NAFTA & The Great Lakes Economy, Growth Engine of North America

The second round of NAFTA renegotiations began Friday in Mexico City, to rework the trade pact between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, which was established in 1994. President Trump criticized NAFTA during the 2016 Presidential campaign, and has threatened to exit NAFTA unless Canada and Mexico agreed to renegotiations. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will hold a press conference on Tuesday. The negotiations rotate among the three countries, with the goal of reaching an agreement by the end of 2017. More info: ustr.gov.

U.S. Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA Renegotiations (pdf) embed below:

The Great Lakes Economy, Growth Engine of North America:

Courtesy of: VisualCapitalist.com

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Future Earth: 20 Most Populous Cities in the World by 2100 (GIF Map)

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

Look at a modern map of the world’s most populous cities today and you will notice that they are quite evenly distributed around the globe. Metropolitan areas like Moscow, New York, Tokyo, Cairo, and Rio de Janeiro are spread apart with very different geographic and cultural settings, and 5 of the world's 7 continents today can claim at least one of the world’s 20 most populous cities.

In the future, things will be very different, according to projections from the Global Cities Institute (domain: globalcitiesinstitute.org). In fact, over the next 80 years or so, some cities will literally grow 10x or 20x in size – turning into giant megacities that have comparable populations to entire countries like modern-day Germany, France, or the United Kingdom.

The most interesting part? None of these megacities will be in the Americas, Europe, or China.

Top Four Megacities of the Future (based on the Global Cities Institute's projections):

1. Lagos, Nigeria - population by 2100: 88.3 million people
2. Kinshasa, Dem. Rep. of the Congo (already the world's largest French-speaking city) - population by 2100: 83.5 million people
3. Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - population by 2100: 73.7 million people
4. Mumbai, India - population by 2100: 67.2 million people

As noted above, eastern Africa will be home to many of the world’s biggest cities in the future, many seemingly popping up out of nowhere--Blantyre City, Lilongwe, and Lusaka, for example--and while most Westerners will not likely have even heard of these places, these centers in Malawi and Zambia will each hold over 35 million people. Perhaps the bulk of humanity is shifting and returning to its common ancestral home--according to many experts, everyone alive today can trace their biological roots to a small group of anatomically modern humans inhabiting the grasslands of eastern Africa some 100,000 years ago. 

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Klarna: Buy Things With Just Email and Zip Code (video)

Klarna: Buy Things With Just Email and Zip Code? - What if you could buy products online using only your email and a zip code? Klarna, a mobile payment company, has found success in Europe and is now aiming to lure in American customers. Klarna's North Americas CEO Brian Billingsley interviewed by WSJ.com's Tanya Rivero to discuss. (Published on Feb 17, 2016)

Domain name: klarna.com

Start Selling Online with Klarna's payment gateway - Klarna: "Most checkout carts don't become orders. 66% of laptop shoppers leave without checking out and on smartphones, as many as 82% of shoppers don’t bother with the fuss of checking out. That’s why it pays to have the easiest checkout possible."

Klarna - About Us: "Founded in Stockholm in 2005, Klarna is one of Europe's fastest growing companies, and offers safe and easy-to-use payment solutions to e-stores. At the core of Klarna's services is the concept of after delivery payment, which lets buyers receive ordered goods before any payment is due. At the same time, Klarna assumes the credit and fraud risk so that retailers can rest assured they will receive their money. Klarna Group has more than 1,400 employees and is active on 18 markets. We serve 45 million consumers and work with 65,000 merchants, attracting major international clients such as Spotify, Disney, Samsung, Wish and ASOS. Our goal is to become the world’s favorite way to buy."

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