Surprising Stats (Big Money Edition)
Did you know . . . ?
I.
From Timothy Taylor:
The size of the global economy in 2025 is about $117 trillion, according to the IMF. The volume of trading in foreign exchange markets is now up to $9.5 trillion per day, according to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).
II.
Larry Swedroe updates us on long-term yields for broad equity markets.
And here is the more familiar inverse of that chart for the U.S. portion courtesy of Multpl.com.
This is not surprising to any of us who have been paying attention, but it is nonetheless surprising when we consider the implications. It is extremely likely that the total return for large U.S. stocks will be quite poor over the next decade. That is even with the fact that some years in the next 10 are likely to be quite good. Good luck figuring those out ahead of time.
III.
California’s 5% wealth tax would take 50% of Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s Alphabet holdings. From Garry Tan’s X post (full thread).
While this is by far not the only problem with this tax concept (wealth taxes) or this specific version, it does highlight an unusual kind of unintended consequences. The usual ones would be taking more than 5% over time and driving out current wealth while strongly disincentivizing new wealth.