<![CDATA[KILLER CHARTS]]>

<![CDATA[KILLER CHARTS]]>https://killercharts.bloghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mqnH!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faaa923f6-8549-4cdb-a615-498a5471d6ac_1024x1024.pngKILLER CHARTShttps://killercharts.blogSubstackWed, 24 Jun 2026 13:20:09 GMT<![CDATA[Iranian crude exports to China have collapsed]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/iranian-crude-exports-to-china-havehttps://killercharts.blog/p/iranian-crude-exports-to-china-haveWed, 24 Jun 2026 05:01:26 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Iranian crude exports to China have collapsed

Sanctions are easiest to misunderstand when they are discussed only as announcements. Oil cargoes make the pressure more visible. Bloomberg’s estimate shows Iranian crude exports to China falling sharply in 2026, with flows close to zero by April.

For Tehran, that hits one of the most important hard-currency channels. For Chinese buyers, the calculation has changed too: weaker demand makes discounted barrels less attractive if the political, shipping and sanctions risk rises.

Reports of tankers resuming shipments mean April may not be the final word. The oil market is reading diplomacy and enforcement almost week by week, not only supply and demand.

Chart

Source: Bloomberg

The first-order story is military and diplomatic. The second-order story is financial: which routes still work, which payments people trust, which prices move and which markets remain open.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: Ukraine’s strikes on Russian logistics, Russia’s cash habit, oil-driven inflation and capital markets booming despite geopolitical shocks. Together, they show how conflict moves through trade routes, payment systems, prices and credit before it becomes a single macro headline.

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Economists now expect the Fed to raise rates in 2026]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/economists-now-expect-the-fed-tohttps://killercharts.blog/p/economists-now-expect-the-fed-toTue, 23 Jun 2026 05:01:32 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Economists now expect the Fed to raise rates in 2026

The rate-cut trade has been forced to defend itself. The FT-Booth survey shows economists who were looking for cuts in March now expecting the Fed to raise rates by the end of 2026.

The 17 June Fed meeting reinforced that change in mood. Rates were held at 3.5% to 3.75%, but officials signalled that another hike is possible as oil and inflation pressure persist. Relief is no longer the default path.

Surveys and Fed projections can both be wrong. The important change is the starting line. A year that was supposed to be about easing now has to price the risk of renewed tightening, and that changes the tone for bonds, equities and borrowers.

Chart

Source: Financial Times

Interest rates can sound technical until they arrive as a mortgage quote, a wage negotiation or a government with less room to spend. The abstraction always becomes someone’s monthly arithmetic. I learnt this very quickly early on in my career. Interest rates are not dinner table conversation, but talking about the troubled economy is. The problem is that you still need to talk about interest rates even if nobody wants to listen.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: expected ECB hikes, the Fed and ECB moving together again, US wage gains lost to petrol prices and inflation still concentrated in Argentina and Turkey. Together, they show why the inflation story is no longer a simple countdown to cuts.

]]><![CDATA[Anthropic pulls ahead of OpenAI in enterprise business]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/anthropic-pulls-ahead-of-openai-inhttps://killercharts.blog/p/anthropic-pulls-ahead-of-openai-inMon, 22 Jun 2026 05:02:28 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Anthropic pulls ahead of OpenAI in enterprise business

OpenAI still owns much of the public imagination. The surprise in Ramp’s spending data, which you can see in the chart below, is that being first to market does not guarantee loyalty. Among US businesses paying for AI tools, Anthropic has caught up through its ruthless pursuit of enterprise revenue.

As a business owner myself, I think recurring spend is a better test of endurance than launch buzz. Claude appears to have found its way into coding teams and knowledge-work routines. But there is one issue that is not discussed enough – cost. Claude Code is very expensive compared with OpenAI’s tools, including Codex. Personally, I have found Codex far more stable and reliable. I have even built my own agents using it, without the hype, drama and wild claims that are constantly posted on social media.

If token bills rise faster than productivity, finance departments will become the real AI sceptics. In my opinion, they are already starting to wise up. The commercial race is no longer about whose model sounds cleverest. It is about whose tool survives budget review.

