Myth of the 20th Century

Tonight we discuss some of this past year’s highlights, starting with the run on Silicon Valley Bank and near repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. We then cover the geopolitical implications of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine mixed in with the attacks in Israel, crisis at the border, and the changing world of technology as... Read More

In pagan Germany sometime in the 8th century, legend has it that a Christian monk, who would later become known as Saint Boniface, gathered a tribe of non-believers around him and their most sacred tree. Thought to incite a vengeful bolt of lightning from Thor himself if cut down, Boniface, in front of all who... Read More

Even before humans developed metal tools, stonework, jewelry and mineral wealth have been an integral part in human society. With the advent of the industrial revolution, with coal being exploited as a primary energy source for heating and locomotion, even more minerals ranging from copper to iron to aluminum became accessible on a scale never... Read More

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The world is a complex place, filled with good and evil – and almost everything in between. The challenge of navigating this is that we are all tempted by something that we want, but ultimately will be our undoing. Christians frame this battle between God and Satan, with humans caught in the struggle to choose.... Read More

Estimates place the amount of the earth’s land area dedicated to buildings and other fixed structures to be no more than 3%. But of that land, nearly half is exclusive to roads and parking structures in some urban areas. This fact, obviously a consequence of the prevalence of the automobile, illustrates the importance of transportation,... Read More

Australia, a name derived from the Latin for “southern land”, sits as a continent unto itself at the far reaches of the Asian landmass, receiving its first settlers over 50,000 years ago when the ice age connected the two by a land bridge. It was not until the European settlements in the 17th century did... Read More

In a time of increasing skepticism of globalization, stemming from losses in jobs, cultural heritage, and sovereignty over ones own homeland, nationalism has re-emerged onto the political stage in protest movements and increasingly populist governments. Christian nationalism, focused on the incorporation of church doctrine into a nation and often a sovereign, is not a new... Read More

In 1945 near the end of WWII, US President Franklin Roosevelt, on his way back from the Yalta summit, met on the cruiser USS Quincy in the Suez Canal with Kign Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. The meeting, prompted by Roosevelt asking how the United States had outlasted the mighty German war machine, was motivated... Read More

Carl von Clausewitz described war as politics by other means. In many ways the reverse could be said, with the modern state in the West seemingly arrayed against its own citizens in a constant battle of misdirection and interference in their lives. Tom Kawczynski, author of ‘Surviving the Fall of America’ and former town manager... Read More

As a show that has primarily focused on geopolitical history, we at the Myth of the 20th Century have not touched on the subject of women as much as others. But given the importance of women to all societies, and especially those facing declining birth rates, existential ennui, and many other social ills seemingly common... Read More

Soon after the end of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as ‘superpowers’, leaders of the two primary ideological power blocks across the world’s major continents. After nearly 50 years of competition, the United States emerged victorious, and led an unprecedented era of ‘globalization’ for the next 20 years... Read More

Viewed as a microcosm of Manifest Destiny beyond the confines of the geographical limits of the continental United States, the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the US in the late 19th century marked the beginning of what we now consider the global American Empire. To the Hawaiian peoples, it was a clearly just as... Read More

The English word ‘bank’ meaning a depository and lending institution, derives from the Italian word ‘banca’, or ‘bench.’ This belies the origins of modern finance in Renaissance Italy, where deals initially struck at coffee house benches evolved into the great trading and banking houses of the Medicis, where double-entry book keeping enabled the matching of... Read More

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, has written several books on the world of investing and the economy in general based on his years of experience as manager of the world’s largest hedge fund. In the latest of his ‘Principles’ series, Dalio applies his quantitative approach of macro investing to analyzing countries, seeking to identify... Read More

Stagflation. Fuel Prices. Shortages. Political Turmoil. War in Europe. Roe V. Wade. Crypto Collapse. Counter-counter culture. Most years have one or two seminal, defining events that set the societal zeitgeist, but in 2022 so many events vied for attention that most people had to take time not only to revaluate what it means for the... Read More

The exchange of goods and services has existed since the earliest forms of civilization, from simple barter arrangements at the local town square to Phoenician traders navigating the Mediterranean with goods from Europe and North Africa. Today, however, the scope of exchange is truly massive, with online commerce coming to dominate nearly all segments of... Read More

Ever since the Great Recession and financial crisis of the late 2000s, the American economic model of building large suburban housing developments with cheap credit and sometimes even cheaper building materials and standards has been called into question. Setting aside all the jobs generated in construction, banking, and other financial intermediation, municipal governments also depend... Read Mor...

In the world of geopolitics, there are those that decide, and those that recommend. While it is debatable who wields more actual power, it is clear that the number of advisers, consultants, analysts, strategists and self-appointed experts clearly outweighs that of the policy makers. Peter Zeihan, a unique blend of the recommender class, has made... Read More

According to the BBC, “a false flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it. Nations have often done this by staging a real or simulated attack on their own side and saying the enemy did it, as a pretext for going to war. The term... Read More

Prior to 1900, the western United States comprised less than 5% of the country’s total population. By 2000, that number had quadrupled to over 20%, and was on track to continue growing as a percentage of the total until only recently, where the southern states have begun outpacing it in term of number of people... Read More

With the alleged assassination of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri by US forces and the shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the past few weeks, conspiracy theories abound as to the motives behind potential realignment in global politics and the media news cycle. Also in the news is economist Jeffrey Sachs making... Read More

Since the industrial revolution and the advent of fossil fuels in place of manual labor powering nearly all aspects of civilization from agriculture to transportation to manufacturing, human productivity and population have exploded, going from under 1 billion in 1750 to a projected population of 10 billion in 2100. In the 20th century, oil became... Read More

From the 14th through the early 20th century, the Middle East consisted of a hybrid civilization composed of various tribes and peoples stretching from the Balkans down through the Arabian Peninsula under the auspices of the Ottoman Empire. To its promoters, Constantinople administered a multicultural society that balanced ethnic and religious differences into a harmonious... Read More

As a $60 billion a year investment bank engaged in market making and asset management for equities, fixed income, commodity and derivative securities for large institutional clients, Goldman Sachs, having been founded in 1869, is arguably the world’s most recognizable name on Wall Street. Known for attracting some of the best financial talent, it is... Read More