The World in 2010 vs. 2015
Some key figures that show how much the world has changed in just 5 years.
- Commodities are 3-4 times cheaper
- Capital is much cheaper 50% cheaper, investment x2
- Technology up to 20 times cheaper, up to 10 times more widespread
- Labor 10% more expensive, industrial robots x2
| COMMODITIES | 2010 | Today | Change |
| Oil | $95 | $27 | -72% |
| Iron | $167 | $39 | -77% |
| Gold | $1421 | $1063 | -25% |
| Food price index | 225 | 157 | -30% |
| The COST OF CAPITAL | |||
| 10-year, US | 3.29% | 2.22% | -107bps |
| 10-year, Germany | 2.69% | 0.61% | -235bps |
| Venture capital investment | $24B | $47B | +100% |
| COST OF TECHNOLOGY | |||
| Cost of owning a cellphone index | 1.9 | 0.8 | -58% |
| LED lamp price index | 50 | 11 | -78% |
| Solar panel price index | 211 | 133 | -37% |
| Li-Ion battery index | 1.0 | .04 | -60% |
| Cost of sequencing a genome | $46K | 1.3K | -97% |
| 1GB USB Drive | $9 | $0.18 | -98% |
| SPREAD OF TECHNOLOGY | |||
| Smartphone penetration | 18.6% | 74.6% | X4 |
| Facebook users | 0.6B | 1.6B | X3 |
| Hours of video upload on YouTube per min | 24 | 400 | X17 |
| Articles on Wiki | 17M | 37M | X3 |
| Bitcoin | 0.3 | 453.6 | X1512 |
| Fuel efficiency, Ford F150, mpg | 17 | 22 | +29% |
| COST OF LABOR | |||
| Average wage US, year | $54K | $58K | +7% |
| Average wage UK | $41K | $46K | +11% |
| Average wage China | $5.6K | $8.7K | +54% |
| Industrial robots sold | 121K | 239K | X2 |
Source: Goldman Sachs Fortnightly Thoughts.