Chart

Source: Chartr

The useful lesson I have learnt about money is that it is less impressive than people. It does not clap at demos, which I learnt when launching Eeagli. It renews the subscription, funds the Azure server you are using and allows you to keep getting better at what you do. But behind that money is someone who believes in you and what you are building.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: NVIDIA’s data-centre revenue surge, Oracle’s AI cash-flow squeeze, the split inside technology shares and the spread of AI research through economics. Together, they show where the AI boom is turning from story into measurable strain.

]]><![CDATA[US stocks dominate a $150 trillion global market]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/us-stocks-dominate-a-150-trillionhttps://killercharts.blog/p/us-stocks-dominate-a-150-trillionFri, 19 Jun 2026 05:01:11 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • US stocks dominate a $150 trillion global market

A $150 trillion global stock market sounds like a triumph of capitalism. It is also a concentration story. More than half of that listed value now sits in the United States.

That dominance reflects technology profits, deep capital markets and the gravitational pull of passive investing. It also means global portfolios are increasingly exposed to one country’s companies, currency, regulation and political choices.

Market value is not the same as economic health. It ignores private companies, debt markets and social outcomes. But it is a map of where investors believe future profits will accrue, and the map is now heavily tilted towards America.

Chart

Source: Boyan Girginov

A high market value can be a sign of confidence, but it can also be a claim on the future. The interesting question is not only what investors believe. It is how much room is left if that belief is tested.

The remaining charts move from SpaceX to Washington’s interest bill, AI-chip markets and McDonald’s franchise system. Together they show capital as euphoria, constraint, industrial concentration and operating discipline.

]]><![CDATA[African life expectancy has risen sharply]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/african-life-expectancy-has-risenhttps://killercharts.blog/p/african-life-expectancy-has-risenThu, 18 Jun 2026 05:00:26 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • African life expectancy has risen sharply

A chart like this is worth pausing over because it pushes against the easiest story about Africa. The long-run picture is not only crisis. It is millions of lives extended year by year.

The upward movement reflects vaccination, malaria control, lower child mortality, better food security, urbanisation, basic medicine and public-health systems reaching more people than before. Some countries still lag badly, but the direction is unmistakable.

Life expectancy is an average, not a guarantee of good lives. War, poverty and weak healthcare still matter enormously. The point is not to soften reality. It is to remember that African development has also produced one of the great human gains of the modern era.

Chart

Source: Information is beautiful

Some charts are valuable because they interrupt the news cycle. They remind us that the world is not only moving from crisis to crisis, even when the headlines make it feel that way.

That slower view changes the texture of the week. Health services, food production, migration and travel choices all become part of the same human pattern: adaptation under pressure, but adaptation all the same.

]]><![CDATA[Europe’s goods trade deficit with China keeps widening]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/europes-goods-trade-deficit-withhttps://killercharts.blog/p/europes-goods-trade-deficit-withWed, 17 Jun 2026 05:00:43 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Europe’s goods trade deficit with China keeps widening

Europe wants to talk about strategic autonomy. The goods trade account keeps interrupting. The EU still buys far more from China than it sells there.

Eurostat data put the 2025 deficit at roughly 360 billion euros, with early 2026 figures showing the pressure continuing. That imbalance sits behind the fights over electric vehicles, batteries, solar equipment, critical minerals and industrial subsidies.

A bilateral deficit is not automatically a policy failure. Imports can make consumers better off, and supply chains are complicated. The problem is political dependency. Europe wants industrial strength while its trade flows keep proving how much production power still sits elsewhere.

Chart

Source: Bloomberg

Globalisation did not disappear. It became more conditional. The same systems that lower costs in calm periods transmit stress when politics, war or chokepoints interrupt them.

The rest of the issue follows those interruptions through ports, tankers, Ukraine aid and European households. The result is less a grand theory than a practical warning: the world economy is still physical enough to be blocked, delayed and repriced.

]]><![CDATA[Brexit may have cut UK GDP by 2% to 4%]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/brexit-may-have-cut-uk-gdp-by-2-tohttps://killercharts.blog/p/brexit-may-have-cut-uk-gdp-by-2-toTue, 16 Jun 2026 05:01:00 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Brexit may have cut UK GDP by 2% to 4%

Brexit did not need to produce an instant disaster to be expensive. The more damaging version is slower: a persistent gap between the economy Britain has and the one it might have had.

