The political debate in the US about new spending is bizarre. They are bickering about more money for this and for that: the military, border defence, chip production, Ukraine, Israel, you name it. The only thing that is never mentioned, is how to pay for it. And this is despite that the US is running the biggest deficit since the 2009 financial crisis and the Covid emergency. The national debt is spiralling. They are spending as if there is no tomorrow.

We are in 2017 an estimated 7,500 million people on the planet earth – three times the 2,500 million we were in 1950. According to projections made by UN, we will be 9,700 million in 2050 and 11,200 million at the end of the century. The growing world population and its natural desire for decent living conditions imply an enormous stress on our planet with global warming, depletion of resources, decreasing biodiversity, polluted and congested megacities and accumulation of waste. Can we handle this in the future?

Joining a stronger currency as the dollar or the Euro seemed for a moment to create economic miracles for many small countries in Europe and Latin America. Now after the financial crisis, this looks more as a road to trouble.