However, one problem of particular importance – at least in places like Europe and the Americas – is a rapidly aging population. As the population shifts grayer, potential consequences include higher dependency ratios, rising healthcare costs, and shifting economies and cities. Europe: A Prime Example We’ve discussed Germany’s demographic cliff before, but it’s not only Germany that will be impacted by a rapidly aging population. The above animation from data visualization expert Aron Strandberg shows the median age of European countries between 1960 and 2060....

Black Swans: Short-term Crisis, Long-term Opportunity Few investors could have predicted that a viral outbreak would end the longest-running bull market in U.S. history. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed stocks far into bear market territory. From its peak on February 19th, the S&P 500 has fallen almost 30%. While this volatility can cause investors to panic, it’s helpful to keep a long-term perspective. Black swan events, which are defined as rare and unexpected events with severe consequences, have come and gone throughout history....

In this infographic, we’ve visualized the results of this research, which spans from January 2020 to April 2022. Brand Loyalty Losers The following brands have all experienced a drop in brand loyalty over the time period. For additional context, we’ve also included each brand’s score in the J.D. Power 2022 Initial Quality Study. This is measured based on the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100) in the first 90 days of ownership....

Bankruptcy Mayhem in the Oil Patch [Chart] Total debt of newly bankrupted energy companies is soaring each month The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. Most investors are aware that there is significant carnage in the oil patch. Low energy prices caught overleveraged companies off guard, and it’s forced many of these companies to seek protection from their creditors through bankruptcy. However, the pace of new bankruptcies is accelerating fast, and now bigger companies are being affected....

Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 has been a center of attention for people interested in the growing momentum behind green energy, electric cars, and battery production. Therefore, it is no surprise that this facility was in the news again last month, with Tesla starting to mass produce batteries as it ramps up to its goal of 35GWh of capacity and beyond. However, as exciting as this project is, it’s actually just one of multiple large-scale “megafactories” being built – with many of them being in China....

Thanks to their relatability and creative prowess, these artists have not only boasted longevity in their record sales, but they’ve also dominated the charts year after year. Today’s video from Data is Beautiful visualizes the world’s best-selling music artists from the past 50 years (1969 to 2019) and highlights the length of their reigns. Do you see your favorite artist or group in the mix? The Best Selling Artists, By Decade Of all of the artists in the past half-century, two stand out: Michael Jackson and Eminem....

With energy consumption vital for life and business, governments often look to fossil fuel subsidies to make energy as affordable as possible. These subsidies artificially reduce the price of fossil fuels and generally take two forms: Production subsidies occur when governments provide tax cuts or direct payments that reduce the cost of producing coal, oil, or gas. Consumption subsidies cut fuel prices for the end-user through price controls and other such measures....

As thousands of restaurants, hotels, and local businesses in the U.S. struggle to stay open, delinquency rates across commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS)—fixed income investments backed by a pool of commercial mortgages— have tripled in three months to 10.32%. In just a few months, delinquency rates have already effectively reached their 2012 peaks. To put this in perspective, consider that it took well over two years for mortgage delinquency rates to reach the same historic levels in the aftermath of the housing crisis of 2009....

Historically, renewables were expensive and lacked competitive pricing power relative to fossil fuels. However, this has changed notably over the last decade. Renewables are the Cheapest Sources of New Electricity Fossil fuel sources still account for the majority of global energy consumption, but renewables are not far off. The share of global electricity from renewables grew from 18% in 2009 to nearly 28% in 2020. Renewable energy sources follow learning curves or Wright’s Law—they become cheaper by a constant percentage for every doubling of installed capacity....

And as far the pecking order of global wealth goes, the new year has already delivered. Just six days in, Elon Musk had already lapped Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person in 2021 with a personal net worth of $188 billion. How did this happen so fast? Since the stock market bottom in March 2020, Tesla shares have skyrocketed by 1,030% to $816 per share. Elon Musk happens to own about 241 million of those shares, putting his wealth accumulation into overdrive in a short period of time....

