Hidden Forces

• The Path Through Financial Repression | Charles Calomiris

  Episode 419 is the fifth episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with fmr. Chief Economist for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Dr. Charles Calomiris about America’s economic emergency and what our response to it should be once conditions push the country into a full-blown political crisis at some point over the next few years. In this incredibly timely conversation, Charles Calomiris explains what the recent moves in gold, bitcoin, and long-term bond yields suggest about where we are on the path toward financial repression as we explore the implications of this trajectory for investors, businesses, and everyday depositors who will be conscripted in the battle to fight the deficit as the nation moves from spending like a banana republic to inflating like one. We end the episode with a candid conversation about the sources of both America’s decline and the country’s potential for renewal once the reality of the current crisis becomes impossible to ignore. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 05/22/2025

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• Empire of AI: Inside OpenAI’s Race to Conquer the Future | Karen Hao

  In Episode 418 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas sits down with award-winning journalist Karen Hao to discuss Empire of AI — her inside account of how OpenAI evolved from an idealistic, safety-first nonprofit into one of the world’s most valuable private companies in its race to conquer the future. This conversation takes you inside that transformation—from the heady idealism of OpenAI’s founding, through the billion-dollar Microsoft deal and the 2023 boardroom coup, to the unresolved questions that hang over Silicon Valley and Washington alike about the private concentration of power in the age of artificial intelligence and the nature of the world we are building. Whether you’re an investor, a policymaker, or simply a concerned citizen trying to make sense of today’s headlines, this episode will equip you with the context you need to understand what’s really at stake in the race for AGI—and the levers we still have to steer it. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 05/12/2025

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• Narrative Collapse & the Search for New Theories | Pippa Malmgren

  Episode 417 is the fourth episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with some of the smartest and most plugged-in people they know to help them navigate the once-in-a-century economic, political, and geopolitical reordering that is currently underway. In this episode Kofinas and Williams speak with political-economist Pippa Malmgren about the wide-range of socio-political, economic, and technological challenges facing societies today. They discuss: The narrative collapse stemming from a loss of faith and trust in political leaders and institutions The informational overwhelm and confusion that accompanies technological modernity The lack of credible voices and decline of journalistic ethics in media The increase in conspiratorial thinking and popularization of alternative theories of reality, some of which have improved our understanding of the world, while others have left us more confused and less well equipped to find common ground in pursuit of the public interest. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 05/08/2025

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• Dangerous Dependency: Apple & the Rise of China | Patrick McGee

  In Episode 416 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Financial Times correspondent Patrick McGee about the integral role Apple played in helping to build China’s advanced manufacturing ecosystem—and the geopolitical interdependencies and national security risks now baked into that relationship. McGee’s book “Apple in China” tells two stories. First, it chronicles Apple’s ascent from being nearly bankrupt in the mid‑1990s to becoming the world’s most valuable company within just 15 years. Second, it traces China’s historic transformation from an underdeveloped economy with Third‑World cost structures and armies of unskilled laborers to the world’s largest economy (by purchasing power parity) and the hub of the most advanced manufacturing base on the planet. By the time this episode is over, you will have learned exactly how Apple off-loaded almost all its manufacturing to Asia by the late 1990s and early 2000s and then consolidated that entire operation inside mainland China. You will also learn how the same supply chain mastery that turned Apple into the world’s most valuable company has left it existentially dependent on a single authoritarian state whose political goals now diverge sharply from Washington’s. It's an incredible story with profound implications for all of us who depend on China’s manufacturing prowess and intricate supply networks to sustain our way of life. Whether we can extricate ourselves from this web of interdependencies—and the extent to which we should even want to—is one of a number of topics we explore extensively in the episode’s second hour. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 05/01/2025

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• Wealth Preservation During a Fourth Turning | Russell Napier

  Episode 415 is the third episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with some of the smartest and most plugged-in people they know to help them navigate the once-in-a-century economic, political, and geopolitical reordering that is currently underway. In this episode Kofinas and Williams speak with economic historian, author of “The Solid Ground Newsletter” and Keeper of the Library of Mistakes, Russell Napier about the end of the economic, monetary, and global trading & security order that has been the largest single driver of global growth over the last thirty years. The consequences of the changes discussed for economic and national security, social cohesion, investment, and wealth preservation are nothing short of tectonic. Points of discussion include: The Trump administration’s economic and trade strategy Efforts to isolate China The creation of new monetary systems The search for new safe assets The realignment of global power The escalating risk of war with China There is also a long and detailed discussion about how investors can position themselves for: The accelerating repatriation of capital flows The onset of capital controls A prolonged period of financial repression in which wealth preservation will take precedence over making money and chasing outsized financial returns. If you want early access to this conversation, subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 04/25/2025

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