In Episode 279 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kaiser Kuo. Kaiser is the host and co-founder of the Sinica Podcast, the editor-at-large of The China Project, and the former director of international communications for Baidu, China’s leading search engine. How does China see the world? What do we get wrong when talking about China? What are the central diving forces in Chinese politics? And what “does China want?” While concrete answers to such complex social and political question...
Oct 31, 2022•55 min•Ep 279•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 278 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Michael Shermer. Michael is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine. He hosts his own podcast, “The Michael Shermer Show,” and is the best-selling author of books like “The Believing Brain, “Giving the Devil His Due,” “The Moral Arch,” “The Mind of the Market,” and many more. Shermer's latest book titled "Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational" presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them, wh...
Oct 26, 2022•55 min•Ep 278•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 277 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Perry Mehrling. Dr. Mehrling is Professor of International Political Economy at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University, where he teaches courses on global money. He is perhaps best known for having pioneered the so-called “money view,” an economic framework that attempts to put the real-world practitioners’ view of financial markets into an academic perspective. Mehrling’s most recent book, “Money and Empire,” is in so...
Oct 24, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep 277•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 276 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Michael Beckley and Hal Brands, the authors of a recently published book titled “Danger Zone,” about how to prepare America and the world for a peaking China. The book argues that the conventional wisdom about the long-term strategic threat that China poses to the existing international order is fundamentally wrong. If a war between the US and China is to break out, it could happen much sooner than the US defense establishment prepare...
Oct 10, 2022•55 min•Ep 276•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 275 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas publishes the audio from a recent Twitter Spaces event featuring Brent Johnson and Michael Kao, who were both later joined on stage by Michael Nicoletos and Michael Howell for a dynamic conversation about the explosive appreciation in the relative value of the US Dollar, the sources of Dollar strength, and what could bring an end to its role as the main global reserve currency. Brent Johnson is CEO of Santiago Capital and the author of the “Dolla...
Oct 04, 2022•2 hr 49 min•Ep 275•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 274 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Chris Miller. Chris is Associate Professor of International History at the graduate school of global affairs at Tufts University. He is also the author of Chip War, which chronicles the geopolitical history of a decades-long battle to control the modern world’s most critical resource: the microchip (or semiconductor) and the commercial industry that supports it. We spend the first hour discussing the technological, commercial, and dis...
Oct 03, 2022•54 min•Ep 274•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 273 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Scott Galloway. Scott is a professor of marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business, a serial entrepreneur, a prolific media personality, and the author of four books. His most recent book, titled “ Adrift ,” attempts to tell the story of America—from the end of world war two to the present day—in order to understand how we arrived at this precarious moment in our nation’s history, the challenges that lie before, and what it will take...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep 273•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 272 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with economist and author Charles Goodhart. Professor Goodhart is widely recognized for his contributions to the fields of monetary economics and central bank policy and is famously associated with what we commonly refer to as “Goodhart's Law,” the stipulation that any observed statistical regularity ceases to function as an objective or accurate measure the moment that it becomes a target of public policy. Both professor Goodhart and his ...
Sep 19, 2022•54 min•Ep 272•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 271 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Nick Timiraos, the chief economics correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, where he covers the Federal Reserve and U.S. economic policy. Timiraos is also the author of Trillion Dollar Triage, a detailed account of the day-by-day and sometimes hour-by-hour policymaking by Federal Reserve officials during the heights of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently between 2020-2021. The first part of this conversation focuses on the immedi...
Sep 12, 2022•51 min•Ep 271•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 270 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Rory Johnson, a widely quoted researcher and expert in global commodities markets and founder of Commodity Context.com . This episode is a preview of what subscribers to the new Hidden Forces “Genius” Tier will have access to on a regular basis. This new tier will include live, quarterly calls with guests and researchers whose work Demetri relies on to help him navigate markets and make educated investment decisions for his own portfo...
Sep 08, 2022•51 min•Ep 270•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 269 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with portfolio manager & chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management, Mike Green. Mike is a deep thinker and so much of what he has to say is value-additive. It illuminates some aspect of the market or some socio-political phenomenon or dynamic that has profound explanatory power. Today’s conversation was no exception. The two spent the first hour discussing a number of topics that Demetri has explored on his podcast before, including to...
Sep 05, 2022•1 hr•Ep 269•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 268 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas replays a monologue that he wrote and first published nearly five years ago about the future of humanity, machine intelligence, and the power process. When he began Hidden Forces, Demetri was primarily concerned with exploring some of the recent advancements in technology and humanity’s scientific understanding of both the external world, as well the internal one that gives rise to the human experience. He believed (and still does) that many of t...
Aug 29, 2022•32 min•Ep 268•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 267 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Alex Lee Moyer the filmmaker behind “Alex’s War,” an excellent new documentary about Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars. Alex is an incredibly controversial cultural figure and media personality whose popularity and influence have become especially difficult to measure since he was banned from YouTube and most every other major media and social media platform in 2018. Jones granted Moyer unprecedented access for a documentary that is...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep 267•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 266 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with financial historian, journalist, and author Edward Chancellor. For the last twenty years, Chancellor has been arguably known best for his book, “Devil Take the Hindmost,” which is a fantastic history of the last 400 years of financial speculation. Yet, that streak may be soon coming to an end with the publication tomorrow of his latest book, “The Price of Time,” an absolutely brilliant philosophical exploration of interest and its ess...
Aug 15, 2022•54 min•Ep 266•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 265 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Michael Howell. Michael is the CEO of CrossBorder Capital, a London-based, independent research and investment company that provides asset allocation and capital markets advice to institutional investors. This conversation is a natural follow-up to our recent episodes with Lev Menand on the shadow banking system and Eric Basmajian on economic cycles. Specifically, the credit cycle and its leading impact on the economy and asset prices...
