The blog’s suggestion back in March that now would be a good time for US readers to buy a new car is looking more and more prescient. As the head of American Honda explained to investors last month: “In addition to a heavy reliance on fleet sales to boost volumes, we are seeing some of our […]
Chemicals and the Economy
Toy industry hit by lack of babies
The blog’s latest post for the Financial Times FT Data blog is below. The industry is going through major difficulties, which is bad news not only for its suppliers of plastic and other components. It is also a problem for China, which manufactures 70% of the world’s toys. The toy industry is going through difficult […]
“US population is aging: older people tend to consume and spend less”
Its not just the UK that is seeing an earthquake taking place in consumer demand patterns, as the blog discussed last week. The same earthquake is taking place in the world’s largest consumer market, the USA. As the Wall Street Journal reports: “For the past three years running, unit sales of consumer products have been […]
McDonald’s starts hiring young and old as the ‘demographic cliff’ arrives
Its really not that difficult to work out that much of the world faces a ‘demographic cliff’. But very few companies seem to want to act on the implications. So hats off to McDonald’s Europe for highlighting what needs to be done. Their chief people officer, David Fairhurst, told the Financial Times this week: “The […]
A New Year resolution
Do you recognise any of these women? Pictured in an excellent Financial Times article they are (left to right), New York Style icon Iris Apfel; model and actress Marisa Berenson; model and actress Lauren Hutton; fashion designer Jenny Kee; actress Meryl Streep. Nothing difficult about that you may say – even if, like the blog, you remember […]
“Stagnation might prove to be the new normal” for the US
The blog returns today to its series on how demographic changes are impacting the 5 largest economies in the world. Having looked at China and Japan in NEA, it now moves across the Pacific to the USA. Like all the major economies, the US is now ageing fast as a consequence of the trends in the chart above: […]
US New Old 55+ generation makes major move back into the workforce
We had another excellent audience for Thursday’s ACS Chemistry and the Economy webinar. We were swamped with questions both before and during the session, which kept moderator Bill Carroll and the blog on their toes right until the end. The above chart came from the early part of the session, and focused on the two […]
China and NEA’s ‘demographic dividend’ turns to deficit
October’s post ‘Women now have half the number of children compared to 1950‘ attracted great interest amongst blog readers from around the world. It highlighted how global life expectancy has risen 50% since 1950 to average 70 years. Over the same period, the average number of children being born has halved to just 2.5 per woman. It thus suggested today’s […]
Quantitative Easing – where it all went wrong
Back in September 2011, the Bank of England published the chart above to show how it expected Quantitative Easing (QE) to revive the UK economy*. It argued: “How does the economy adjust to asset purchases? “The overall effect of asset purchases on the macroeconomy can be broken down into two stages: an initial ‘impact’ phase and an ‘adjustment’ […]
One in three US adults now in the New Old 55+ generation
“Its only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.” We may soon discover the meaning of this wisdom from Warren Buffett, one of the world’s leading investors. The reason is that the macro trends that have driven growth in the global chemical sector are now turning. For the past five […]
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