Global greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2020. The reduction in emissions in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession was 10 times greater than the impact on emissions from the 2008 global financial crisis. Graphic: Rhodium Group

Global greenhouse gas reduction in 2020 from pandemic and global recession “was 10 times greater than the impact on emissions from the 2008 global financial crisis”

By Alfredo Rivera, Shweta Movalia, Hannah Pitt, and Kate Larsen 23 December 2021 (Rhodium Group) – Understanding annual trends in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a critical input for decision-makers in their efforts to reach net-zero emissions, whether is at the national, state, city, or corporate levels. Tracking emissions of the 190+ Parties to the […]

Debt as percentage of GDP in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), 1970-2020. COVID-19 pushed debt in developing economies to the highest level in more than 50 years. By the end of 2020, private debt in EMDEs reached a record 142 percent of GDP. Graphic: World Bank

World Bank’s 2021 Year in Review in 11 Charts: The Inequality Pandemic

By Venkat Gopalakrishnan, Divyanshi Wadhwa, Sara Haddad, and Paul Blake 21 December 2021 (World Bank) – From uneven economic recovery to unequal access to vaccines; from widening income losses to divergence in learning, COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on the poor and vulnerable in 2021. It is causing reversals in development and is dealing a […]

Average annual global wealth growth rate, 1995-2021. Graph: World Inequality Lab

Global wealth inequalities are close to early 20th century levels, at the peak of Western imperialism – “The share of income presently captured by the poorest half of the world’s people is about half what it was in 1820”

8 December 2021 (World Inequality Lab) – […] An average adult individual earns PPP €16,700 (PPP USD23,380) per year in 2021, and the average adult owns €72,900 (USD102,600). These averages mask wide disparities both between and within countries. The richest 10% of the global population currently takes 52% of global income, whereas the poorest half […]

Percentage of wealth held by top 1 percent and middle 60 percent of U.S. earners, 1989-2020. After years of declines, America’s middle class now holds a smaller share of U.S. wealth than the top one percent. Data: Federal Reserve. Graphic: Bloomberg

Top one percent of U.S. earners now hold more wealth than all the middle class

By Alex Tanzi and Mike Dorning 8 October 2021 (Bloomberg) – After years of declines, America’s middle class now holds a smaller share of U.S. wealth than the top 1%. The middle 60% of U.S. households by income — a measure economists often use as a definition of the middle class — saw their combined […]

Affordable rents in the U.S. in 2021 and wage earners grouped by earnings. Even under the best of circumstances, rent is unaffordable for most low-wage workers. Graphic: NLIHC

Minimum wage workers can’t afford rent anywhere in America – “In no state, metropolitan area, or county can a full-time minimum-wage worker afford a modest two-bedroom rental home”

By Anna Bahney 15 July 2021 (CNN) – Housing has become so expensive in the United States that the typical minimum wage worker cannot afford rent, according to a new report. There is no state, county or city in the country where a full-time, minimum-wage worker working 40 hours a week can afford a two-bedroom […]

Map showing percent change in reported 12 month-ending count of U.S. drug overdose deaths, by jurisdiction, December 2019 to December 2020. Graphic: CDC

Drug overdose deaths in U.S. hit highest number ever recorded in 2020 – “This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999”

By Maggie Fox 14 July 2021 (CNN) – Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30 percent in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by […]

Number of undernourished people and prevalence of undernourishment globally, 2005-2020. The number of undernourished people in the world has been on the rise since 2015 and is back to levels seen during the global financial crisis in 2008–2009. Graphic: FAO

UN: World hunger continued its six-year rise in 2020 – Up to 160 million more people faced hunger in 2020 than in 2019 – “The world is at a critical juncture”

12 July 2021 (UNFAO) – The world is in a very different place to where it was six years ago when it committed to the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. At the time, we were optimistic that with transformative approaches, past progress could be accelerated, at scale, […]

Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Photo: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Nouriel Roubini: Conditions in 2021 are ripe for another global financial crisis – “The stagflation of the 1970s will soon meet the debt crises of the post-2008 period”

By Nouriel Roubini 2 July 2021 (The Guardian) – In April, I warned that today’s extremely loose monetary and fiscal policies, when combined with a number of negative supply shocks, could result in 1970s-style stagflation (high inflation alongside a recession). In fact, the risk today is even bigger than it was then. After all, debt ratios in […]

Icicles hang from machinery at the Entergy power plant in Houston, Texas, after Winter Storm Uri, 16 February 2021. Photo: Lauren Talarico / KHOU / Twitter

Texas electric bills were $28 billion higher under deregulation – “Texas froze by design”

By Tom McGinty and Scott Patterson 24 February 2021 (The Wall Street Journal) – Texas’s deregulated electricity market, which was supposed to provide reliable power at a lower price, left millions in the dark last week. For two decades, its customers have paid more for electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a Wall […]

Ice drapes machinery at the Entergy power plant in Houston, Texas, after Winter Storm Uri, 16 February 2021. Photo: Lauren Talarico / KHOU / Twitter

Texas power coop seeks bankruptcy protection after Winter Storm Uri – “The consumer and the taxpayer are pretty much one and the same. Whether it comes out of your left pocket or out of your right pocket, it’s coming out of your pocket.”

By Michelle Chapman and David Koenig 1 March 2021 (AP) – The largest and oldest power cooperative in Texas is filing for bankruptcy protection, citing last month’s winter storm that left millions without power, and it is unlikely to be the last utility to seek shelter in the courts. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative serves distributors […]

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