Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (February 1, 2026)
The subject of this month’s blog is about how to address the (global) problem of the gross inequality of the distribution of both wealth and income, and how to tackle this issue while at the same time conserving the earth’s resources and halting the destruction of the natural environment. In my December 2025 monthly financial and economic blog I discussed the issue of “estate planning” – necessary for everyone but at its highest level a vehicle which allows multinational corporations to legally avoid taxation – not a good thing and the way in which wealth becomes ever more concentrated at the very top of society.
Note: this is based upon a real-life proposal which addresses both the grossly unequal distribution of wealth & income and which addresses climate related issues as well (environmental degradation / climate change / global warming). This requires a globally-concerted effort. If not, it will never succeed. This has nothing to do with “socialism” or “communism” as those on the extreme political and social right wing claim. This is in fact supported by a very broad political and economic spectrum including everyone else outside of the extreme right wing including interests such as mainstream conservatives, the center-right and interests in business, finance and politics. As we shall see, the global distribution of wealth is so grossly lopsided that those at the very top deserve tax brackets all their own – including the British Royal family (who own 21 percent of the earth’s surface land) and the likes of billionaires such as Elon Musk who as the earth’s wealthiest individual has a net worth almost 3 times as much as the second richest individual on earth.
We must first quantify in monetary terms the value of all global assets. This particular site does exactly this: https://assetmarketcap.com/. 78 percent of the earth’s financially quantifiable assets are in the form of “commodities” and these commodities in order of financial value are real estate, crude oil, gold, copper, natural gas (methane), silver, Bitcoin, platinum and palladium. 12 percent of the earth’s financial assets are in the form of currencies the most valuable of which are the Chinese Yuan, the US Dollar, the Euro, the Japanese Yen, the British Pound, the South Korean Won, the Hong Kong Dollar, the Australian Dollar, the Taiwan Dollar and the Canadian Dollar. The rest of the world’s wealth is in the form of corporate stock mostly in publicly held corporations traded on global stock exchanges. The most valuable of these corporations in terms of market capitalization are Nvidia, Apple, Google (Alphabet), Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook-Instagram (Meta) and Broadcom.
The biggest asset category above is in the form of real estate / real property. 25 percent of the earth is currently surface land and the remaining 75 percent is surface water in the form of oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. 12 percent of the surface land is used for crops, 25 percent for meadows and pasture land, 31 percent is forest cover and the remaining 32 percent is a combination of deserts, glaciers, barren land and built up land used for human habitation.
The largest landowner in the world is the British Royal family who own 21 percent of the earth’s surface land including 90 percent of Canada. The next largest landowners are the US Federal Government, the Roman Catholic Church and the Inuit people of Nunavut (an autonomous Canadian province / territory).
Since 2016 there has been a valid proposal for the governments of the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Bougainville (an autonomous province of Papua New Guinea) which will address this most relevant issue facing planet earth and its population human and non-human alike. The proposal would place all resources under governmental oversight with the goal of limiting their extraction for financial profit. This will accomplish the goals of both helping to preserve the natural environment (to address the threat to the earth’s climate as well) and to monetize these assets preserved in their natural state to back national digital currencies. The financial resources generated by this plan will serve to fund governmental budgets as well as to provide the entire population with financial support which can be in many forms such as old age pensions, health insurance, as well as nutritional assistance.
This plan it its test form as proposed for the countries and provinces mentioned above will serve both to alleviate the severely inequitable current distribution of both wealth and income and it will increase the overall quantifiable asset value on earth by 2.8 fold.
Most people will agree that the current situation is not good and getting worse. If we continue down our current path we risk both the destruction of the earth’s natural environment and social unrest. These ideas require the cooperation of local, provincial, national and regional governments across the globe to address the needs and concerns of our entire planet earth and its inhabitants human and non-human alike.
