Mineral production charts and other mineral statistics refreshed with the latest USGS numbers.
Author Archives: Miguel Barrientos
A New Bubble in Commodity Prices
A quick glance at the commodity price index in our historical commodity prices section strongly suggests that a new bubble is forming. The graph below shows the price index for the past 15 years. The value for October 2010 is about the same as the value for December 2007. Note though that the index reached a similar high in April 2010, so it is also possible that commodity prices may fluctuate up and down for a while.
A clearer picture emerges if we look at the price of cotton over the past 25 years.
Cotton price is at an all-time high, at a level higher than the one it reached in May 1995.
Sugar Prices in Europe
The absurdities of the European system of sugar subsidies are highlighted today in a New York Times article. Rampant fraud and corruption plague a byzantine system of rules and regulations created to support a program that primarily benefits large multinational corporations. Because of the subsidies, consumers in the European Union pay an average retail price of $0.63 per pound, while the global average is only about $0.36 per pound.
The historical trend of the European wholesale import price can be studied in further detail in our commodities section. Click on the graph below to manipulate and download the data.
Official US Holidays 2010
The table below shows the list of public federal holidays for 2010. Note that Friday December 31, 2010 is also a holiday since January 1, 2011 falls on a Saturday.
| Friday, January 1 | New Year’s Day |
| Monday, January 18 | Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| Monday, February 15 | Washington’s Birthday |
| Monday, May 31 | Memorial Day |
| Monday, July 5 | Independence Day |
| Monday, September 6 | Labor Day |
| Monday, October 11 | Columbus Day |
| Thursday, November 11 | Veterans Day |
| Thursday, November 25 | Thanksgiving Day |
| Friday, December 24 | Christmas Day |
The source for the list of public holidays is the United States Office of Personnel Management
2009 US Holidays
The following table shows the official United States federal holidays for 2009.
| Thursday, January 1 | New Year’s Day |
| Monday, January 19 | Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| Monday, February 16 | Washington’s Birthday |
| Monday, May 25 | Memorial Day |
| Friday, July 3 | Independence Day |
| Monday, September 7 | Labor Day |
| Monday, October 12 | Columbus Day |
| Wednesday, November 11 | Veterans Day |
| Thursday, November 26 | Thanksgiving Day |
| Friday, December 25 | Christmas Day |
The source for the list of public holidays is the United States Office of Personnel Management
Updated Commodity Prices
The historical commodity prices section has been updated with numbers for August 2009.
IDH de Alemania
Alemania es uno de los países con índice de desarrollo humano (IDH) más alto en el mundo. El gráfico del IDH de Alemania entre 1980 y 2006 muestra que Alemania ha progresado gradualmente y sin pausa en el transcurso de las últimas 3 décadas.
Fuente: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD)
Indice de Desarrollo Humano
El Indice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH) es una manera de medir el nivel de desarrollo de un país mediante la combinación de indicadores de esperanza de vida, ingresos y logros educacionales en un solo índice compuesto.
El Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) es el organismo que calcula y publica el IDH de manera oficial.
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a way of measuring development by combining indicators of income, education, and life expectancy into a single weighted index. The United Nations Development Programme has a nice set of visualizations that allow you to analyze HDI by country.
World Murder Rates
The number of intentional homicides by country, and the rate of homicides per 100,000 population is shown in the table below.
Counts
Rates per 100,000
Country
2005
2006
2005
2006
Algeria
204
214
0.62
0.64
Argentina
2,115
2,052
5.46
5.24
Armenia
55
75
1.82
2.49
Austria
54
61
0.65
0.73
Azerbaijan
192
190
2.30
2.26
Bahrain
4
7
0.55
0.95
Bangladesh
3,431
4,123
2.24
2.64
Belarus
836
734
8.53
7.53
Belize
81
92
29.40
32.67
Bolivia
478
454
5.21
4.85
Bosnia and Herzegovina
70
73
1.79
1.86
Brunei Darussalam
0
2
0.00
0.52
Canada
663
606
2.05
1.86
Costa Rica
338
348
7.81
7.91
Croatia
68
74
1.49
1.62
Cyprus
16
14
1.91
1.66
Czech Republic
104
136
1.02
1.33
Denmark
53
29
0.98
0.53
Dominican Republic
1,666
1,537
17.59
15.99
Ecuador
2,121
2,385
16.24
18.07
Egypt
364
440
0.50
0.59
El Salvador
3,779
3,927
56.67
58.07
England and Wales
766
755
1.43
1.41
Estonia
113
91
8.41
6.79
Finland
113
112
2.15
2.13
Georgia
403
323
9.01
7.29
Germany
780
727
0.94
0.88
Greece
127
109
1.14
0.98
India
32,719
32,481
2.88
2.82
Ireland
65
67
1.57
1.59
Italy
610
625
1.04
1.06
Jordan
67
100
1.21
1.75
Kazakhstan
1,804
1,729
11.86
11.29
Kenya
2,313
2,090
6.50
5.72
Kyrgyzstan
491
446
9.44
8.48
Latvia
130
148
5.65
6.47
Lebanon
94
23
2.34
0.57
Liechtenstein
0
0
0.00
0.00
Lithuania
369
277
10.77
8.13
Malaysia
497
604
1.94
2.31
Malta
4
0
0.99
0.00
Mauritius
37
50
2.98
4.00
Mexico
11,372
11,558
10.91
10.97
Monaco
1
1
3.08
3.07
Mongolia
310
311
12.01
11.94
Montenegro
22
25
3.62
4.16
Morocco
160
162
0.52
0.53
Nepal
564
509
2.08
1.84
Netherlands
197
159
1.21
0.97
New Zealand
61
47
1.49
1.14
Nicaragua
436
465
7.98
8.41
Northern Ireland
26
23
1.51
1.33
Norway
33
33
0.71
0.71
Occupied Palestinian Territory
145
3.85
Panama
364
363
11.26
11.04
Paraguay
887
742
15.02
12.33
Philippines
3,240
3,296
3.83
3.82
Poland
555
490
1.45
1.28
Portugal
175
227
1.66
2.15
Republic of Moldova
226
184
5.83
4.80
Romania
457
438
2.11
2.03
Scotland
81
109
1.59
2.13
Serbia
142
144
1.44
1.46
Singapore
21
17
0.49
0.39
Slovakia
72
65
1.34
1.21
Slovenia
20
12
1.00
0.60
Spain
405
336
0.93
0.77
Sweden
127
115
1.41
1.27
Switzerland
75
60
1.01
0.80
Syrian Arab Republic
206
239
1.09
1.23
Tajikistan
157
228
2.40
3.43
Thailand
5,141
5,023
8.16
7.92
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
44
41
2.16
2.01
Turkey
3,082
2,999
4.22
4.06
Turkmenistan
162
142
3.35
2.90
Ukraine
3,030
2,958
6.46
6.35
United Arab Emirates
56
39
1.36
0.92
United States of America
16,740
17,034
5.58
5.62
These figures are collected by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime through its Survey of Crime Trends. Its definition of intentional homicide is “death deliberately inflicted on a person by another person, including infanticide”.