I am updating an article that I first wrote back in September about how the fast the world economy is shifting to places you probably didn’t even believe in 2 decades ago.
If you have been following my writing, you will know that I have have a passion for global economics, especially when it comes to emerging markets and how they will determine our future.
My aim is to always provide you with perspective and insight in the form of something that is hopefully more fun to read than a ‘carefully’ written analyst report.
My mission is to strip out the jargon and focus on the basics that I believe will drive the economy and our future.
Economics are not really that complicated.
Its mostly about those that need capital and those who have capital
Those that have problems and those that have solutions
Those that have resources and those that need those resources
Those who have much to gain versus those who have much to lose
Those who create value versus those that make it up
Those that embrace the future and those that hold on to the past
Just take a moment to think about what the world economy may well look like in 2030. Have a look at the pie chart above and you will see what I mean.
The day that Angola will formally provide financial aid to Portugal is not only very likely, but it probably also lies in the immediate future.
Did he just say Angola?!
It is the kind headline that I am waiting for because it will make us all understand a few vital things about how different our future will be.
While we weren’t really watching, Angola has used it vast reserves derived from the sale of natural resources to build up a significant stake in the Portuguese economy – the kind of involvement that has already taken the kind of dimension that creates a real incentive to protect their investments!
This planet is home to around 7 billion people – the 1 billion people that live in the ‘developed world’ are now massively outnumbered.
Add to that the fact that, thanks to technology, everything is now out into the open. Just consider that someone in Brazil can see what is going on in France at any time. In fact, there are probably many more Brazilians from Sao Paulo that know about what is trending in Paris than the other way around!
This somehow explains that, when asked where I am from, in the US I often hear “Belgium, that’s somewhere, in Europe, right?” while in Addis Ababa, taxi drivers often ask me if I am from the Flemish or the Walloon part of my country ( I am really not making this up, It has already happened 3 times).
The growing middle class of the emerging markets knows much more about us than we know about them. In a world where information means power, it will pay to get to work on better understanding of the cultures of the nations that are on the rise because they are the future.
You still have the privilege and the ability to invest in these new worlds and become a stakeholder rather that a victim of your outdated perception!
How exotic is your world?
Or for more practical purposes, how exotic is your investment portfolio?