Bloomberg Economics puts that gap at 2% to 4% of GDP. The mechanism is not mysterious: weaker trade intensity, lower investment, management distraction, labour constraints and less productive integration with nearby markets.

No counterfactual deserves blind faith. Britain has faced other shocks, and models vary. But a few percentage points of GDP is not a rounding error. It is fiscal room, wage growth and public patience lost in small increments.

Chart

Source: Bloomberg

Britain’s problem is not that nothing works. Some parts still work rather well. London finance keeps adding jobs, elite universities can still charge global prices, and airlines are again investing for growth.

The harder question is whether those strengths add up to a national strategy, or whether they are isolated islands inside a slower economy. The remaining charts follow that tension without pretending it has a neat answer.

]]><![CDATA[ChatGPT still leads the AI platform usage race]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/chatgpt-still-leads-the-ai-platformhttps://killercharts.blog/p/chatgpt-still-leads-the-ai-platformMon, 15 Jun 2026 05:00:58 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

Subscribe now

CHART 1 • ChatGPT still leads the AI platform usage race

The AI race is easier to understand if you stop listening to launch announcements and watch what people actually use. On that measure, ChatGPT still has the clearest lead.

That lead is not just fame. Habit is distribution. Google can push Gemini through Android and Search, Microsoft can attach Copilot to work software, and Chinese platforms can scale inside domestic ecosystems. OpenAI’s advantage is real, but it is not protected by model quality alone.

The numbers are estimates, and web visits are not the same as paying customers. Even so, usage is the uncomfortable scoreboard. The winning AI product will not be the one with the best demo. It will be the one people build into their day.

Chart

Source: Rajesh Girotra

A technology stops being a spectacle when it creates dependencies. People build habits around it, companies build budgets around it, cities build infrastructure for it and young workers start to shape their careers around what it might do.

The rest of the issue follows that change of state. AI is no longer just a product category. It is becoming a claim on capital, electricity, office work and the first jobs people hoped would protect them from disruption.

Subscribe now

]]><![CDATA[Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil assets have hit a record high]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/ukrainian-attacks-on-russian-oilhttps://killercharts.blog/p/ukrainian-attacks-on-russian-oilFri, 12 Jun 2026 05:02:16 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil assets have hit a record high

Ukraine’s drone campaign is becoming an economic war inside Russia. Bloomberg’s chart shows at least 30 hits on Russian oil facilities in May, the highest monthly count since the full-scale invasion began.

The target choice is not random. Oil funds the Russian state, supplies the military and gives Moscow pressure in energy markets. Striking refineries, pipelines, ports and tankers forces Russia to defend a vast industrial system far from the front.

This chart does not tell us how much capacity is permanently lost. Some strikes damage equipment temporarily, and Russian export flows can adjust in strange ways. But the direction is clear: Ukraine is trying to make Russia’s war economy feel the war at home.

Chart

Source: Bloomberg

A refinery hit is a reminder that power is practical before it is rhetorical. Oil assets, fuel systems, factories and launch records matter because they decide how much pressure a country can absorb or impose.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: US and Iran military budgets, America’s ethanol dominance, falling battery costs and Moon missions. Together, they show how strategic capacity is being built, attacked and priced.

]]><![CDATA[SpaceX’s IPO would dwarf every modern listing]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/spacexs-ipo-would-dwarf-every-modernhttps://killercharts.blog/p/spacexs-ipo-would-dwarf-every-modernThu, 11 Jun 2026 05:01:08 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

Subscribe now

CHART 1 • SpaceX’s IPO would dwarf every modern listing

SpaceX is not arriving in public markets like a normal company. Bloomberg’s chart over here puts the planned deal at a $75 billion offer size and a target market value above $1.8 trillion, larger than any comparable listing since 2000.

That scale forces everyone else to react. Index providers, passive funds, ETF issuers, retail brokers and sceptical fund managers all have to decide whether the market should bend around a company before it has traded normally.

The listing is also a test of narrative value. Rockets, Starlink, AI infrastructure and Elon Musk control are being priced together. If the debut works, other private giants will see a route to market. If it stumbles, the whole mega-IPO queue looks more fragile.

