Factoid
Each year, the people of China consume 600 million pigs and that number grows every year. While this may seem random, there are interesting demographic forces and investment implications behind this factoid. MORE: Expanding Chinese Pig Production is no Black Swan
Big Data
As discussed in previous blogs, “big data” is a large part of the technology revolution that is likely upon us. Technology has enabled us to create data like never before – we have created more data in the past few years than in all of human history before that – and at the same time, computing power and speed is now enabling us to analyze all of this data and derive insights like never before. The table below illustrates the dramatic increase in data being created. Artificial intelligence is helping us derive insights and information from this data.
Boxes Everywhere
Anyone who lives in an urban apartment knows that there is a big room where they store the countless Amazon.com (and otherwise) boxes that arrive daily. It is not your imagination, the number of boxes being shipped is indeed increasing. As you can see from the chart below, domestic parcel volumes have increased 50% in the past six years, and the rate of change is accelerating. This is just another residual effect of the shift to e-commerce. It is no wonder that Amazon.com is working on controlling delivery and trying to reduce dependence on the post office, UPS and FedEx.
Real Estate Disruption
It is no secret that the home buying/selling process, like many industries, is being disrupted by technological changes. The chart below shows how differently people find homes today versus 2001. Interestingly, newspapers have become almost irrelevant, but I still see plenty of home listings in the papers that I use for my fireplace. My best guess is that the red bar on the left will keep increasing and the one on the right will keep decreasing. RELATED: The Housing Market is Ripe for Disruption
Old Mexico Lives on in America
The chart below from the economist.com shows the current population of people of Mexican origin and the boundary of Mexico pre-1848. It is amazing how much overlap there is, especially on the Texas border.
