Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyChina is estimated to have nearly 25% of the entire US building stock under construction right now
Support Brandon Donnelly
Brandon DonnellyChina is estimated to have nearly 25% of the entire US building stock under construction right now
I'm not an economist, nor am I an expert on China, but according to this recent FT article, more than half of the country's largest developers (based on 2020 sales) are now in default:
On top of this, there's a lot currently in the pipeline:
The National Bureau of Statistics of China is saying that, as of last August, there was about 8 billion square meters of real estate under construction in the country. That's very roughly about 80 billion square feet of space, which I'm assuming covers all asset classes.
This is such a big number that I really have no idea if it's excessive or not for a country that is rapidly urbanizing and has some 1.4 billion people. So let's compare it to the US.
Back in 2020, Brian Potter came up with estimates for the entire US building stock. Interestingly enough, he determined that about 90% of buildings in the US are single-family homes. This is what the US builds and continues to build, by a long shot.
However, single-family homes do tend to be smaller than, say, office buildings. So if you instead look at square footage (and not the number of buildings), this percentage drops to about 60% of all buildings in the US.
On a square footage basis, single-family homes are estimated to represent about 200 billion square feet. And in total, Brian estimated the entire US building stock to be around 340 billion square feet (again as of 2020).
This means that, right now, China could have nearly 25% of the entire US building stock under construction. I think that seems like a lot.
Images: FT
I'm not an economist, nor am I an expert on China, but according to this recent FT article, more than half of the country's largest developers (based on 2020 sales) are now in default:
On top of this, there's a lot currently in the pipeline:
The National Bureau of Statistics of China is saying that, as of last August, there was about 8 billion square meters of real estate under construction in the country. That's very roughly about 80 billion square feet of space, which I'm assuming covers all asset classes.
This is such a big number that I really have no idea if it's excessive or not for a country that is rapidly urbanizing and has some 1.4 billion people. So let's compare it to the US.
Back in 2020, Brian Potter came up with estimates for the entire US building stock. Interestingly enough, he determined that about 90% of buildings in the US are single-family homes. This is what the US builds and continues to build, by a long shot.
However, single-family homes do tend to be smaller than, say, office buildings. So if you instead look at square footage (and not the number of buildings), this percentage drops to about 60% of all buildings in the US.
On a square footage basis, single-family homes are estimated to represent about 200 billion square feet. And in total, Brian estimated the entire US building stock to be around 340 billion square feet (again as of 2020).
This means that, right now, China could have nearly 25% of the entire US building stock under construction. I think that seems like a lot.
Images: FT
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