Wrong Direction?

   The world is mostly not going in the right direction but of course this depends very much in which country you reside. 

   The survey below is to my opinion a rather accurate image of the mood in each country. 

   South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand) and India are top of the list. This is not surprising as it reflects sustained growth over the last few decades, more recent in India, and the optimism that this will last. These countries are nevertheless significantly reliant on the global supply chain. What happens if it sputter and then reverse direction?

   Then comes South America and especially the most developed countries on the continent (Chile, Columbia and Argentina) Resources will play in their favor although lack of higher education and investment prevent these countries from truly becoming advanced economies as they should. 

   Canada and Australia comes next. Huge potential from national resources and their land which should guaranty wealth, f*cked up policies which makes it unachievable for those who are not already wealthy thanks to mining or more generally real estate. 

   Two countries have seen significant growth in Europe over the last two decades: Ireland and Poland and consequently are ranked much higher than the rest on this list. Ireland is a true miracle, from one of the poorest to the richest in 3 decades while the UK nearby went in the other direction. 

   Then comes Japan which after 30 years a stagnation is on the verge of government bankruptcy although its society being homogeneous, the country remains stable. It would have been number one in 1990. 

   The "kind of OK" Europe comes next. The Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Sweden. Not great but not catastrophic either.       

   After that, we enter the "not so great" zone where problems are piling up faster than benefits. Turkiye is the prototype. A growing economy but with horrendous inflation. I remember my wife giving me a 50 lira note for a lunch in Istanbul. I couldn't get a cup of coffee with it!   

   And then finally the core of Europe: Germany, the UK and France gripped by rapid economic decline which after 20 years of relentless shrinkage has become structural, and where the contrast between the have and the have-not is glaringly obvious and growing yearly. 

   This is also the case for the US but at a higher level with the contrast between clean wealthy city blocks and absolute sh!tholes a few streets away truly disconcerting if you're not used to it.   

   Overall, note the low average number of 41. It would have been well above 50 in the late 1990s when growth was still positive. Today in almost all the countries below 40, growth is negative. You couldn't tell that based on official and mostly fudged statistics but the people can because the local currency is what they have to go shopping everyday.