Demographics, Statistics etc. 01 (Apr 09 - Aug 22)

[winston]

I will be using this thread to store some statistics for future reference

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China:-

1) RMB 4t Stimulus Program over a few years
2) RMB 1t of the RMB4t, will be spent on Sichuan earthquake related projects
3) Profits at SOEs are down 25% in 1H
4) RMB 1t in Budget Deficit this year

[winston]

US

1) Budget deficit US$1.8 trillion this year
2) Cumulative National Debt US$12 trillion.

[winston]

China

1) Exports decreased 21% yoy
2) Imports decreased 13% yoy
3) Electricity consumption up 5.2% yoy in June ( this summer is hotter )

[kennynah]

singapore 4+ million people

singaporeans ~3million = 66%
others ~1.5mil = 33%

it might be better...

get singapore to have 6 million

singaporeans ~3million = 50%
others ~3 million = 50%

after all, it seems not many singaporeans are bright enough for jobs beyond Macdonald's clean table positions...

[winston]

U.S. debt: 100% of GDP, perhaps as soon as 2010.

( 100% is where interest payments become a crushing burden. )

Japan debt > 200% GDP. It will be around 225% by the end of next year.

[kennynah]

the answer is in Fiat Money... something that will stay with us for a long long time...until one day, the system totally breaks down...and then a new form of money may emerge..

just like prior to 1971...everyone accepted Gold as any country's reserve currency.... who'd imagine removing the peg to gold....but it did...

i hope i will have that privilege of experiencing a the new global currency before i go sell salted eggs...

[winston]

Ken Fisher: The US has disbursed a mere 5% of its $787 billion stimulus plan.

[winston]

About 20 years ago, they were saying that the stock market will crash when the baby boomers starts to retire. After 20 years, the same story is out there...

Reuters Summit-Wealth management due for $10 trillion shift

* Wealth business shifting fundamentally - BlackRock exec
* Baby Boomers, with $10 trillion, will force the change
* Porcelli says shift is to one of "decumulation"
* Making retirement money last, harder than accumulation

By Joe Rauch BOSTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - U.S. financial advisors are due for upheaval as baby boomers, controlling $10 trillion in assets, reach retirement age and shift their investment priorities, said a senior executive at asset manager BlackRock Inc .

Baby boomers will move the industry's main client goal from one from accumulation -- investing in assets that create the most value over time -- to one of "decumulation," said Frank Porcelli, who heads U.S. retail for BlackRock, at the Reuters Global Wealth Management Summit in Boston.

"The questions won't be, 'How did I do against the S&P 500?'" he said. "It's, 'Can I meet these liabilities?'" Instead of a focus on building wealth and a retirement nest egg, those clients will soon focus on making the money last.

Baby boomers, he said, are increasingly spooked by the turbulent markets of the past year, and concerned with ensuring their funds last through retirements that could last 20 years or more.

The $10 trillion that will be in the control of the newly-retired will dictate a more conservative investment and spending approach.

Porcelli said research conducted by the firm found that 70 percent of retirement-age clients are willing to move their accounts to another firm, if the firm offered expertise on constructing portfolios to avoid running out of money during their golden years. This was a far different, and more complex service than aiding in asset accumulation, he said.

"This is the equivalent of financial brain surgery," said Porcelli, adding advisors would have to manage clients' spending expectations, as well as investment performance.

"I don't see a lot what we can't do right now," Porcelli said.

Source: Reuters

[winston]

Nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide is Muslim, report says

There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report
Nearly 2 out of 3 of world's Muslims are in Asia, report says
Roughly 9 of 10 Muslims worldwide are Sunni, report says

By Richard Allen Greene
CNN

(CNN) -- Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim -- and they are not necessarily where you might think, according to an extensive new study that aims to map the global Muslim population.

Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as Egypt.

China has more Muslims than Syria.

Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.

And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.

Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one in five of the world's Muslims, trail a very distant second.

There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report, "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total global population of 6.8 billion.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiap ... index.html

[winston]

The looming crisis you've probably never heard of
From Zero Hedge:


US:-

The first of the postwar baby boom cohort, born 1946–1964, will turn 55 years in 2001. In just three decades, an extraordinary change in the age structure of the United States is anticipated.

By 2030, one in five persons (20% of the U.S. population) will be aged 65 or older, increasing from the present ratio of one in nine persons (12.8%). The number of persons in the 65 and older age group will more than double, increasing from the current 34 million persons to 70 million persons.

Moreover, within the older segment of the population, because of longer life expectancy and additional persons reaching older ages, there will be age shifts resulting in the 85 and older population more than doubling in size from 4.3 million persons to approximately 8.9 million persons.

China's working-age population will peak in 2015 and plunge by 23 percent by 2050.
Brazil has a much younger age demographic.

And India's is even younger than Brazil's.

Japan has the worst demographics of all, with a staggering percentage of elderly who need to be taken care of by the young.

2 of the BRIC countries (Brazil and India) have much more favorable demographics than the United States. So they are at a competitive advantage to America for demographic reasons in addition to the other reasons that people write about.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/other-economic-crisis