Hidden Forces

In Episode 142 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Tony Greer, editor of the Morning Navigator and founder of TG Macro. This episode begins with a clip from David Portnoy (a.k.a Barstool Dave or Davey Daytrader), in what is probably the most epic hype video ever created for stock trading.  Portnoy has come to personify not only the recent rip-roaring retracement in equities, but also, t...

In Episode 141 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Joseph Nye, the co-founder of the international relations theory of neoliberalism who is credited with developing the concept of "soft power."  In his latest book "Do Morals Matter?," Dr. Nye meticulously weighs the ethics of the foreign policy decisions of American presidents from F.D.R. to Donald Trump. He argues that good moral reaso...

In Episode 140 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Thomas Rid, Professor of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies about active measures, the history of disinformation, and political warfare. We live in the age of organized deception. Spy agencies pour vast resources into hacking, leaking, and forging data, often with the goal of weakeni...

In Episode 139 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. In this nearly two-hour long conversation, we discuss how monopoly, commercial concentration, and regulatory capture drive outcomes in our economy, markets, and political system...

In Episode 138 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Adam Tooze, professor of history and Director of the European Institute at Columbia University about the German Constitutional Court's recent ruling. In its decision, the German Court finds that the European Central Bank's 2015 bond-buying program would be illegal under German law unless the ECB can prove the purchases are justified. Th...

In Episode 137 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with professor of finance at Beijing's Peking University, Michael Pettis. Profesor Pettis' research has focused mainly on Chinese financial markets, global trade & capital flows, and central banking. He spent seventeen years on Wall Street running fixed-income trading and capital market desks and has advised governments on privatizations of...

In Episode 136 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with CoinDesk Chief Content Officer Michael Casey about "The Great Monetary Inflation" and the future of digital money. The two chronicle the financialization of the global economy that occured between the end of gold convertibility in 1971 and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. They discuss how the period of the 1970's weighed heavily on t...

In Episode 135 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Lowell Randel, Vice President of Government and Legal Affairs for the Global Cold Chain Alliance, which serves as the voice of the cold chain industry, representing 1,300 member companies in over 85 countries. The two discuss the impact that COVID-19 and the government shutdowns have had on food supply chains, processing facilities, and...

In Episode 134 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management and author of Weekend Notes about investing in a volatile world where four decades of assumptions about markets, politics, and policy no longer hold.  We are living through a period of radical uncertainty and disillusionment with institutions and markets that we haven't seen for a hundred y...

Nic Carter is a partner at Castle Island Ventures, a Cambridge MA-based venture fund focused on seed stage investments in public blockchain startups. He's also the cofounder and chairman of Coin Metrics, a blockchain analytics company and he is a regular columnist at CoinDesk where he writes thoughtfully about the political economy and issues concerning bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market. Nic b...

In this Special Episode of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas releases the overtime segment to Episode 123 with Grant Williams and Ben Hunt. The three discuss the power of authenticity and narrative in an era of fake news and "ponzi people," what it's like to build a content business, what they've learned doing it, and what drives them to keep going. You can support Demetri and the team at Hidden For...

In Episode 133 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Leland Miller, CEO of China Beige Book, which runs the largest private Chinese data collection operation in the world, about the state of China's economy in the wake of COVID-19. The two discuss the impact of the global shutdown on all the major sectors of China's economy, as well as the implications for China's already fragile banking...

In Episode 132 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Tom Derry, CEO of the Institute for Supply Management and publisher of the market-moving ISM Manufacturing Index about the impact of COVID-19 on global supply chains. This is a deep-dive into how the  intricate world of just-in-time manufacturing, outsourcing, and globalization has been impacted by the world-wide disruptions caused by t...

In Episode 131 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Hari Krishnan, a portfolio manager at Doherty Advisors responsible for the VXR (VIX replication strategy) and hedging solutions business. The two discuss Hari's thesis around risk management, portfolio construction and positioning once a market downturn is already underway. Although the content discussed in this episode is considered "s...

In Episode 130 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Gillian Tett, chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large of the Financial Times about America's new "wartime economy" and the unspoken consequences of the most radical financial and political crisis since World War II. Demetri starts the conversation by asking Gillian what it's like to run the largest financial newspaper in the wo...

In Episode 129 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Josh Crumb, founder & CEO of Abaxx Technologies, which is launching a new commodity futures exchange in Singapore over the next year. Josh was formerly a macro economist and commodity strategist at Goldman Sachs, where he was the head of metals strategy. He is also a co-founder of gold bullion dealer Goldmoney, and Jewelry company Mene....

In Episode 128 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with George Selgin, director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute about the recently announced monetary and fiscal policy measures being undertaken to stem the economic fallout from COVID-19 and the government mandated shutdown of the American economy. This is a deep-dive into the specifics of the Feder...

In Episode 127 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ben Hubbard, the Beirut bureau chief for The New York Times about Saudi Arabia and the rise to power of Mohammed bin Salman. Topics include the ongoing oil price war, tensions with Iran, the war in Yemen, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. The two also discuss the impact of coronavirus for the region's politics and security. Accord...

In this Special Episode of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Yaneer Bar-Yam, President of the New England Complex Systems Institute. Professor Bar-Yam studies the unified properties of complex systems as a systematic strategy for answering basic questions about the world. His research is focused both on formalizing complex systems concepts and relating them to everyday problems. In parti...

In Episode 126 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with David Kilcullen, a theorist and practitioner of guerrilla and unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism. David has amassed extensive operational experience over a 25 year career with the Australian and U.S. governments as an army officer, analyst, policy advisor and diplomat. He served in Iraq as senior counterinsurgency advisor to U...

In this Special Episode of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Chief Strategist & Portfolio Manager at Logica Capital Advisers, Mike Green, who returns for a timely conversation about the recent market melt-down, the fundamental economic and political impacts of coronavirus, and prospects for a stimulus-driven melt-up that may bring about the greatest bout of inflation in more than a gener...

In Episode 125 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Harvard's Laura Huang about her research into intuition and behavior as it relates to investing and entrepreneurship. Rather than focus on our shortcomings, Laura teaches us how to turn adversity into advantage. The title of Laura's book is an acronym that stands for four different words: Enrich, Delight, Guide, and Effort. The foundati...

In Episode 124 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Peter Zeihan, a geopolitical strategist who combines an expert understanding of demography, economics, energy, politics, technology, and security to help his clients prepare for an uncertain future. Before founding his own strategy firm, Peter helped develop the analytical models for Stratfor, one of the world's premier private intellig...

In Episode 123 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with two guests who have each made one prior appearance on Hidden Forces: Grant Williams and Ben Hunt. Ben is the founder of the widely read Epsilon Theory , a newsletter and website that's become popular for its insights and analysis into markets and society with a particular focus on how narrative drives our perception of the world and our...

Demetri Kofinas makes a guest appearance on TC's Chartcast, a boutique podcast for short sellers hosted by Tesla Charts and Georgia Orwell. Demetri shares stories from his life and career in markets and the media, including lessons learned from his experience overcoming dementia in his early 30's. TC's Chartcast is available on most major podcast platforms and you can follow TC and Georgia on twit...