China's ability to fill the gap

A lot has been said about China's recent growth. Some have been hoping that with the U.S. slowdown that demand from China would be enough to fill the gap and keep the global economy humming along. But China's not there yet. Far from it.

Last year, China's 1.3 billion population individually consumed $ 923 (on average).

In the same time period, the U.S. population of 300 million individually consumed $32,000 (on average).

That's a $31,077 difference. That's like hoping my kid will use his allowance to make our mortgage payment.