EconAir

    Overview China has been a spectacular economic success story. After the death of Mao in 1976, a more pragmatic group of Communist leaders seized power and began to change China. Their model was Singapore, whose population was mostly Chinese. Singapore’s economic growth model was that the dominant political party would direct economic growth. It invested in infrastructure, including condos for most of its population. It directed investment. It invited foreign companies to invest in the country. It became part of the global economy. China did much of the same but since it was much larger, it had to go further. It liberalized agriculture, going from huge communes to allowing individual farmers to rent land. That doubled food production. Then it concentrated on manufacturing, with favorable laws on taxation. Foreign companies were invited in but they had to partner with a Chinese company, which accelerated China’s absorption of foreign technology and management. After catching...

  SUMMARY   Global population has more than doubled since 1970, going from 3.7 billion to the current (November, 2023) total of 8.0 billion (UN numbers). The  Lancet  long-term projection is that world population will peak around 9.7 billion in the 2060s and then begin to decline, reaching around 8.8 billion people in 2100.   In the most recent United Nations projection (2024), global population is expected to peak at about 10.3 billion sometime in the 2080s and then fall to 10.2 billion in 2100.    Compared to the present, Africa is expected to have about 2.2 billion more people in 2100. The rest of the world is expected to see a decrease of about 1.4 billion people. One billion of the decrease will occur in China and India. The rest of the decrease will occur mostly in Europe, southeast and southern Asia, and Japan. The United States and Latin America (because of increasing population in Mexico) will see little change.   Nigeria’s population gro...