Hidden Forces

In Episode 98 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with famed Hong Kong investor David Webb, an outspoken critic of China's authoritarian grip over the coastal territory. There are two parts to this story that we explore during this conversation. The first deals with Hong Kong – specifically, its political and economic future as an independent territory of mainland China. The second deals wit...

In Episode 97 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Nic Carter, co-founder of both the VC fund Castle Island Ventures, as well as the research and data analytics company Coinmetrics.io. Nic also has a master's degree in philosophy, and the two spend much of the overtime applying that discipline to bitcoin by examining the works of people like Friedrich Nietzsche and his philosophy around...

In this week's episode of Hidden Forces, I make available the overtime to my episode with journalist Matt Taibbi that aired on February 18th, 2019.  In this overtime, Matt Taibbi shares his experience on the campaign trail with Donald Trump in 2016, as well as his predictions for the 2020 election. Matt and I also discuss the Goldman Sachs 1MDB scandal, which has remained largely out of the headli...

In Episode 96 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with investor and co-founder of Real Vision , Raoul Pal about the future of global money in a multi-polar world, including a discussion about Bitcoin, Libra, debt, demographics, and much more. The inspiration for this conversation derives from a theme captured in William Strauss and Neil Howe's Generational Theory, also known as the Fourth Tu...

In Episode 95 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with investor and author of Epsilon Theory, Ben Hunt, about the power of narrative and how it is used to shape and control our behavior as investors. This episode also includes a series of in-depth discussions about the long legacy of the 2008 financial crisis, identitarian narratives, three-body problems, the challenge of making accurate pre...

In Episode 94 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with author of REBOOT , Jerry Colonna about leadership and the art of growing up.  This is a deeply personal conversation, but it is also one that draws upon the common wellspring of human experience. Learning to be a great leader is also about learning how to become an adult, and this requires that we learn how to embrace life in all of its...

This is a service announcement for regular listeners of Hidden Forces. I have released a nearly 2-hour long recording of my conversation with Leemon Baird and Mance Harmon of Hedera Hashgraph to my Hidden Forces Patreon subscribers that will be published on the main podcast feed after the network goes public sometime this summer. I wanted to give supporters of the podcast the opportunity to hear t...

In Episode 93 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Harvard University's Professor of International Affairs Stephen Walt, about the arch of American foreign policy and the decline of U.S. primacy.  The conversation begins by addressing the major arguments made by America's foreign policy elite in favor of US engagement and American military leadership abroad. Before the end of World War I...

In this timely Interview, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Hong Kong activist and politician Joshua Wong, who is often referred to by media outlets and the international press as the "leader of the Hong Kong protests." Joshua shares information about the latest developments on the ground, including ongoing efforts by Beijing and the Hong Kong government to put a stop to the pro-democracy movements and...

In Episode 92 of Hidden Forces , Demetri speaks with East Asian affairs expert Ho-Fung Hung about the upcoming US-China trade talks taking place at this weekend's G20 summit, as Xi-Jinping grapples with the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Ho-Fung is the Henry M. and Elizabeth P. Wiesenfeld Professor in Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, as well as the author of two books on China, inclu...

In Episode 91 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Chief Economist and Strategist at Gluskin Sheff , David Rosenberg, about the latest Fed rate decision and his outlook for the global economy. In the overtime to this week's episode, David provides listeners with a look into his investment strategy and how he is positioning himself and his clients for a global slowdown that he believes ma...

In Episode 90 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with former United States Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Secretary Ash Carter served as head of the US Defense Department during President Barack Obama's second term in office. Before his time as Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter served in the number two and number three positions at the Pentagon. As you can all imagine, it was a privilege for...

In Episode 89 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jamie Metzl about the cutting edge of genomic science, synthetic biology, and big data. The two also discuss US-China relations, North Korea's nuclear program, post-Soviet Russian history, Iraq, Iran, and so much more . Jamie Metzl is described by Wikipedia as "an American technology futurist, geopolitical expert, and writer." He's also...

In Episode 88 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Tony Award-winning playwright, author, performer, and activist Eve Ensler, about her latest book (The Apology), as the two share their life experiences in a deep discussion about gender roles and the responsibility of men in our changing social and cultural landscape. Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her life for an apology. Sexually...

In Episode 87 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with philosopher David Weinberger about the science of prediction, its evolution, and its future. The two begin by exploring classical approaches developed by early philosophers and mathematicians in the ancient world and upon which advancements were later made by enlightenment thinkers and experimental scientists.    The models developed in...

In Episode 86 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with TeslaCharts , one of the leading members of the online community known as TSLAQ, a group of largely anonymous Twitter users who exist to expose the reality behind the Tesla façade. TSLAQ is a hive-like collective of financiers, accountants, Ph. D.'s, lawyers, pilots, and members of just about any other occupational discipline you can ima...

In this Special Episode of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kevin Smith and Otavio Costa of Crescat Capital, in a continuation of our recent markets coverage, with a particular focus on specific indicators that could validate a bear market hypothesis. It has been difficult not to feel anxiety and trepidation while looking out across the Value-Price Continuum during the last few years. M...

In Episode 85 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with China expert Anne Stevenson-Yang about the imminent dangers facing global financial markets in the event of a break in the renminbi-dollar peg.  In the years leading up to the Great Financial Crisis, it was generally understood that the Chinese were artificially depressing the value of the RMB vis-à-vis the USD, in order maintain an abno...

In Episode 84 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with celebrated author Johann Hari about his book "Lost Connections" and the silent epidemic of depression and anxiety that is pervading our society and burdening the lives of so many people. Lost Connections begins as a chronicling of Johann's search for answers to the causes of his own depression, but becomes an investigation into the reaso...

In Episode 83 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Raghuram Rajan, about the future of capitalism and the global economy amid rising rates of populism and disintegration in the global order. Raghu Rajan was named by Euromoney magazine as Central Banker of the Year in 2014 while serving as the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Dr. Rajan has also held the position of Chief Econom...

In Episode 82 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Dr. Nicholas Christakis about the evolutionary origins of ethics, morality, and a good society. A renowned sociologist and physician, Dr. Christakis was named to Time Magazine's 2009 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary...

In Episode 81 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Safi Bahcall, a physicist, biotech entrepreneur, and the author of "Loonshots," a book about how to nurture the types of crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries. In the early days of World War II, the Third Reich's commander of submarines Karl Dönitz submitted a memorandum to the German Navy, advocating for a s...

In this Special Episode of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ed McCabe about the latest woes plaguing Tesla after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently alleged in a federal filing that its CEO Elon Musk, violated a settlement with the agency when he tweeted in February about the electric carmaker's 2019 production targets. Midway through the episode, the two are joined by...

In Episode 80 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with CTRL-labs CEO Thomas Reardon, about his company's ground-breaking innovations in neural interface design, computational neuroscience, and machine learning that turn science fiction into reality. Thomas Reardon's career is no less impressive than his most recent endeavor to displace the graphical user interface and revolutionize immersive...

In Episode 79 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Shoshana Zuboff, about the rise of "Surveillance Capitalism," a pernicious new economic logic, which robs us of our experiences, dispossess us of our sanctuaries and makes our lives increasingly unlivable. In 1609, while in search of a rumored, northeast passage to Asia on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, the English explorer and...