of 3.4%. With the recent release of February’s numbers, unemployment is now reported at a slightly higher 3.6%. A low unemployment rate is a classic sign of a strong economy. However, as this visualization shows, unemployment often reaches a cyclical low point right before a recession materializes. Reasons for the Trend In an interview regarding the January jobs data, U....

This week’s chart uses data from Steve Hanke of the Cato Institute, and it visualizes the 2019 Misery Index rankings, across 95 countries that report this data on a consistent basis. The index uses four key economic variables to rank and score countries: Here are the Misery Index scores for all 95 countries: To calculate each Misery Index score, a simple formula is used: GDP per capita growth is subtracted from the sum of unemployment, inflation, and bank lending rates....

Cancer is a product of time and mutations, and so researchers investigated its onset and impact within 16 unique mammals. A new perspective on DNA mutation broadens our understanding of aging and cancer development—and how we might be able to control it. Mutations, Aging, and Cancer: A Primer Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells. It is not a pathogen that infects the body, but a normal body process gone wrong....

The world is in the middle of the first energy crisis of the 21st century. High energy prices, especially for oil, gas, and coal, are driving decades-high inflation in various countries, some of which are also experiencing energy shortages. Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the crisis, given that the country is both a major producer and exporter of oil and natural gas. Using data from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy, the above infographic provides further context on the crisis by visualizing the world’s largest oil producers in 2021....

Of the USSR’s former republics and satellite states, many have moved on to join the European Union, and in Putin’s eyes have become more “Westernized” and further from Russian values. In fact, Ukraine recently had its candidacy status approved with the EU. It’s now been a full century since the formation of the USSR. Much has changed since then, and this visual timeline breaks down how countries within and near Europe have aligned themselves over those 100 years....

A Year’s Worth of Resources in British Columbia Earlier this month, we created a slideshow visualizing the amount of metal and oil extracted globally with famous landmarks and cities. We’ve received numerous requests from folks in our hometown of Vancouver, BC to show how much resources are extracted in British Columbia. As you can see in the above slideshow, we have covered gold, silver, zinc, molybdenum, copper, lead, metallurgical coal, and even wood products....

It’s why the prospect of a bear market – a prolonged downturn which sees stock prices fall by at least 20% over two months or more – is something that keeps even the world’s most elite investors awake at night. To hedge against this concern, the world’s billionaires use a variety of strategies and tactics to protect their wealth, including setting up their portfolios with specific asset allocations that can help soften any blow caused by an extended market downturn....

The above chart from HowMuch.net, a cost information site, plots data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 12 different consumer categories over a period of nearly 75 years to show the changing way in which Americans spend their money. The data reflects median spending, and is adjusted for inflation. Back in the Day… One of the most interesting things about this chart is the data from 1941. What did Americans spend their money on before entering WWII, and how does that contrast with today?...

The numbers were impressive. About 48 million iPhones were sold in Q4 for a 36% increase in sales over the same quarter in 2014. The company’s solid financial position was underlined by its war chest of $205 billion in cash. Investors were delighted, and the stock ran to $120 per share, which is close to its all-time highs. The only problem? Apple’s robust iPhone sales are also the company’s biggest weakness:...

China Consumes Mind-Boggling Amounts of Raw Materials [Chart] The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. Over the last 20 years, the world economy has relied on the Chinese economic growth engine more than it would like to admit. The 1.4 billion people living in the world’s most populous country account for 13% of global GDP, which is significant no matter how it is interpreted. However, in the commodity sector, China has another magnitude of importance....

Currency Wars: A Race to the Bottom “Printing dollars at home means higher inflation in China, higher food prices in Egypt and stock bubbles in Brazil. Printing money means that U.S. debt is devalued so foreign creditors get paid back in cheaper dollars. The devaluation means higher unemployment in developing economies as their exports become more expensive for Americans. The resulting inflation also means higher prices for inputs needed in developing economies like copper, corn, oil and wheat....

When automobiles first debuted in the United States, they faced a classic “chicken and egg” problem. On one hand, autos were custom-made luxury items, affordable only to a niche market of affluent individuals. On the other hand, there was little incentive for most people to buy automobiles in the first place, as the system of roads in America was woefully underdeveloped. Henry Ford managed to solve the “chicken and egg” problem with the Model T, the first product of its kind to reach the mass market....

Total fertility rates, which can be defined as the average number of children born to a woman who survives her reproductive years (aged 15-49), have decreased globally by about half since 1960. This has drastically shaped today’s global economy, but a continued decline could have much more severe long-term consequences. If the world has too many elderly dependents and not enough workers, the burden on economic growth will be difficult to overcome....

But through growth in almost all segments, Big Tech has eclipsed Big Oil and other major industry groups to comprise the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world. By continuing to grow, these companies have strengthened the financial position of their billionaire founders and led the tech-heavy NASDAQ to new record highs. Unfortunately, with growth comes difficulty. Data-use, diversity, and treatment of workers have all become hot-button issues on a global scale, putting Big Tech on the defensive with advertisers and governments alike....