History of EU/Euro Zone (1929-2013)

Large overview of the history of the EU and the implementation of the Euro. From the first suggestion for a common European currency in 1929 until Croatia joining the EU in the beginning of 2013.

French 10-year Bond Yield History

This graph from Bank of America shows the history of the interest rate of the French government. Besides the spike in borrowing costs during the French Revolution, what is also interesting is the continuous decline in interest rate since the 1970s.

Business Insider

OECD Government Budget History: Deficit versus surplus

The Economist posted this interesting chart with the budget historty from several countries. On the top a smaller group of countries over a longer time and on the bottom a bigger group of countries over a smaller time. Unfortunately there was no data available for both more countries and over a longer period. What both graphs show though is that most countries had a lot more years with a budget deficit than years with a budget surplus. Many economists advice governments to buildup debt-ratio in a recession and lower the debt-ratio in a boom. Because there were more deficit years that surplus years, this wasn't the case. Overall, in the long run government debt ratio's on average increased.

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

View graph here

World Population History

As you can see, population growth rose dramatically after the middle ages. This was achieved by better living standards, including scientific revolutions in lowering the childbirth mortality rate. 

Business Insider

China & India Will Consume 50 percent Of World Economy in 2050

In this great graph you can see the developing of the economy (gross domestic product) of the world throughout history, illustrated by the relative importance of the nine great powers of the world. Up until 1800, more than half of the world economy was dominated by China and India. Since 1800 the western powers more and more took over the world economy from Asia. Especially look at the development of the United States and the United Kingdom. The process turned around from 1980 when China introduced economic reforms. China and India are projected to have around half of world GDP again by 2050.

This can also be seen as the rise and the fall of the 'West'.

Nalilord

History of Reserve Currencies

The reserve currency is the main currency that is used by many governments and institutions as foreign reserves. Also it is used to price most commodities. This first graph shows the reserve currencies throughout history, by country. Currently the dollar is the reserve currency. Before that the British pound was the most used currency in the world.

J.P. Morgan

This graph shows the names of the reserve currencies throughout history. From the aureus coin in the first few centuries after Christ. The gulden being the dominant currency in the 17th century. It is not clear to me that the two graphs seem to have interchanged Spain and France. Who knows the correct order?

Now is the question: which currency will follow the dollar?

Zero Hedge

History of Global Debt

The IMF made an interesting video about the history of public debt from 1980 until recently in developed, emerging and low-income countries.

IMF