Time (February 28)
“South Korea set a fresh record for the world’s lowest fertility rate as the impact of the nation’s aging demographics looms large for its medical system, social welfare provision and economic growth.” The dearth of babies is considerably “speeding up the aging of South Korean society, generating concerns about the growing fiscal burden of public pensions and health care.”
Tags: Aging, Burden, Concerns, Demographics, Economic growth, Fertility rate, Medical system, Pensions, Record, Social welfare, South Korea
Wall Street Journal (August 18)
“A fraying electric grid is a nationwide problem,” with estimates suggesting over $700 billion “will need to be spent to replace aging transmission lines and maintain grid reliability” as 60% of “U.S. distribution lines have surpassed their 50-year life expectancy” and the “average age of large power transformers is 40 years, twice their planned life span.” Meanwhile, “grid upgrades to achieve the net-zero promised land” are estimated to “cost another $2.5 trillion by 2050.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, 2050, Aging, Electric grid, Fraying, Grid reliability, Life expectancy, Nationwide problem, Net-zero, Power transformers, Transmission lines, U.S., Upgrades
Foreign Affairs (July 11)
“Today, globalization has stalled, and the new vogue for stockpiling strategic commodities and “friend-shoring” supplies will be inflationary. Add in the aging of populations and the possibility that young workers will insist on a flexible approach to work, and the Fed may have to run tighter policy than in the past quarter of a century.”
Tags: Aging, Commodities, Flexible, Friend-shoring, Globalization, Inflationary, Populations, Stalled, Stockpiling, Strategic, Supplies, Work, Young workers
Barron’s (December 27)
“Megatrends, like aging and climate change, are forcing governments to take care of themselves, understanding there are going to be massive challenges. As a result, we’re starting to see the peak of globalization, meaning limits to the movement of free capital, goods, money, services, and knowledge.”
Tags: Aging, Capital, Challenges, Climate change, Globalization, Goods, Governments, Knowledge, Limits, Megatrends, Money, Peak, Services
Wall Street Journal (May 17)
“American women are having children at the lowest rate on record, with the number of babies born in the U.S. last year dropping to a 30-year low…. The figures suggest that a number of women who put off having babies after the 2007-09 recession are forgoing them altogether.” This could spell trouble as America’s aging population is already “creating a funding imbalance that strains the social safety net that supports the elderly.”
Tags: Aging, Babies, Children, Elderly, Funding, Population, Recession, Safety net, U.S., Women
Bloomberg (August 3)
“Something may be stirring deep within Japan’s labor market. The country’s aging and shrinking population is traditionally thought of as a deflationary factor, driving down potential growth. Yet after years of resisting wage hikes, companies are starting to recognize the need to lock in staff before they literally disappear.”0
Tags: Aging, Deflationary, Growth, Japan, Labor market, Population, Shrinking, Staff, Wage hikes
Reuters (May 14)
“Desperate to overcome Japan’s growing shortage of labor, mid-sized companies are planning to buy robots and other equipment to automate a wide range of tasks, including manufacturing, earthmoving and hotel room service…. If the investment ambitions are fulfilled it would show there is a silver lining as Japan tries to cope with a shrinking and rapidly aging population. It could help equipment-makers, lift the country’s low productivity and boost economic growth.”
Tags: Aging, Automate, Desperate, Economic growth, Japan, Labor, Manufacturing, Productivity, Robots, Shortage, Silver lining
The Economist (August 13)
“Senescence, the general dwindling of prowess experienced by all as time takes its toll, is coming under scrutiny from doctors and biologists.” With advances, average lifespans could reach “today’s ceiling of 120 or so. But it may be just the beginning. In the next phase not just average lifespans but maximum lifespans will rise.”
Tags: 120, Aging, Biologists, Doctors, Lifespans, Prowess, Senescence
Washington Post (May 22)
“With the Asian economic juggernaut coming to an end, due to lower growth in China, an aging Japan and South Korea, and India’s ongoing problems with corruption and a bureaucracy that impedes structural reform, the continent must be viewed from another angle: as a department store of many of the world’s gargantuan political and military challenges. Indeed, unless Asia’s strategically consequential states can significantly mitigate, if not resolve, the region’s political and military deficits, Asia’s rise will never be completed.”
Tags: Aging, Asia, Bureaucracy, Challenges, China, Corruption, Economic juggernaut, Growth, India, Japan, South Korea, Structural reform
New York Times (April 26)
“Fixes for ‘third-world’ airports” are desperately needed, but the airports the New York Times has in mind are all located within the United States. “Like the rest of the nation’s transportation system, aging airports need renovation.”
Tags: Aging, Airports, Fixes, Renovation, Third world, Transportation system, U.S.