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Chemicals and the Economy

Time to recognise the economic impact of ageing populations

Is global economic growth really controlled by monetary policy and interest rates?  Can you create constant growth simply by adjusting government tax and spending policy?  Do we know enough about how the economy operates to be able to do this?  Or has something more fundamental been at work in recent decades, to create the extraordinary […]

Fed’s economic models applied to a past era

The Financial Times has kindly printed my letter below, welcoming the Fed’s decision to address the impact of demographics, but arguing that it needs to focus on demand issues, given the impact of today’s ageing populations. Sir, It is good to see the US Federal Reserve is finally beginning to address the impact of demographics […]

45-year shortage of babies hits Europe’s chlorine/PVC demand

Companies and investors often say “we don’t need to think about demographics – its too far in the future to matter”. This might have been true 20 years ago, but not today.  As European chlorine industry demand confirms, the truth is that “history catches up with us”. The reason is simple.  Europe stopped having enough […]

G7 births in 2013 equal Great Depression year of 1933

In 2013, there were fewer births in the G7 countries – responsible for nearly 50% of the global economy – than in any year since the Great Depression year of 1933.* As the chart also shows, 1933 was an exception.  Births bounced back immediately afterwards.  But the low figure in 2013 is part of the declining trend seen since […]

Denmark, and the West, wake up to a lack of babies

“We have for many years addressed the very important issues of how to avoid becoming pregnant, how to avoid sexual diseases, how kids have a right to their own bodies, but we totally forgot to tell them we cannot have children forever.” Suddenly, and it does seem to be a sudden realisation, Western countries are beginning to […]

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 […]

Toy industry crisis as fewer babies are born in developed world

Slowly but surely, companies seem to be learning the hard way that demographics, not central bankers, drive demand.  The blog is surprised this simple insight is still not widely understood.  But the example of the global toy market highlights the paradigm shift underway: In 1950, there were 83m children aged between 0 – 4 years in the wealthy developed […]

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