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But that’s okay – because while dividends are not necessarily sexy, they are a foolproof way to reel in consistent, predictable returns in the market. And for decades, seasoned investors have leaned on dividends to help power their portfolios through both good and bad times in the market. What is a Dividend? When a company earns a profit, it essentially has two options. Re-invest in the business This is the option chosen by many high-growth companies....

Smart phones, smart appliances, smart autos, smart cities, smart grids, and even smart trash cans are either already in our lives today, or will be in our near future. In some cases the “smart” moniker may be applied loosely to new products, but the trend is real and overarching. It all stems from spreading adoption of the internet of things. With smart technology, many objects that were once quite simple are now automated, controlled by a phone, or optimized based on your personal preferences – and over time, this is going to change many aspects of our personal and professional lives....

That brand is Google – and it dominates the internet with a 64% market share in search, while generating 41% of all digital advertising revenue globally. According to Brand Finance’s most recent 2017 list, Google’s “brand value” has recently increased to $109.5 billion, which is just enough to supplant Apple’s $107.1 billion brand from the top of the list. What is “brand value”? According to Brand Finance, it’s an internationally recognized term that represents “a marketing-related intangible asset including, but not limited to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos and designs, or a combination of these, intended to identify goods, services or entities, or a combination of these, creating distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefits/value”....

In fact, in just the last four years, the median annual volume of the top 50 ports jumped from 5.49 to 5.86 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Here are the world’s 20 largest ports, using the most recent data from the World Shipping Council: Volume is measured in millions of TEUs Only five of the top 20 ports in the world are now located outside of East Asia. The Port of Los Angeles is the only U....

Together, the top 10 Russian oligarchs have a net worth of $186 billion, equivalent to the market cap of large publicly-traded companies like McDonald’s and AMD. But who are the Russian ultra-rich? In today’s graphic, we use data from Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index to show Russia’s richest individuals… and how much they’ve lost due to the war so far. Metals, Art, Luxury, and Sports The richest person in Russia, Vladimir Potanin, has a 35% stake in Moscow-listed Nornickel....

Every day, more than 700 million people (8.8% of the world’s population) go to bed on an empty stomach, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP’s HungerMap LIVE displayed here tracks core indicators of acute hunger like household food consumption, livelihoods, child nutritional status, mortality, and access to clean water in order to rank countries. But whereas acute hunger measures short-term inability to meet food consumption requirements, often related to crises, many people in the world also suffer from chronic hunger....

Recently, lockdown restrictions have been enacted in major cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai, as China deals with one of its worst outbreaks since Wuhan in December 2019. These cautionary measures have had far-reaching impacts on China’s economy, especially on its supply chain and logistics operations. Shanghai’s port system, which handles about one-fifth of China’s export containers, is currently experiencing significant delays as a result of the recent government lockdown....

America’s property market is no exception to this rule. Depending on the city and its—you guessed it—location, there are vast discrepancies in real estate value across the country. Using the latest data from LendingTree, this graphic ranks the top 30 most valuable real estate cities in America. We’ll also evaluate the top cities based on median value of homes, and how COVID-19 has impacted the market. The Most Valuable Real Estate Cities Out of the $32....

While this is mostly true, there is one place on the planet that is vast, empty, and even partially unclaimed: Antarctica. Today’s map, originally created by the CIA World Factbook, visualizes the active claims on Antarctic territory, as well as the location of many permanent research facilities. The History of Antarctic Territorial Claims In the first half of the 20th Century, a number of countries began to claim wedge-shaped portions of territory on the southernmost continent....

The idea of UBI as a means to both combat poverty and improve economic prospects has been around for decades. With the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on economies worldwide, momentum behind the idea has seen a resurgence among certain groups. Of course, the money to fund basic income programs has to come from somewhere. UBI relies heavily on government budgets or direct funding to cover the regular payments. As policymakers examine this trade-off between government spending and the potential benefits, there is a growing pool of data to draw inferences from....

About Mining Builds British Columbia Everything used by British Columbians in their everyday lives is either grown or found in the ground. The Mining Builds British Columbia Series covers six essential areas of life where materials derived from mining make a big impact. How does mining grow BC? Without materials such steel, concrete, copper, and silica, we would not be able to build skyscrapers such as those that dot the skylines of cities such as Vancouver....

Here is the campaign video we released on Kickstarter: We are happy to announce the book made and exceeded its funding goal, and is now going ahead. Thank you to everyone who supported the campaign! For those that missed out, there is still an opportunity to support us as we create the book. To do this, you can pre-order the book from the Visual Capitalist Store. We’re excited to get started — thanks again for your help!...

To see how quickly EV valuations have ballooned, we’ve visualized the historical market capitalizations (market caps) of 10 prominent automakers. Legacy vs Pure-Electric The legacy group includes five top traditional automakers, while the EV group includes the five most valuable pure-electric automakers that are listed on an American exchange. The following table lists the market caps of these companies at various dates. While XPeng and NIO are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, they do not currently sell cars in the U....

Most of that population growth will be concentrated in cities across Africa and Asia. To help paint a detailed picture, this map uses data from the United Nations to rank the top 20 fastest growing cities in the world in terms of average annual growth rate from 2020 to 2025. Full Speed Ahead The majority of the world’s fastest growing cities are located in Africa—in fact, 17 of the 20 are located on the continent, with four of the 20 cities being located in Nigeria specifically....

This graphic, using data from Bloomberg, ranks the 25 most wealthy families in the world. The data excludes first-generation wealth and wealth controlled by a single heir, which is why you don’t see Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates on the list. Families whose source of wealth is too diffused or opaque to be valued are also excluded. The Full Breakdown Intergenerational wealth is a powerful thing. It often prevails through market crashes, social turmoil, and economic uncertainty, and this year has been no exception....

While such metrics are not all encompassing, these measurements of private wealth do help put the financial health and economic activity of some of the world’s wealthiest cities in perspective. This infographic uses information from the Henley Global Citizens Report, in partnership with New World Wealth, to rank the world’s wealthiest cities. It leverages a comprehensive data set that tracks the movements and spending habits of high-net-worth individuals in over 150 cities around the world....

Reaching Rig Bottom? Oil Rigs Decline for 17th Straight Week The Chart of the Week is a weekly feature in Visual Capitalist on Fridays. For the 17th straight week, the amount of operational oil rigs has declined in the United States to 802. This is now over a 50% decline since last October, and the last time we had a rig figure this low was the week ending March 4, 2011....

A few months ago, the western U.S. experienced one of the worst droughts it’s seen in the last 20 years. At the same time, southern Europe roasted in an extreme heatwave, with temperatures reaching 45°C in some parts. But things are only expected to get worse in the near future. Here’s a look at how much extreme climate events have changed over the last 200 years, and what’s to come if global temperatures keep rising....

To start, here are the top 10 risks to business, sorted by potential severity: Of the top 10 risks, the WEF has rated “failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation” as the highest impact. In terms of probability, “large-scale involuntary migration” took the cake. In general, economic risks such as “energy price shock”, “fiscal crises”, and “asset bubble collapse” are fairly prominent. Environmental risks are also high, with the organization foreseeing potential “water crises” and the possibility of an “ecosystem collapse” in the near future....

The Long, Long Presidential Campaign Yesterday, Ted Cruz was the first potential nominee to announce a campaign for the 2016 election. With Cruz’s announcement a long 596 days before the election date, today’s visualization from The Economist looks at how often in history the early bird gets the worm. For the Republicans, the first to announce has not got the nomination since at least 1952. Last cycle, Newt Gingrich was first to throw his hat in the ring in on May 11, 2011....