The Wednesday Briefs 170 - 31 May 2023

THIS WEEK: Degrowth; NVIDIA Spike; US v. China Demographics; S&P Sectors Update.

DEGROWTH

It starts with a weak chirp, then turns into an audible plea, then a bolder argument, in each case testing the listener's willingness to go along. At some point, a few academics jump on board. Some of them may even be credible and established. Then before you know it, it is being promoted at the lectern of a world-class event in a major European capital. We do not know how new ideas about human development take root and expand but this is a plausible evolution. One of the more recent ideas is "degrowth" which advocates either no GDP growth or shrinking GDP (proponents disagree). Its premise is that our pursuit of GDP growth is at the root of major environmental and societal ills such as pollution and climate change, suburban sprawl and income inequality.

The World Economic Forum website has a page on degrowth that states:

"Degrowth is a ra…