China overtakes Japan as the World's SECOND biggest economy

Key points from the article:
China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last quarter.

Japan’s nominal gross domestic product for the second quarter totaled $1.288 trillion, less than China’s $1.337 trillion

The country of 1.3 billion people will overtake the U.S., where annual GDP is about $14 trillion, as the world’s largest economy by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief economist Jim O’Neill.

China overtook the U.S. last year as the biggest automobile market and Germany as the largest exporter. The nation is the world’s No. 1 buyer of iron ore and copper and the second- biggest importer of crude oil, and has underpinned demand for exports by its Asian neighbors

The country remains a developing nation, with its

per capita gross national income ranked 127th in the world at $2,940

at the end of 2008, behind Angola and Azerbaijan, according to the World Bank

Source: BLOOMBERG

World Economy - A Map based on Economic Status of Countries

World economy cartogram. To highlight the distribution of wealth and power in the world of today, this cartogram sizes the countries according to their relative financial status, here presented through gross domestic product (gdp) per capita, offering an alternative world view to a regular map.

Countries such as China and India become much smaller, next to giants in Western Europe, North America and Japan. Africa represents a minor speck, while South and Central America lands somewhere in between.

Source: ENVIRONMENTTIMES

Julian Assange of WikiLEAKS

Internet activist Julian Assange serves as spokesperson for WikiLeaks, a controversial, volunteer-driven website that publishes and comments on leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct.

Source: TEDTALKS