Will Mexico Overtake China In U.S. Imports?

The Economist constructed this chart with data from the U.S. Department Of Commerce and HSBC. In 1990 China was still a small player in the international trade. Imports from the U.S. out of China were only 3.1 percent of the total U.S. imports. At the time Mexico was twice as big in the percentage of imports from the U.S. The biggest trading partners in terms of exports were Canada and Japan, both with a share of 18 percent. Especially Japan saw its share decline since the continuing crisis the country has been in from 1990. Today the import share that Japan has is lower than Mexico in 1990.

With the high economic growth in Japan before the 90s Japanese wages increased a lot. This gave opportunities to countries like China which at the time had an enormous potential cheap labor force to manufacture goods for exporting to the Western world. With the high economic growth in China wages are rising. Mexico seems the next country to benefit from low wages.

A likely reason why Canada is still a relatively big player is it's favorable location.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View the graph here

World Map Of Euro Crisis Impact

This graph from research by the IMF shows the global impact of a Euro Area Bank Credit Crunch, which would be likely in case of a further deterioration of the Euro Crisis. As you can see, outside the Euro Area, countries in Latin America, Iceland, in the north of Africa and some countries in the Middle East will probably see a lot of negative effects.

Business  Insider

Most Important Elections of 2012

This graphs shows the most important elections of 2012. With in the first place not to forget the United States Presidential Elections (check here for an extensive road map, also with the primaries currently happening) on November 6th. Also globally important are the French presidential elections between mainly Sarkozy and Hollande on April 22nd and May 6th, the Russian presidential elections on March 4th and also the Chinese Party congress where a new leader will be selected in October.

Also check this election calender with all the elections dates and info:

http://www.electionguide.org/calendar.php

The Economist

Exposure To China

This map shows the countries that are most dependent on the Chinese economy. Especially for Hong Kong and Mongolia is China a very important trade partner. A hard landing in the Chinese economy would have enormous impacts on these countries economies.

On the other hand a positive note for Greece is that it has a low exposure to the Chinese economy. So it won't see many directly negative effects when the Chinese economy slows down. Although it might encounter second hand negative effects when other trading partners which are dependent on China import less in Greece.

Business Insider

Elderly/Population in 2007 and 2040

This chart shows the population aging as the elderly (aged 60 and over), as a percentage of the population in a country for 2007 and 2040. Japan and the Western European countries have the biggest aging problems and in the United States, United Kingdom and the BRIC countries have relatively less problems.

This graph shows the growth in total public benefits to the elders from 2007 to 2040 as a percentage of the countries' GDP. Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands see the highest increase in the costs of public benefits to the elderly.

CSIS

IMF World Growth Projections (WEO September)

This graph from Reuters shows the latest projections for economic growth in 2011 and 2012 in different continents. Almost all of the projections have been lowered since the forecast of June.

Reuters

Emerging Market Overheating Index

The Economist made a chart with the developing countries ranking them by the state of their economy. They used several indicators to identify whether the economy is overheating or not.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View the graph here

IMF WEO Spring 2011: Unemployment

IMF WEO Spring 2011: Unemployment (latest unemployment rate minus six-year average before the crisis)

Unemployment rate modified for the 'normal' unemployment rate, which gives cyclical unemployment.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/01/c1/fig1_19.pdf

AR: Argentina; AU: Australia; BR: Brazil; CA: Canada; CN: China; DE: Germany; EU: euro area; FR: France; GB: United Kingdom; ID: Indonesia; IT: Italy; JP: Japan; KR: Korea; MX: Mexico; RU: Russia; TR: Turkey; US: United States; ZA: South Africa.


Conclusion: the United States unemployment rate is relatively high.