Ok, Doomer
6 (optimistic!) Infographics + 1 interview (Fortune CEO Alan Murray)
Bees are Back: “After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage and years of grieving suspiciously clean windshields, we were stunned to run the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture: America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.”
Golf’s Going Gangbusters: “Golf is in the middle of a rare boom. The number of rounds played has been growing nationwide. There’s an uptick in new golf-course development after more than a decade of shrinking inventory. And private clubs have waiting lists for memberships—something many haven’t seen in two decades.”
Bridges Becoming Better: “America's bridge infrastructure — long seen as dysfunctional — has been steadily improving for the last 20 years.”
Murder Rate Moderating: “Homicides in American cities are falling at the fastest pace in decades, bringing them close to levels they were at before a pandemic-era jump.”
Global Warming Warnings Waning: “You might be under the impression the world is not making progress shifting away from our reliance on the oil, natural gas and coal that emit the greenhouse gases warming our planet. But in fact, several recent data points suggest the energy transition is happening, often faster than even some experts have predicted.”
Income Inequality Improving: “Not only was the growth at the bottom of the distribution the best, for the top fifth of earners they have lost the race between income and prices over the past 4 years! This flips the old expression on its head: the poor got richer, and the rich got poorer.”
VIDEO
Long-time Fortune Media CEO Alan Murray with an optimistic take on the future of capitalism & business leadership:
*** Please share additional reasons for optimism! And to preempt the scolds… yes I know income inequality, climate change & crime may be improving relative to where they were but they’re still very real challenges; also, bees sting, bridges still collapse when hit by ships and golf remains expensive, though awesome.
Good to have some data-based encouragement when surrounded by so much fact-free opinion!!
Bruce, thank you for your weekly Substack. Your slides and information are always incredibly informative and timely.
I especially appreciate this morning’s, as you’ve highlighted a number of the topics that we tend to hear only negative about. Great to hear about the bees, with a number of friends who raise bees. A number of these slides tend to express how necessary we need to look at long-term trends and larger windows rather than just snapshots.
Again, thank you very much for your research and compiling.