Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe | Niall Ferguson

In Episode 189 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with historian Niall Ferguson about his latest book, “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.” The book is a historical tour de force of epic disasters ranging from pandemics to botched military responses, to nuclear accidents. What all these catastrophes share in common is a striking combination of operator and managerial error resulting from systemic problems that became calamities in the face of predictable, though unimaginable crises.

While Doom is mainly a history of disaster, its lessons apply most urgently in our own time, which provided us an opportunity to explore some of the contemporary challenges that we face in western society with someone who thinks and writes about such risks and opportunities regularly. At the top of this list is an emerging cold war between the United States and a coalition of authoritarian powers led by China and Russia, two nations that are increasingly cooperating on matters of national and economic security. This episode also includes a discussion about financial markets, digital assets, and the health of Western economies.

In place of an overtime, Demetri recorded a premium-only episode with Grant Williams on endgame scenarios for the economy, including a conversation about the prospects for runaway inflation and how to manage that risk for your portfolio.

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

Episode Recorded on 04/26/2021

[Cotictimmy]

The high quality discussion and exchange of ideas you just can't get on mainstream TV news and current affairs. This channel deserves a higher profile.

[davidwright]

Contra the impression given in discussion, the US is NOT leaving Afghanistan. It's pulling out its 'conventional' army, but leaving in place special forces and 'contractors' - mercenaries, to be blunt. It's also thinking hard about how to keep air operations (including drones) going - maybe from Pakistan; maybe still from within Afghanistan, and wherever else it has a toehold within flight combat range. The 'democratization' project was always going to fail because most of the population simply isn't interested. We hear only of, and from, those who are. Whom God - any god will do - help.

[isabellaliu]

But these digital platforms gives an easy access to absorb US dollars and other valuable currencies!