Aug 08, 2022•54 min•Ep 265•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 264 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas publishes the contents of a call that he hosted on Twitter Spaces this past Tuesday evening only hours after Nancy Pelosi, the US Speaker of the House of Representatives arrived in Taiwan. The subject of the call concerns both the short and long-term consequences of Pelosi’s trip and whether or not the US is ready to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese naval blockade or invasion of the island by the People’s Liberation Army. Speakers Dmitri A...
Aug 05, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep 264•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 263 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Eric Basmajian. Eric is an economic cycle analyst and the Founder of EPB Macro Research, an economics-based research firm focusing on inflection points in economic growth and the impact on asset prices. His research has been featured across major financial media outlets and he’s been kind enough to provide a sample of his latest cyclical trends monthly update report for premium subscribers to our super nerd tier that you can get throu...
Aug 01, 2022•57 min•Ep 263•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 262 of Hidden Forces , I (Demetri Kofinas) share an interview I recently gave on “The Breakdown” with Nathaniel Whittemore, but not before delivering an important message, which has to do with a new Hidden Forces community tier that we will be launching. I’m excited to announce that we will be launching a new Hidden Forces community tier where you'll be able to get immediate access to me, my thoughts, special content, etc., along with private events that will include opportunities to ...
Jul 28, 2022•53 min•Ep 262•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 261 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Elbridge Colby, co-founder and principal of The Marathon Initiative, an organization whose mission is to develop the diplomatic, military, and economic strategies that the United States will need to navigate a protracted era of great power competition. Colby has also served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development and was the chief architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS), which was b...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 261•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 260 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Rory Johnston. Rory is a widely quoted researcher and expert in global commodities markets. His work includes a variety of research and investment projects including his commodity market research platform at Commodity Context Dot Com, as well as both public market portfolio and private equity strategy at Price Street. This episode is for premium subscribers only and is part of an ongoing series of conversations that I’ve been curating...
Jul 21, 2022•47 min•Ep 260•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 259 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ryan Gingeras, a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and an expert on Turkish, Balkan, and Middle East history. Gingeras has authored six books on Turkish history and culture, including his forthcoming, “The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire,” which is scheduled for release by Penguin in October 2022. In recent years, Turkey has become an X-factor of sorts in global politics. Its pre...
Jul 18, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep 259•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 258 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Lev Menand, author of “ The Fed Unbound : Central Banking in a Time of Crisis.” Menand is an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School who has worked as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as a senior advisor to both the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions. He joins Demetri for an important and timely conversation about the US Dollar and the evolution of ...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep 258•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 257 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Helen Thompson, author and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge. Thompson’s current research concentrates on the political economy of energy and the long history of the democratic, economic, and geopolitical disruptions of the twenty-first century, which she explores magisterially in her new book “Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.” For those of us who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, the nature of the w...
Jul 11, 2022•1 hr•Ep 257•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 256 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with the CEO of Investment Management Associates, Vitaliy Katsenelson. Vitaliy is a well-known value investor and author of several books on investing and life. His latest, “Soul in the Game,” is a philosophical exploration of the sources of life’s meaning told through a collection of day-to-day observations and insights about Vitaliy’s early childhood in Russia, his experiences as a parent, and his love of classical music, and most import...
Jul 04, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep 256•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 255 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ian Bremmer. Ian Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, the world’s leading global research and consulting firm, and GZERO Media, a company dedicated to providing intelligent and engaging coverage of international affairs. Bremmer is also the author of ten books, including his latest, “ The Power of Crisis, ” in which he argues that we are unprepared for a trio of looming crises in the areas of pandemic response, clima...
Jun 27, 2022•50 min•Ep 255•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 254 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jared Dillian, editor of The Daily Dirtnap , a financial newsletter for professional investors focused on gauging market sentiment and how to capitalize on it. Dillian is also the author of two very successful books on Wall Street and investing and is the host of the Be Smart podcast, where he talks to his listeners about everything from how to sort out their personal finances to how to approach trading and investing in the stock mark...
Jun 20, 2022•54 min•Ep 254•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 253 of Hidden Forces , I (Demetri Kofinas) share an interview I recently gave on the In-Bloom podcast hosted by Micaela Richmond . This was a pretty emotional conversation, and I don’t want to spoil the episode by giving it away, but I do want to say that while the subjects I mostly cover on Hidden Forces are intellectual the things that matter most to me are most definitely not. Every now and then I publish episodes that speak to those things like my episode with Jerry Colona on the ...
Jun 13, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep 253•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 252 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Daniel Peris, Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager at Federated Hermes in Pittsburgh. Daniel is also the author of three books that together explore the intellectual underpinnings of modern portfolio allocation, with a particular focus on dividend investing, why it’s fallen out of favor with investors over the last 30 years, and why dividend-paying securities are positioned to outperform some of their more growth-oriente...
May 30, 2022•52 min•Ep 252•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 251 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Tony Greer, the founder of TG Macro , an independent research firm that provides fundamental, technical, and behavioral analysis of global markets to institutional and non-institutional clients alike. This conversation follows-up on a series of episodes we’ve published recently focused on the macro, political, and geopolitical economy, with an especially strong focus on commodities, currencies, and government policy. The goal with all...
May 23, 2022•54 min•Ep 251•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 250 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with CEO of Santiago Capital and originator of the “Dollar Milkshake” theory, Brent Johnson. Brent and Demetri discuss his thesis on the Dollar as part of a much larger conversation about the sell-off that we’re currently experiencing in risk assets, the dislocations we’re seeing in currencies and currency pairs like Dollar-Yen, and how to position yourself as conditions change in real-time. Because so much is happening in markets right no...
May 16, 2022•48 min•Ep 250•Transcript available on Metacast 