Chart

Source: Bloomberg

The SpaceX chart is startling because it shows how far capital can run ahead of ordinary comparison. Some companies become markets in themselves before public investors have even had a chance to buy them.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: listed technology’s market value, ultra-rich growth, fallen unicorn valuations and Argentina’s credit crunch. Together, they show where belief is rewarded, where old valuations are being cut down and where credit is still missing.

]]><![CDATA[Most Americans say the US economy is getting worse]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/most-americans-say-the-us-economyhttps://killercharts.blog/p/most-americans-say-the-us-economyWed, 10 Jun 2026 05:00:43 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

Subscribe now

CHART 1 • Most Americans say the US economy is getting worse

US economic pessimism is no longer confined to Democrats. The YouGov chart captured by Paul Krugman shows 63% of US adult citizens saying the economy is getting worse, including 65% of non-MAGA Republicans.

That split is politically dangerous because it cuts through the usual partisan shortcut. MAGA Republicans remain much more upbeat, but independents and non-MAGA Republicans look closer to Democrats than to the president’s core supporters.

This chart is about perception, not a full economic diagnosis. Still, politics is built on perception. If voters feel prices, jobs and bills are deteriorating, strong official numbers will not rescue the argument by themselves.

Chart

Source: Paul Krugman

The economy poll is not just a bad mood number. It shows how little patience voters have left for official reassurance when prices, jobs and public promises feel detached from daily experience.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: partisan consumer sentiment, Trump’s ballroom funding problem, young Americans’ AI anxiety and climate responsibility. Together, they show why the public mood looks less like confusion than a demand for proof.

]]><![CDATA[Over a million young Britons are out of work or education]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/over-a-million-young-britons-arehttps://killercharts.blog/p/over-a-million-young-britons-areTue, 09 Jun 2026 05:00:43 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Over a million young Britons are out of work or education

Britain’s youth problem has now moved past an ugly symbolic line. The chart shows nearly a million 16- to 24-year-olds neither working nor in education; the latest ONS figures for January to March 2026 put the number above one million.

That is not only a labour-market statistic, but a lost-attachment problem. The longer young people stay outside work, training and routine, the harder it becomes to re-enter with confidence, skills and references intact.

For a country already struggling with weak productivity, this is a warning light. The usual answer is more vacancies or tougher conditionality. The harder question is why so many young people are not close enough to the labour market for vacancies to reach them.

Chart

Source: Bloomberg

The NEET number matters because it is not only a youth statistic. It is an early warning about the route from school into work, from work into housing, and from housing into an adult life that feels economically possible.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: London’s productivity slowdown, the capital’s tax role, outer-London flats and European rent pressure. Together, they show how weak mobility appears long before it becomes a headline GDP problem.

]]><![CDATA[Anthropic’s annualised revenue overtakes OpenAI]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/anthropics-annualised-revenue-overtakeshttps://killercharts.blog/p/anthropics-annualised-revenue-overtakesMon, 08 Jun 2026 05:01:28 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • Anthropic’s annualised revenue overtakes OpenAI

Anthropic is no longer just the cautious rival to OpenAI. The chart below shows its annualised revenue has jumped to about $45 billion, ahead of OpenAI’s estimated $30 billion. In AI, that is a stunning change in status.

The obvious reading is that enterprise demand has become the centre of the race. Claude may have less consumer fame than ChatGPT, but companies are paying for coding, workflow and model access where reliability counts.

Annualised revenue however is not profit, and partner-channel revenue can flatten the run-rate if it is shown gross. Still, investors will read this as proof that the AI race has more than one commercial winner.

Chart

Source: AI Supremacy

AI is becoming easier to use and harder to understand as a business. The products feel weightless, but the economics are anything but: revenue recognition, chips, electricity, market structure and investor patience all sit underneath the prompt box.

Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: Nvidia's grip on AI chips, the scale of data-centre spending, SoftBank's challenge to Toyota, and the semiconductor rally. Together, they show where the AI boom is turning into power, and where it may already be over-priced.

]]><![CDATA[US companies make up 59 of the world's top 100 by market value]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/us-companies-make-up-59-of-the-worldshttps://killercharts.blog/p/us-companies-make-up-59-of-the-worldsFri, 05 Jun 2026 05:01:13 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • US companies make up 59 of the world’s top 100 by market value

McKinsey’s chart is impressive and uncomfortable at the same time. The US had 59 of the world’s 100 largest public companies by market value at the end of 2025, led by technology and platform businesses.

