This is a great article that I read in Bloomberg not that it will impact my life here in Boquete. It will impact my kids lives in the future and it is somewhat concerning. Oh well, I guess I will miss it when I am dead, like global warming!!
In its Transforming World Atlas, Bank of America Merrill Lynch uses a collection of maps to demonstrate how the world is changing in unexpected ways—and how these trends will shape investment returns for decades to come.
Bank of America: Global Trends
There are a couple of “trends” where I believe BofA is misleading :
Robots:
Despite much speculation to the contrary, all evidence since the Industrial Revolution points to more automation resulting in more overall employment as productivity, the only source of increased wealth in a fixed population, increases. Robots allow lower prices for manufactured goods, among many other benefits. BofA neglects to mention that US manufacturing output is at an all-time high, even with less workers.
Hungry Households:
All the evidence points to a large surplus of food in the world right now, with no prospect of any lessening in the rate of increase of food yields. More carbon dioxide in the atmoshere would help hugely in this respect. Food prices are at near record lows and have been largely decreasing for the last 150 years, despite recent attempts to increase food prices by diverting food to alcohol fuel production. Low prices mean plenty of supply. Any food shortages or famines in the world are almost entirely due to government intervention, not helped by first world countries shovelling their surpluses onto third world countries for free (aid), thus impoverishing farmers in these third world areas.
Regards
Harry