August 3, 2006

WHAT THE DEFICITS BUY:

Don't Look Now, But the World Economy Is Booming (Nathan Smith, 03 Aug 2006, Tech Central Station)

The world economy is booming. To see the evidence, check out the back page of The Economist. There is a column showing the GDP growth rates of 27 developing countries. In a typical copy from the late 1990s as many as one-third to one-half of these could have minus signs in front of them.

Today, every single one of these developing countries' growth rates is positive. Substantially positive. The slowest growth rate, in Brazil, is still a respectable 3.4 percent.

In the 1990s, the GDP of developing countries grew at an average of 3.6 percent. Now a faster rate of growth seems to have set in. In 2003, developing countries' economies grew by 5.6 percent. In 2004, they achieved a sizzling 7.1 percent, then settled back to a still-impressive 6.4 percent in 2005. Rich countries are growing, too -- the OECD economies grew at 3.2 percent in 2004 and 2.7 percent in 2005 -- but at more a pedestrian pace.

If anything, 2006 looks to be even better.


Posted by Orrin Judd at August 3, 2006 12:17 PM
Comments

None of this would be possible without the contribution of the World Government is providing law and order.

Let Finland and Sweden boast about the pittances they toss from their carriages to the poor of the earth. Our bounty to humanity in in our enforcement of the prerequisites of civilization. Carrier battle groups are not cheap.

Posted by: Lou Gots at August 3, 2006 2:41 PM

Bush's fault!

Posted by: obc at August 3, 2006 2:48 PM

The real question is whether the economic growth there is increasing the size of the middle class. If they are, then those countries will be politically stable and continue to grow and add to the world stability. If their middle class is not increasing, then they're no different from the oil rich or kleptocratic states in the '60s and '70s that are the failed or terror-supporting states today.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at August 3, 2006 4:25 PM

If their middle class is not increasing, then they're no different from the oil rich or kleptocratic states in the '60s and '70s that are the failed or terror-supporting states today.

A decent point, but most of the oil rich and kleptocratic states in the '60s and '70s failed to actually achieve economic growth. Despite all that oil, many of the oil states actually fell behind in the raw GDP and GDP/head measures. So economic growth and GDP/head remains a good proxy.

Posted by: John Thacker at August 3, 2006 4:39 PM
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