Global equity strength is now heavily tied to a narrow group of American winners. Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta are not just big companies; they are the pillars holding up a large share of index confidence. The market is celebrating dominance and monetising it through passive portfolios.

The risk is concentration. If these firms keep delivering, US dominance looks deserved. If expectations slip, disappointment spreads quickly through portfolios. Market value measures investor belief as well as current business strength, which is exactly why the chart is both impressive and fragile.

Chart

Source: McKinsey Global Institute

Markets are stories about confidence before they are spreadsheets. A high valuation, a dominant bank, a huge budget or a military map all ask the same question in different language: how much belief is already priced in?

Washington’s interest bill, stretched stock valuations, global banks and Ukraine’s battlefield momentum each put that belief under pressure. The mood is not pessimism. It is a search for the places where confidence has become a little too comfortable.

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Wind and solar are passing coal in more power grids]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/wind-and-solar-are-passing-coal-inhttps://killercharts.blog/p/wind-and-solar-are-passing-coal-inThu, 04 Jun 2026 05:02:03 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

Subscribe now

CHART 1 • Wind and solar are passing coal in more power grids

Energy transition debates often get stuck in forecasts. This chart marks countries where wind and solar have already overtaken coal in electricity generation. It gives readers a concrete before-and-after, not another distant target.

That changes the argument. In places such as the UK and the US, the clean-power crossover is no longer just a target or campaign line; it is part of the historical record. Coal still matters globally, but the direction of travel is visible.

Observed transitions are harder to dismiss than promises. They shape investment, grid planning and political expectations. A national crossover does not mean the grid is easy to run, or that coal has disappeared elsewhere, but it moves part of the debate from aspiration to fact.

Chart

Source: Jan Rosenow

Scarcity has a special glamour in markets. It can make a product feel desirable, a commodity feel safe or a transition feel inevitable. But scarcity is not always strength. Sometimes it is a bottleneck with better public relations.

Grids, silver, Ferrari and Swatch each test that idea in a different way. Scarcity can create value, reflect anxiety or reveal that a supposedly protected brand still needs demand to show up.

]]><![CDATA[US workers are getting raises that inflation eats]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/us-workers-are-getting-raises-thathttps://killercharts.blog/p/us-workers-are-getting-raises-thatWed, 03 Jun 2026 05:01:49 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • US workers are getting raises that inflation eats

A pay rise can be real and still feel disappointing. The BLS-based chart compares wage growth with CPI inflation, and in April 2026 inflation was slightly ahead. That is enough to change the mood even if the macro series looks calm.

Households think in levels, not charts. If rent, food and insurance have already reset higher, a raise that merely chases prices does not feel like progress. It feels like standing still with more paperwork.

The politics follows the pay packet. A labour market can look solid while people still feel the recovery has passed them by. Averages hide big differences by job, region and household budget, but the chart explains why voters can distrust a recovery they are told is strong.

Chart

Source: Heather Long, BLS

Inflation is not only a rate. It is memory. A household remembers the rent that reset, the grocery item that became expensive and the small raise that failed to change the month.

Fuel, income concentration, food prices and event pricing all tell versions of the same story. Averages can soothe policymakers while everyday experience keeps telling a rougher one.

Subscribe now

]]><![CDATA[China still exports far more goods than the US]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/china-still-exports-far-more-goodshttps://killercharts.blog/p/china-still-exports-far-more-goodsTue, 02 Jun 2026 05:01:00 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • China still exports far more goods than the US

China’s economy has obvious problems: property stress, weak confidence and an ageing population. This chart, however, cuts against a lazy conclusion. Despite these issues, China is not easy to displace as the world’s factory. Furthermore, this domestic weakness has not erased industrial scale.

Vizmaya’s UN Comtrade and customs comparison puts China’s goods exports far ahead of the US in 2025. That gap is not just about cheap labour, but reflects supplier depth, tooling, logistics, engineering capacity and the habit of making things at scale.

