Markets
All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization (2022)
All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization
The era of easy money is now officially over.
For 15 years, policymakers have tried to stimulate the global economy through money creation, zero interest-rate policies, and more recently, aggressive COVID fiscal stimulus.
With capital at near-zero costs over this stretch, investors started to place more value on cash flows in the distant future. Assets inflated and balance sheets expanded, and money inevitably chased more speculative assets like NFTs, crypto, or unproven venture-backed startups.
But the free money party has since ended, after persistent inflation prompted the sudden reversal of many of these policies. And as Warren Buffett says, it’s only when the tide goes out do you get to see “who’s been swimming naked.”
Measuring Money and Markets in 2022
Every time we publish this visualization, our common unit of measurement is a two-dimensional box with a value of $100 billion.
Even though you need many of these to convey the assets on the balance sheet of the U.S. Federal Reserve, or the private wealth held by the world’s billionaires, it’s quite amazing to think what actually fits within this tiny building block of measurement:
Our little unit of measurement is enough to pay for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, while also buying every team in the NHL and digging FTX out of its financial hole several times over.
Here’s an overview of all the items we have listed in this year’s visualization:
Asset category | Value | Source | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
SBF (Peak Net Worth) | $26 billion | Bloomberg | Now sits at <$1B |
Pro Sports Teams | $340 billion | Forbes | Major pro teams in North America |
Cryptocurrency | $760 billion | CoinMarketCap | Peaked at $2.8T in 2021 |
Ukraine GDP | $130 billion | World Bank | Comparable to GDP of Mississippi |
Russia GDP | $1.8 trillion | World Bank | The world's 11th largest economy |
Annual Military Spending | $2.1 trillion | SIPRI | 2021 data |
Physical currency | $8.0 trillion | BIS | 2020 data |
Gold | $11.5 trillion | World Gold Council | There are 205,238 tonnes of gold in existence |
Billionaires | $12.7 trillion | Forbes | Sum of fortunes of all 2,668 billionaires |
Central Bank Assets | $28.0 trillion | Trading Economics | Fed, BoJ, Bank of China, and Eurozone only |
S&P 500 | $36.0 trillion | Slickcharts | Nov 20, 2022 |
China GDP | $17.7 trillion | World Bank | |
U.S. GDP | $23.0 trillion | World Bank | |
Narrow Money Supply | $49.0 trillion | Trading Economics | Includes US, China, Euro Area, Japan only |
Broad Money Supply | $82.7 trillion | Trading Economics | Includes US, China, Euro Area, Japan only |
Global Equities | $95.9 trillion | WFE | Latest available 2022 data |
Global Debt | $300.1 trillion | IIF | Q2 2022 |
Global Real Estate | $326.5 trillion | Savills | 2020 data |
Global Private Wealth | $463.6 trillion | Credit Suisse | 2022 report |
Derivatives (Market) | $12.4 trillion | BIS | |
Derivatives (Notional) | $600 trillion | BIS |
Has the Dust Settled Yet?
Through previous editions of our All the World’s Money and Markets visualization, we’ve created snapshots of the world’s assets and markets at different points in time.
For example, in our 2017 edition of this visualization, Apple’s market capitalization was only $807 billion, and all crypto assets combined for $173 billion. The global debt total was at $215 trillion.
Asset | 2017 edition | 2022 edition | Change (%) |
---|---|---|---|
Apple market cap | $807 billion | $2.3 trillion | +185% |
Crypto | $173 billion | $760 billion | +339% |
Fed Balance Sheet | $4.5 trillion | $8.7 trillion | +93% |
Stock Markets | $73 trillion | $95.9 trillion | +31% |
Global Debt | $215 trillion | $300 trillion | +40% |
And in just five years, Apple nearly quadrupled in size (it peaked at $3 trillion in January 2022), and crypto also expanded into a multi-trillion dollar market until it was brought back to Earth through the 2022 crash and subsequent FTX implosion.
Meanwhile, global debt continues to accumulate—growing by $85 trillion in the five-year period.
With interest rates expected to continue to rise, companies making cost cuts, and policymakers reining in spending and borrowing, today is another unique snapshot in time.
Now that the easy money era is over, where do things go from here?
Markets
The Growth of a $1,000 Equity Investment, by Stock Market
In this graphic, we’ve visualized stock market growth by country over the past five years using major indices.
Visualizing Stock Market Growth by Country
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
In this graphic, we show the change in value of a $1,000 investment in various leading equity indexes from around the world. This data was sourced from Investing.com, and covers a five-year period from April 2019 to April 2024.
See the following table for the five-year annual return figures of the indexes shown above.
Index | 5-Yr Return as of April 1, 2024 |
---|---|
🇮🇳 NIFTY 50 | 92.4% |
🇯🇵 Nikkei 225 | 72.5% |
🇺🇸 S&P 500 | 70.9% |
🇨🇦 S&P/TSX Composite | 31.0% |
🇬🇧 FTSE 100 | 9.8% |
🇭🇰 Hang Seng | -40.2% |
In terms of stock market growth by country, India (represented here by the NIFTY 50) has impressively surpassed both the U.S. and Japan.
What is the NIFTY 50?
The NIFTY 50 is an index of the 50 largest and most actively traded Indian stocks. Similar to the S&P 500, it represents a range of industries and acts as a benchmark for investors to gauge the performance of the country’s broader stock market.
What’s Going on in India?
India’s multi-year bull market has led to several records being shattered in 2023. For example, the country’s total stock market market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion for the first time, while India-focused ETFs pulled in net inflows of $8.6 billion over the year.
A primary driver of this growth is the country’s fast-rising middle class. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, this “once-in-a-generation shift” will result in India having the third largest stock market globally by 2030, presumably behind the U.S. and China.
Japan Also Breaks Records
Japanese equities (represented in this graphic by the Nikkei 225) slightly outperformed the S&P 500 over the past five years. The index, which represents the top 225 companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, recently set a new record high for the first time since 1989.
Japanese companies have reported strong earnings as of late, partly thanks to a weak yen, which benefits many of the country’s export-reliant companies.
Learn More About Global Markets From Visual Capitalist
If you enjoyed this graphic, be sure to check out The World’s Biggest Stock Markets, by Country, which provides a unique perspective on country-level market capitalizations.
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