Dashboards
Curated multi-panel views. Each dashboard is a small set of indicators with editorial commentary, community discussion, and a deep-dive story.
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The world got less murderous
Global homicide fell a quarter this century — unevenly, and in one country at a price the aggregate hides completely.
Rearmament: the denominator nobody quotes
The world spends less of its economy on its militaries than in any Cold War year — and the rebound since 2018 is real but starts from a record low.
Nuclear Arsenals: the decline is over
The world's nuclear stockpile is 83% below its 1986 peak — and has stopped falling. Most of the recent decline was a dismantlement queue draining, and five of the nine nuclear-armed states are at their all-time maximum today.
Working Hours: the productivity converged, the time didn't
The rich world shortened the working year for 150 years, then the US stopped and Europe didn't. Americans now work 454 hours a year more than Germans — while producing almost exactly the same amount per hour.
Maternal Mortality: the denominator problem
Global maternal mortality kept falling after 2015 — the apparent stall was COVID. What is real is that progress is being partly masked by where the world's babies are born.
Global Health Priorities
Progress in global health is real but no longer automatic. Child mortality keeps falling — but malaria and measles, two of the cheapest wins in medicine, have stalled and backslid since 2019.
The Vibecession
How much the news talked about “recession,” set against what the economy was actually doing. The gap between the two is the vibecession.
World Demographics
How many of us there are, and how that's changing — population, fertility, median age, and urbanisation.
Energy & Decarbonization
The cause and the cure behind Earth Now: global CO₂ emissions, per-capita emissions, the shift to low-carbon electricity, and the collapsing price of solar.
Human Development
The long-run, global view of the human condition: life expectancy, child mortality, extreme poverty, and literacy over two centuries.
Inflation
Macro Pulse carries one inflation line. This unpacks it — headline vs core, the Fed's preferred PCE gauge, producer-price pipeline pressure, and what the bond market expects next.
Markets
Four ways the market reads the world: what stocks are worth, what money costs, what the dollar buys, and how scared everyone is.
Labor Market
The U.S. labor market beyond the headline unemployment rate: who's working, how tight the market is, the slack the headline misses, and what a paycheck actually buys.
Earth Now
Where the planet's climate stands today, in two indicators. The numbers grew up together — and they're still growing.
Macro Pulse
Where the U.S. economy stands today, in four series. Updated as the data arrives; commentary refreshed when it moves.