Posts

Today’s infographic comes to us from HowMuch.net, and it helps to make the international brand value picture a lot clearer. Using updated rankings from Brand Finance’s Global 500 Report, it shows the top brand for each country in 2018. It’s worth noting, however, that there are many countries that are not represented here, as they do not have a brand large enough to make the top 500 list. A Steep Dropoff From there, it’s another big fall to get to the next tier, which includes China’s ICBC ($59....

For centuries, Mars has been mythically defined by its characteristic red appearance. In Babylonian astronomy, Mars was named after Nergal, the deity of fire, war, and destruction. In Chinese and Japanese texts, the planet was known as 火星, the fire star. Although this unique reddish hue has been a key defining characteristic of Mars in culture for centuries, today we now know that it’s the iron oxide soil of the Martian landscape that makes it the “Red Planet” – and that there is much more to Mars than its color upon closer observation....

Inflation surged on a global scale in 2022, hitting record-level highs in many countries. Could it finally subside in 2023? In the above infographic, we look to answer that question using the World Economic Outlook report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Not Yet Out of the Woods While the IMF predicts that global inflation peaked in late 2022, rates in 2023 are expected to remain higher than usual in many parts of the world....

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 3 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, an additional 112 million more people than in 2019. The increase was partly because of rising food prices, with the average cost of a healthy diet rising by 3.3% from 2019 levels. As of August 2022, the FAO food price index was up 40.6% from average 2020 levels....

The answer depends on the device you’re using, and where in the world you’re located. Average internet speeds vary wildly from country to country. Which countries have the fastest internet connection? Using data from the Cable.co.uk, this map ranks the fastest (and slowest) internet speeds worldwide by comparing the fixed broadband speeds of over 200 countries. What Factors Affect Internet Speed? Before diving in, it’s important to understand the key factors that impact a country’s internet speed....

While the prospect of insulating yourself from the turbulence of global markets may sound alluring at first glance, it would come with considerable caveats, risks, and downsides. Not only would it mean missing out on the world’s best foreign products, but it would likely translate to incredibly expensive goods domestically. Meanwhile, highly specialized products would be unavailable, and unforeseen events (natural disasters, labor strikes, droughts, etc.) would have the potential to disrupt supply chains in ways that lead to economic chaos....

Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the most severe nuclear accident since Chernobyl, many nations reiterated their intent to wean off the energy source. However, this sentiment is anything but universal—in many other regions of the world, nuclear power is still ramping up, and it’s expected to be a key energy source for decades to come. Using data from the Power Reactor Information System, maintained by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the map above gives a comprehensive look at where nuclear reactors are subsiding, and where future capacity will reside....

Nuclear Takes Back Seat in United States, but Drives the Bus in China Earlier this month, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo suggested that the Indian Point nuclear facility should be shut down for good. The reactor had a transformer fire on May 9 that shut down part of the reactor, but also discharged thousands of gallons of oil into the Hudson River. This is not an uncommon theme in the United States....

Chart: Retail Apocalypse 2017 The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. The steady rise of online retail sales should have surprised no one. Back in 2000, less than 1% of retail sales came from e-commerce. However, online sales have climbed each and every year since then, even through the Great Recession. By 2009, e-commerce made up about 4.0% of total retail sales, and today the latest number we have is 8....

It’s also a refrain that speaks the evolving demand picture for cannabis in a post-legalization environment, as it becomes clearer what products consumers want to see coming from the sector. Today’s infographic comes to us from The Green Organic Dutchman, and it dives deeper into the profound investor potential in cannabis retail products, like edibles and concentrates. The Allure of Retail Products As the business of cannabis matures, several trends are directing its course....

In their view, markets have regained a risk appetite following action by central banks, the normalization of commodity prices, and a lack of materialization for tail risks such as a U.S. recession or a Chinese hard-landing: While volatility is indeed near its YTD low with the benchmark VIX down 32% since the start of the year, we would point out that this is potentially some calm before the storm. Here are some upcoming waves, and we’ll see how they break: Earnings and Buybacks: The blended earnings decline for the S&P 500 so far in 2016 Q1 is -8....

How does gold behave like an investment and what are the fundamentals of investing in gold? What are the different ways investors can get exposure to gold in their portfolios? History has shown gold to have several properties as an investment. Gold helps diversify a portfolio and also acts as a hedge against inflation, currency devaluation, and volatility. Many factors affect the price of gold such as speculation, geopolitical events, supply and demand, and macroeconomic factors....

Wikipedia often acts as a quick-and-dirty first source of information—and today’s intriguing animation from Data Geek shows what people are reading about the most. The video highlights more than a decade of the most popular pages on Wikipedia, sorted by total monthly views. Which topics of interest race to the top? Note to readers: Page view statistics are only for the English version of Wikipedia, which has nearly 6 million total articles to date....

But in today’s world, more and more people rely on them to go beyond their day-to-day responsibilities and advocate for broader social change. In fact, a number of external forces are changing how leaders are now expected to behave. How can leaders juggle these evolving expectations while successfully leading their companies into the future? The New Rules of Leadership This infographic from bestselling author Vince Molinaro explores five drivers reshaping our world that leaders must pay attention to in order to bring about real change....

USA vs. Canada: Which is the Most Innovative Country? [Chart] The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. This week, an in-depth report on global innovation was co-released by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. The 2015 version of the report is not for the faint of heart: it clocks in at 453 pages long and covers a total of 141 countries that make up 98....

From the epic race to reach the surface of the moon, to the well-documented trials and tribulations of SpaceX’s rocket launches, space is widely regarded as mankind’s natural next step. For centuries, we’ve gazed at the night sky attempting to decode the messages of the cosmos, but we’ve treated the ocean as a dumping ground or as a nemesis. In the era of big data, it’s strange to note that an estimated 95% of the world’s oceans still remain unexplored....

Many countries have also followed this simple principle, in the interest of growth and prosperity, when doing business on a global scale. Today’s infographic from HowMuch.net charts the top imports and exports between the U.S. and China, pulled from the Observatory of Economic Complexity’s (OEC) global market data for 2017. Which items do you find most surprising? Give and Take: The Trade Relationship of the U.S. and China Two of the world’s largest superpowers today, the U....

Between January and November 2020 alone, investments in sustainable ETF and mutual funds grew 96%. The UN Principles of Responsible Investment now has over 3,000 signatories representing over $100 trillion in assets. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission established a Climate Risk Unit to analyze climate risk across derivative markets, and as of March 2021, new sustainability disclosures have come into effect in Europe. But how do we know if sustainable investments have made a difference?...

Today’s visualization reveals the best-performing stocks over the last 10 years, and shows how much an initial $100 investment would be worth today. The Shortlist To compile the list, MarketWatch reviewed the current S&P 500 constituents and excluded any stocks that have traded in their present form for less than 10 years. The remaining companies were sorted based on their total return, with reinvested dividends, from December 31, 2009 to December 5, 2019....

The retail juggernaut is valued at no less than $1.4 trillion—roughly four times what it was in late 2016 when its market cap hovered around $350 billion. Last year, the Jeff Bezos-led company shipped 2 billion packages around the world. The New Normal COVID-19’s sudden shift has rendered many retail outfits obsolete. Neiman Marcus, JCPenney, and J.Crew have all filed for bankruptcy as consumer spending has migrated online. This, coupled with heavy debt loads across many retail chains, is only compounding the demise of brick-and-mortar....