A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.
Oh Canada!
In February I wrote about the significant economic problems facing Canada in a post titled "Our Northern Neighbor Headed South?"
Following up on that post, a Bank of Canada analysis indicates that roughly 40% of those who would be in the top 1% of income earners in Canada, as well as 30%-50% of the next 9% of earners, have emigrated to the United States in recent years.
This brain drain may be a significant reason as to why Canada is lagging the United States so significantly in GDP growth the last five yesrs.
More analysis on Canada's lagging per capita GDP problem can be found in this recent article.
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| Link: https://thehub.ca/2026/03/20/why-canadas-gdp-per-capita-crisis-is-real-deepdive/ |
Moving On
The United States has seen a similar pattern of out migration over the last several years.
However, it is people and their incomes moving out of blue states and moving to red states according to recently released IRS data for the years between 2019 and 2023.
The 31 states that voted for Trump in the last election gained 3.2 million in population from people who moved from states that voted for Harris.
Those 3.2 million who moved into red states brought with them $254 billion in income. A like amount was taken from blue states.
Hablas Espanol?
We have reached a point where the United States now ranks second I the world for the population that speaks Spanish.
More speak Spanish in the United States today than in Spain.
El Salvador
El Salvador was one of the most dangerous countries in the world in 2015.
It had the highest murder rate in the world between 2015 and 2018.
The country was largely under gang control.
Nayid Bukele was elected President of El Salvador in 2019 and took on the gangs and started jailing the bad actors.
There were a lot of bad actors but it was still a small percentage of the totla population.
1% of the population was eventually incarcerated.
The skeptics said that you can't jail your way out of crime.
What has happened in El Salvador might suggest that may not be true when so much data indicates that only a small percent of the population commits most crime in a society.
El Salvador is now one of the safest countries in the world.
Bukele made a big bet that personal security and safety is the foundational layer of any successful society.
Without it, you have nothing---economic growth, tourism, investment---all is built on that foundation.
It is a lesson some big cities in the United States might want to consider.
New York City and Chicago
Speaking of big cities in the United States, this stat on homicides in New York City caught my eye.
In the first nine months of 2025 there were 358 shootings in New York City in which a Black or White person was involved.
356 of the shootings involved Blacks.
2 of the shootings involved Whites.
Meanwhile in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson says that putting criminals in prison is racism and is immoral.
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| Link: https://x.com/ruswar/status/2037394216498905089 |
Since when did putting a CRIMINAL in prison become racist?
Criminals can be any race.
Did Bukele worry about the race of the gang members in El Salvador?
Could there be a much different way of approaching things as between Chicago and El Salvador?
Who might have the better approach based on 2025 data?
El Salvador 1.19 homicides per 100,000
Chicago 14.6 homicides per 100,000
Who would have thought a decade ago that it would be safer to walk the streets of El Salvador than America's two largest cities?
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