Dear David, I have just read your posting on the slowdown in demographic growth. Only this morning I finished reading this month's edition of the Foreign Affairs magazine devoted to the slowdown of economic growth rates. One of the articles on this subject is about slower demographic growth. I strongly suggest that subscribers read the March/April edition of Foreign Affairs. It looks at a whole range of implications of these trends and especially the financial ones.

David Fuller's view

Thank you for pointing this out.  I think a number of us will be interested in reading it.  While difficult to measure accurately, I see no reason why the global population should grow at a consistent rate.  Moreover, population growth has even reversed in some developed countries, from Japan to Germany in recent decades.  However, short of epic natural disasters or world wars, I would be very surprised if the global population stopped increasing and actually reversed due to the slowdown in GDP growth.