The GDP Growth forecasts for the top 12 global oil producing countries are shown in the chart below:
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Source: 2019 Economic Outlook for the Top Oil Producing Countries, Focus Economics
The World’s Biggest Economies in 2018 and 2019: Chart
The US is the biggest economy in the world now and is projected to be maintain that leadership in 2019 as well. However China’s economy is growing faster and the country is catching up fast with the US.
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Source: The World’s Top 10 Largest Economies, Focus Economics
In addition to China, the emerging economies of Brazil and India are also among the top economies of the world.
Why Investors Should Consider International Equities Now: Infographic
US Stocks have outperformed international stocks over 10 years now. And now it may be time for foreign stocks to play catch and beat their American peers in terms of returns. No country continues to be the top performer for ever year after after year. So US investors may want to consider adding foreign stocks that are attractive at current levels.
The following is an infographic from Brandes on why investors should consider foreign equities now:
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Source: Brandes Investment Partners
The World’s Top 10 Tourism Destinations in 2017
Tourism is one of the major industries in many countries. Europe leads the world in tourist arrival numbers. A few facts about global tourism are:
- International arrivals grew by 7% in 2017 to 1.3 billion people.
- International Tourism receipts exceed $1.3 Trillion.
- Europe received the most arrivals at about 671 million followed by Asia-Pacific and Americas.
- 1 in 10 jobs is related to Tourism.
With those fascinating figures, the following are the world’s top 10 tourist destinations based on 2017 data:
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Source: UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2018, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
France continues to be the top tourist destination. Spain jumped from number 3 to 2 this year. Cities such as Paris and Barcelona are flooded with millions of tourists each year. Among the emerging markets, China, Mexico, Turkey and Thailand attract enough tourists to be in the top 10 ranking.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List
Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci is known not only as a great painter but also a great inventor. His voracious curiosity for knowledge and science led him to learn and master a variety of subjects. Recently I came across an article on “The To-Do List” he used to maintain around the 1490s. Unlike most to-do lists that we create using our cellphone apps and computers his to-do list is fascinating to say the least. A typical to-do list might look like :
- Play Golf 9-12
- Pay Credit Card XYZ
- Pay Credit Card ABC
- Pay Mortgage
- Pay Electric Bill
- Pay Gas Bill
- Conference in LA
- Football Practice Sunday 1-4
- Pay Doctor Bill
- Laundry
- Renew gym membership
- Car oil change
- Mow lawn
- Dinner date with wife
blah blah blah….
The above list is as dull as a to-do list can be.
Compared to the above typical list, below is an excerpt from the article on Leonardo’s to-do list:
[Calculate] the measurement of Milan and Suburbs
[Find] a book that treats of Milan and its churches, which is to be had at the stationer’s on the way to Cordusio
[Discover] the measurement of Corte Vecchio (the courtyard in the duke’s palace).
[Discover] the measurement of the castello (the duke’s palace itself)
Get the master of arithmetic to show you how to square a triangle.
Get Messer Fazio (a professor of medicine and law in Pavia) to show you about proportion.
Get the Brera Friar (at the Benedictine Monastery to Milan) to show you De Ponderibus (a medieval text on mechanics)
[Talk to] Giannino, the Bombardier, re. the means by which the tower of Ferrara is walled without loopholes (no one really knows what Da Vinci meant by this)
Ask Benedetto Potinari (A Florentine Merchant) by what means they go on ice in Flanders
Draw Milan
Ask Maestro Antonio how mortars are positioned on bastions by day or night.
[Examine] the Crossbow of Mastro Giannetto
Find a master of hydraulics and get him to tell you how to repair a lock, canal and mill in the Lombard manner
[Ask about] the measurement of the sun promised me by Maestro Giovanni Francese
Try to get Vitolone (the medieval author of a text on optics), which is in the Library at Pavia, which deals with the mathematic.
Source: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (Circa 1490), Open Culture
The entire above-linked article is worth a read.