With a nice cold winter and lots of snow, I’ve had the chance to do a little backcountry skiing in the mountains near my house. Although it seems like I can never quite make it out there during daylight hours, skiing with a headlamp has it’s own benefits. The world quickly coming at you five feet at a time forces you to live in the moment.

While I’m not sure what I think about the Occupy Wall Street movement, I was reading an article the other day about how Americans have recently increased their spending by using their savings. This, (among  many other articles) constantly reminds me of an overarching question: Is our global economy too far gone to save? In some ways, it is the subtext of our time. With this in mind, I did some rudimentary math and created the following graphic. Feel free to steal, borrow, and share!

click to view a larger image

This is a fascinating from Foreign Policy magazine article about “shadow economies,” an idea that I discussed in my “How to Save the World” post.