china’s impact on the global economy trade, energy, and the environment

China’s Impact on the Global EconomyTrade, Energy, and the Environment

March 29, 2014Robert KaulfussProfessor of EconomicsMiddlesex Community CollegeBeyondEconomics.org

Per Capita GDP

Per Capita GDP 2013 (PPP), Wikimedia Commons

Balance of Trade:Foreign Exchange Reserves Minus External Debt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Country_foreign_exchange_reserves_minus_external_debt.pngBased on CIA World Factbook data

Population

China’s Growing Dominance?

Weighted average of the share of a country in world GDP, trade, and in world net exports of capital from Arvind Subramanian's “Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance”

The American Dream

Demographics

China Adopts Fast Food

China Adopts the Car Culture

Insatiable Demand for Energy

Wall Street Journal

Surging Demand for Oil

Oil Prices in the Industrial Age

The Easy (Cheap) Oil is Gone

WashingtonPost.com

Biggest Contributor to CO2

CO2 Levels (Now at 390 ppm)

Arctic & Greenland Ice Melt•

Is Economic Growth Sustainable?• Population growth and

congestion• Rising cost of energy• Climate change• Environmental degradation• Poverty, starvation, disease• Political conflicts, terrorism

Their Moonshot and OursThomas Friedman, 9/25/2010

China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars.

Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.

We need to be in a race with China, not just Al Qaeda. Let’s start with electric cars.

The Next Era?