While many of my posts focus on current economic or investment developments, this one falls into the category of pure intellectual stimulation. Visual Capitalist generated this fascinating chart which illustrates the share of world GDP for major countries over the past two thousand years. Now, that is what I call long term perspective!
Note the ebb and flow of the world’s major powers. I was largely ignorant of the dominance of India through the 1700’s. In the mid 1800’s, China represented about 40% of the world economy only to decline to less than 10% in the mid 1900’s and then surge to about 18% today. In 1950, Russia accounted for about 20% of world economic activity only to fall to just 3.9% today. And, with the growth of many other economies, America’s share has fallen from about 35% in 1950 to 15.3% today despite enjoying healthy growth. I do not know what to make of all of this other than to say that nothing is forever, and economic dominance is far from assured.