For a discussion on the future of the economy, watch the Global Economic Outlook session at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2017 here.



In addition to collecting taxes, governments also borrow money in order to meet their spending obligations.



For a lot of developed countries, this is usually in the realm of millions or trillions of US dollars, numbers that we might struggle to comprehend.



For example, the gross national debt of Japan is $ 10,000,000,000,000.



The gross national debt of the United States is $18,992,810,000,000.



This map seeks to make those numbers a bit more understandable, by looking at the debt relative to the country's population. In other words, by showing how much we would each owe if it were up to us to pay it back.

Image: IMF



At the centre ofKate O'Brien is a consultant and writer for the monthly Global Mobility Research blog series with Meeting of the Minds. A collaborative consultant focused on coaching, capacity building, and facilitation, Kate supports change agents and their transformative work in communities across the United States.

This month, Meeting of the Minds Consultant and Writer Kate O’Brien connected by phone with José Holguín-Veras, who is the William J. Hart Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Director of the Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment; and Director of the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation (VREF) Center of Excellence on Sustainable Urban Freight Systems at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. In the last few years, in addition his research focus on efficiencies in assuring access to transportation systems in post-disaster