Decoupling is therefore, much harder than the politics suggests. Tariffs can shift some orders, but they cannot instantly create another China. This is goods exports, not a full measure of economic power or domestic health, but it is the right place to start any serious argument about supply chains.

Chart

Source: Vizmaya, UN Comtrade and GACC

Countries are often discussed as if they can be wished into or out of dependence. Supply chains are more stubborn. They are habits, ports, tooling, engineers, contracts and accumulated trust.

That stubbornness runs through the goods each side still buys, China’s EV market, manufacturing history and US trade data. This is less a victory lap for China than a warning against pretending industrial depth can be rebuilt by announcement.

]]><![CDATA[AI’s new bottleneck is memory]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/ais-new-bottleneck-is-memoryhttps://killercharts.blog/p/ais-new-bottleneck-is-memoryMon, 01 Jun 2026 05:01:03 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • AI’s new bottleneck is memory

SK Hynix and Micron are not household AI names, but they sit inside the part of the boom that now matters most: capacity. If Nvidia’s chips are the engines, high-bandwidth memory is the fuel line. Without enough of it, expensive AI processors cannot run efficiently.

Bloomberg’s chart shows investors waking up to that bottleneck. The money is no longer flowing only to model builders and cloud platforms; it is spreading to the suppliers that determine how fast the AI buildout can actually happen.

You do not need to own the stocks for this to matter. If memory stays tight, AI gets more expensive to deploy, the winners change, and companies promising cheap intelligence face a harder margin story. Memory is still cyclical, so today’s bottleneck can become tomorrow’s glut.

Chart

Source: Bloomberg

One useful way to read AI now is to ask where the magic becomes an invoice. Models may feel weightless to users, but the real system is made of memory, electricity, distribution, talent and policy choices.

That material world leads to the real questions: who already owns the customer relationship, who pays for each extra token, and how much of America’s AI edge depends on people trained elsewhere being allowed to build there.

]]><![CDATA[The world is running out of babies]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/the-world-is-running-out-of-babieshttps://killercharts.blog/p/the-world-is-running-out-of-babiesFri, 29 May 2026 05:01:20 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • The world is running out of babies

Demographic decline is no longer a rich-world eccentricity. UN data gathered by Our World in Data shows fertility below replacement across much of Europe, North America, East Asia and Latin America. The US, UK and France sit around 1.5 to 1.6 births per woman. South Korea is closer to 0.8.

Replacement level, usually simplified to 2.1, is not a magic threshold for every country. Mortality, migration and age structure all matter. But the direction is unmistakable: more societies are moving into a future with fewer children and more old people.

The divide with parts of Africa is profound. Some countries face labour scarcity, pension strain and school closures. Others face the challenge of creating enough jobs for young populations. The world is not running out of people evenly.

Chart

Source: Our World in Data, United Nations

Demography rarely feels urgent until it starts shaping everything else. Fewer births mean older electorates, tighter labour markets, heavier fiscal promises and a sharper fight over who gets to belong.

I’ve got four more charts on political approval, immigration, voter switching and inherited wealth. They show how the social consequences of ageing and inequality are already showing up in the data.

]]><![CDATA[The combustion engine has already peaked]]>https://killercharts.blog/p/the-combustion-engine-has-alreadyhttps://killercharts.blog/p/the-combustion-engine-has-alreadyThu, 28 May 2026 05:01:37 GMT

For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.

CHART 1 • The combustion engine has already peaked

The combustion engine may not end with a ban or a dramatic last model rolling off the line. It may end first as a peak. According to the IEA data used by Our World in Data, global sales of non-electric cars topped out in 2017 and have not recovered that level.

That is a more important milestone than it sounds. Electric vehicles are not merely adding volume to the car market. They are beginning to replace the old engine in the annual flow of new sales.

The caveat is stock versus flow. Hundreds of millions of petrol and diesel cars will remain on the road for years, and heavy transport is a different problem. Still, for passenger cars, the argument has shifted from if to how fast.

Chart

Source: Our World in Data, International Energy Agency

Energy transitions are never as clean as their slogans. A technology can peak before it disappears, and a declining system can remain profitable, political and powerful for decades.

I’ve got four more charts on electric car sales, China’s electricity demand, US oil exports and Aramco’s profits. Together they show why the transition is real, but not simple.

]]>