The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

China vs. the US--since 1 AD (yes, that's right)

A great chart on relative Chinese, Indian, US and Western European shares of global GDP since 1 AD from the Treasury's Dr Ken Henry, who sourced the data from the late empiricist, Angus Maddison:

"For the first 1,700 to 1,800 of the 2,000 years shown, China and India’s share of world GDP may have been greater than that of western Europe and the US. Two or three centuries ago, their share of world GDP began to decline as the industrial revolution took hold in the west. Only in the last four decades has China and India’s share of world GDP rebounded strongly. Both have the potential to revert to something close to pre-18th century GDP shares in coming decades."

at 9:18 AM