06 November 2012

The Long Decline (Charlie Rose Interview)

How do you see the global economy today? 

I've been obsessing about the shift in resource prices that started 10 years ago, which is reducing the growth rate of everybody. We calculated the percentage of global GDP that was going to resources, and it declined beautifully, forever, until 2002, when it hit some very low number like 9 percent. The price of pretty well everything has doubled and tripled since then. This has taken a bite of three points out of global GDP.

And the world is underestimating the bite of a declining population. They think that growth is going to bounce back after this mess. And it just ain't so. The growth rate in the global population—let's say the peak was 1971, 2.1 percent global growth—is now 1.2. In 30 years it's going to be zero.

More of the Charlie Rose interview at: The Burning Platform

No comments:

Post a Comment