2025
Week 5
World Status
As seen in figure 1, the global deaths and the countries of where there has been war, has
changed a lot from 2003 to
2023. [1]
2024
Week 52
World Status
After the election of Trump, the tariffs he might impose and the potential trade war is sure to create a deadweight loss for both parties. Another disadvantage of fueling a trade war is that tariffs are much easier to create than to remove. President Xi Jinping has said that China will take a stronger hold of Taiwan; it is only a matter of time.[1]
World Prediction
According to the OECD, global GDP will rise by about 3.3% in 2025, but uncertainty remains high, and the future of the global economy looks a little shaky. [2] Another factor contributing to global brittleness is the high amount of national debt among many countries.
Week 51
World Status
The US currently has the highest total GDP ($29 trillion) followed by China (18) and Germany
(4). Donald J. Trump is the world's most powerful world leader. The rate of human pollution
is
still much higher than what is necessary for benefiting humanity in the medium and long
term.
However, carbon-cutting initiatives are on the rise although they often don't meet the
promised
target nor the amount necessary (although what is necessary is subjective, of course).
The total share of democracies in the world peaked in 2010 at around 50% of the world's
countries and seems to have been declining slightly from 2017 until now. [1]
World Prediction
The Gulf Stream will, with a very high certainty, stop flowing within the next 10-15 years.
This
will cause the average yearly temperature of the northern European coastal countries to be
considerably lower (from around 5-10 degrees Celsius). [2]
Intel will almost go down under, causing non-Asian chip production to become critically low
as
there are only three main producers: TSMC, Samsung, and Intel. This is only the tip of the
iceberg for the US, however, as it will soon be slung into a great economic downfall. With
Trump's aggressive/chaotic macroeconomic policy, there is a higher probability that it will
happen sooner rather than later.[3] The West will feel a strong incentive to invest
in a
new semiconductor fab as China takes military control of TSMC and Taiwan (a disputed
country) in
general. It is noteworthy to mention here, however, that TSMC relies heavily on machines
from
ASML, a Dutch company.