Yanis Varoufakis - Capitalism will eat democracy — unless we speak up

Have you wondered why politicians aren't what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? Economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it's because you can be in politics today but not be in power — because real power now belongs to those who control the economy. He believes that the mega-rich and corporations are cannibalizing the political sphere, causing financial crisis. In this talk, hear his dream for a world in which capital and labor no longer struggle against each other, "one that is simultaneously libertarian, Marxist and Keynesian."

Where are the millionaires!

Where is the wealth concentrated in the world! According to a new report from WealthInsight, Tokyo is beating out New York and London. 

The Economist notes that the city, which boasts 460,700 individuals with net assets of $1m or more (excluding their primary residences), is home to over a fifth of Japan's millionaires. However, when it comes to real money London tops the list with 4,224 multi-millionaires.  

But the real surprise is Frankfurt which has the highest millionaires per capita (with 75 out of every 1000 people having at least a seven figure net worth).

Source: The Economist

Economic Freedom of the World

The Fraser Institute's massive volume on the Economic Freedom Of The World - based on the following five factors: Size of Government, Legal System & Property Rights, Sound Money, Freedom to Trade Internationally, and Regulation - covers 42 variables with the goal of quantifying the key ingredients of economic freedom.
When it comes to Europe, Italy manages to leave behind Greece by 2 positions achieving a very dishonourable 83rd position, Spain and Ireland respectively 34th and 12th stays among the most free economies in the world, Portugal is still green in the 60th while Greece at 81 still manage to fare better than Italy.

For those interested to find out what is making Italy so appalling please check the full data below.

Velocity of Money

Velocity of money is the  frequency with which a unit of money is spent on new goods and services.   It is a far better indicator of economic activity than GDP, consumer prices, the stock market, or sales.  In a healthy economy, the same dollar is collected as payment and subsequently spent many times over.  In a depression, the velocity of money goes catatonic.  
Velocity of money is calculated by simply dividing GDP by a given money supply.  The following is the velocity of money since Great Depression, sometimes a picture is worth more than thousand words and the picture is quite clear here.
The situation here is worst than the Great Depression and World War II and deteriorating fast.

 

Huge Money

Randall Munroe of xkcd charts the things that money pays for, from the item off the dollar menu all the way up to the total estimated economic productivity of the human race. Following the same scheme to show relative scales that he used for his radiation chart, you get a big picture, a zoom for another big picture, and so on.





See the graphic in its ultra wide format here, and see the list of over 200 sources here.