So we’re done with 2008.  As expected, this has been a tough year that brought us a worldwide economic downturn and many people who lost their job will remember it as one of the worst in their life.  On the other hand we also had good news and lately I can feel a general sense of hope springing, at least in this part of the world.  Who knows, are we in the middle of the avalanche effect and the real crisis has yet to come or have we reached the bottom already?  We’ll see.  Meanwhile I wish a wonderful 2009 everybody!

The World Bank has interesting data about how many cars we have. It looks like some countries had a huge increase in cars per 1000 people over the last few years.

Now we have 6 countries over the “1 car every 2 people” threshold: New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria. The United States decreased their number of cars relative to population. Who is wealthier and who’s behind? Should we conclude that public transportation is a sign of really more advanced economies?