Having discussed the links between economic growth and energy resource constraints, and with the current geo-political fireworks as much about energy (costs, supply, and demand) as they are human rights, it would appear the following chart may well become the most-important indicator of future tensions…
Source: Goldman Sachs
This is not the first time we have discussed “self-sufficiency” – As none other thanBridgewater’s Ray Dalio noted in a slightly different context:
“self-sufficiency encourages productivity by tying the ability to spend to the need to produce,”
“Societies in which individuals are more responsible for themselves grow more than those in which they are less responsible for themselves.” The nine-factor gauge of self-sufficiency provides some interesting insights into those nations most likely to experience above-average growth going-forward and those that are not; as European countries, notably Italy, France, Spain, and Belgium, all ranking at the very bottom on self-sufficiency.
And here we discussed, What If Nations Were Less Dependent On One Another?