Alex Tew launched the The Million Dollar Homepage, where anyone could “own a piece of internet history” by purchasing pixels-plots (minimum of 10×10) on a massive digital canvas. At the price of just one dollar per pixel, everyone from individual internet users to well-known companies like Yahoo! raced to claim a space on the giant digital canvas. Today, The Million Dollar Homepage lives on as a perfect record of that wacky time in internet history – or so it seems....

Frank Trotter on Wealth Disparity – and More Top Quotes from a San Francisco Investment Show Weeks ago we were delighted to attend an investment conference in San Francisco called The Silver Summit & Resource Expo. Speakers included well-known voices in the investment community such as Grant Williams, Frank Holmes, Frank Trotter, and Rick Rule. The show was also supplemented with people that have helped to build multi-billion companies: precious metals pioneers such as Ross Beaty, Rob McEwen, and Keith Neumeyer, or mine-finders such as David Lowell....

Well, for those that support the Kickstarter campaign for the VC App before the end of this week, we’re offering a bonus gift from the Visual Capitalist team! BONUS GIFT Back us now and receive ‘Our All-Time Greatest Visualizations’. Everyone who backs us with any amount by July 1st will receive a curated list of our most popular visualizations from the last 10 years. It’s simple. To get the list of our best visualizations, go to the Kickstarter campaign page and back us for any amount....

However, in the first quarter of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has initiated a transformation of consumer spending trends as we know them. Consumer Spending in Charts By leveraging new data from analytics platform 1010Data, today’s infographic dives into the credit and debit card spending of five million U.S. consumers over the past few months. Let’s see how their spending habits have evolved over that short timeframe: The above data on consumer spending, which comes from 1010Data and powered by AI platform Exabel, is broken into 18 different categories:...

In advanced economies, we are lucky to have simple options to grow and protect our wealth. Banks are all over the place, markets are robust, and we can invest our money into assets like stocks or bonds at the drop of a hat. In the United States, roughly 52% of people are invested in the stock market – but in a place like India, for example, this portion drops to a paltry 2%....

Bitcoin is Finally Becoming an “Everyday Use” Currency Over the last few years, Bitcoin has gained a reputation as an investment commodity. It has been toted as a method to preserve wealth and to hedge against currency devaluation as bitcoins cannot be “printed”. This reputation still holds true today. With Greece’s economy on the rocks and the unfolding aftermath of a “no” decision, the bitcoin price has skyrocketed by around 20% in the last month....

In 2016, for example, the company brought in $136 billion in net sales, but it spent $131.8 billion on operating expenses. That gave the company an operating income of $4.2 billion. However, that high-growth strategy seems to be paying off. During the same period, e-commerce revenue jumped 25%, AWS revenue increased 55%, and net income skyrocketed 302%. The growth has continued through 2017 and it’s why Jeff Bezos is now the richest person in the world....

Unfortunately, the data is not for the latest and greatest iPhone 7, which was only introduced last week. That said, it is still interesting to dive into the components and the manufacturers that make the 6s work. What’s inside an iPhone? The infographic comes to us from SCMP, and in total it highlights 34 individual components in an iPhone 6s. These parts range from German accelerometers to camera modules from Sony in Japan....

While the automation potential of many jobs today is undoubtedly high, we also know that technology is going to create many new positions that we never could have imagined. Instead of fighting automation, the enterprising job seeker should consider being on the cutting edge by entering a field that is only just now emerging. Popular Jobs in a Decade Today’s infographic from Futurism shows just some of the jobs that may be very popular ten years from now....

Yet despite this growth, sustainable ETFs—baskets of investments that focus on environmental, social and governance issues—account for roughly 5% of the entire ETF universe. What makes up this rapidly growing market? Where are the most common areas for investment? To answer this question, this infographic from MSCI breaks down the sustainable ETF universe. Sustainable ETFs: An Overview By and large, the scope of sustainable ETFs can vary. One sustainable ETF may consist of clean tech companies, and another could focus on sustainable leaders in the S&P 500....