The world economy, or global economy, generally refers to the economy, which is based on economies of all of the world's countries, national economies. Also global economy can be seen as the economy of global society and national economies – as economies of local societies, making the global one. It can be evaluated in various kind of ways. For instance, depending on the model used, the valuation that is arrived at can be represented in a certain currency, such as 2006 US dollars or 2005 euros.

It is inseparable from the geography and ecology of Earth, and is therefore somewhat of a misnomer, since, while definitions and representations of the "world economy" vary widely, they must at a minimum exclude any consideration of resources or value based outside of the Earth. For example, while attempts could be made to calculate the value of currently unexploited mining opportunities in unclaimed territory in Antarctica, the same opportunities on Mars would not be considered a part of the world economy—even if currently exploited in some way—and could be considered of latent value only in the same way as uncreated intellectual property, such as a previously unconceived invention.

James Beeland Rogers, Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an American investor and author. He is currently based in Singapore. Rogers is the Chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests, Inc. He was the co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI).

Rogers is an outspoken proponent of the free market, but he does not consider himself a member of any school of thought. Rogers acknowledged, however, that his views best fit the label of Austrian School of economics.

Rogers was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in Demopolis, Alabama. He started in business at the age of five by selling peanuts and by picking up empty bottles that fans left behind at baseball games. He got his first job on Wall Street, at Dominick & Dominick, after graduating with a bachelor's degree in History from Yale University in 1964. Rogers then acquired a second BA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford University in 1966.

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Texas's 14th congressional district, which includes Galveston, since 1997, and a three-time candidate for President of the United States, as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008 and currently 2012. He is an outspoken critic of American foreign and monetary policies, including the Military–industrial complex and the Federal Reserve, and is known for his libertarian-leaning views, often differing from his own party on certain issues.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul is a graduate of Gettysburg College and Duke University School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree. He served as a medical officer in the United States Air Force from 1963 until 1968. He worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist from the 1960s to the 1980s, delivering more than 4,000 babies. He became the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with a child in the Senate when his son Rand Paul was elected to the United States Senate for Kentucky in 2010.

Dominic "Dom" Barton (born 1962) is a longtime top senior partner and director at management consultancy McKinsey & Company, serving as its current managing director (chief executive) since 2009. He graduated from the University of British Columbia and pursued an MPhil in Economics as a Rhodes Scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford University.

Barton was one of six students from a high school class of 200 to attend college.^{[citation needed]} After the studying at the University of British Columbia he won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University. He began his career as a currency analyst at Rothschild.

He joined McKinsey's Toronto office in 1986 and had a difficult time making partner, saying "It took me three times before I was elected a partner....I was working hard and I was rejected….it was a bit of a slap in the head." From then on, he said, "my bar will be higher than McKinsey's."

In the late 90s he made the then-counterintuitive career move of relocating to Korea to develop McKinsey's practice in the region. Barton enjoyed close relationships with the president and government of South Korea. He subsequently parlayed those relationships into a role running McKinsey in Korea from 2000–2004 and then McKinsey in Asia from 2004-2009. Barton's experience in Asia ultimately made him a strong candidate in the firm election as global managing director.