A clip fron today's Daily Reckoning.
Some of the numbers are hard to fathom. As U.S. Global Investors points out in a recent presentation, China will add more people in 15 years than the entire population of the United States. "There will be up to 50,000 new skyscrapers," the company notes, "the equivalent of building 10 New Yorks. There could be up to 170 new mass transit systems. There are only about 70 in Europe today."
This massive population shift has enormous effects on infrastructure spending. Trillions of dollars will have to go toward building power systems, roads, water and wastewater systems, ports and more.
It's like what the U.S. went through in the early 20th century - only on a much more massive scale. Historian Scott Nelson likens the current period to the Long Depression of 1873-96 vintage. Then, a banking crisis toppled Wall Street, too. Unemployment in New York hit 25%. But the Long Depression also paved the way for rising industries such as railroads, oil and steel and spawned a period of innovation and industrial growth.
tutank