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Demetri Kofinas · Business

Hidden Forces

Get the edge with Hidden Forces where media entrepreneur and financial analyst Demetri Kofinas gives you access to the people and ideas that matter, so you can build financial security and always stay ahead of the curve.

Episodes

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The Most Dangerous Investment Cycle In History | Paul Kedrosky

26 Oct 2026
1h 3m
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The current AI investment boom functions as a uniquely dangerous general-purpose technology cycle, distinguished by its substitutive impact on white-collar labor and unprecedented scale. Unlike previous technological shifts, this moment converges four historical crisis drivers: loose credit, real estate speculation in ...

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Why Younger Generations Are Convinced They Are Falling Behind | Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak

22 Oct 2026
1h 18m
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The dominant narrative that Gen Z and Millennials are falling behind their predecessors financially contradicts empirical data. Younger cohorts currently exhibit higher inflation-adjusted incomes and stronger balance sheets than Boomers and Gen X at comparable life stages. This disconnect between reality and perception...

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Are We Verging on Another Escalation in the Middle East? | Ali Vaez

19 Oct 2026
47m
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The conflict between Iran and the United States, eight months into Operation Epic Fury, remains in a state of stalemate despite the war's expansion into a wider regional confrontation. Iran has successfully leveraged its control over the Strait of Hormuz to exert pressure on the global economy, forcing a costly asymmet...

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Is It Time to Start Buying Bonds? | Jim Bianco

12 Oct 2026
55m
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The U.S. economy is currently operating in a 5-6% nominal growth environment, necessitating a recalibration of expectations regarding interest rates and bond valuations. After six years of warning against bond overvaluation, market analyst Jim Bianco now views current yields as appropriate, reflecting a return to histo...

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How Melting Ice Is Redrawing the Global Order | Rana Foroohar

05 Oct 2026
59m
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The Arctic is transforming into a primary geopolitical theater as melting ice opens new maritime routes, triggering a "great game" between global powers. This shift reflects a broader transition from neoliberal globalization toward regionalized, state-directed industrial policies focused on national security and supply...

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Why the China Threat Is Overblown | Logan Wright

28 Sep 2026
55m
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China’s economy faces structural decline, fundamentally driven by an unprecedented credit expansion that has exhausted the financial system’s capacity to generate growth. Rather than cyclical fluctuations, this stagnation stems from systemic policy choices that prioritized state-directed lending and moral hazard over n...

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How to Invest for A Hundred Years | Inigo Fraser Jenkins

24 Sep 2026
52m
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The Hundred Year Portfolio shifts the focus of long-horizon investing from traditional asset allocation to a governance-first mindset centered on purchasing power preservation. As the post-1980 investment regime—characterized by benign inflation and negative stock-bond correlation—breaks down, multigenerational investo...

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Will AI Really Kill Us All? | Harper Reed & John Borthwick

21 Sep 2026
1h 35m
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Artificial intelligence development has reached an inflection point where autonomous agents exhibit unpredictable behaviors, necessitating a shift from abstract existential risk narratives to concrete discussions of liability and corporate power. These agents, often trained in reinforcement learning environments, demon...

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The Great Financial Reset Has Begun | Marieke Flament & Nicolas Colin

14 Sep 2026
54m
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The global financial system is undergoing a structural transformation—a "Great Financial Reset"—comparable to the 1970s, as the current techno-economic paradigm of semiconductors and networks reaches maturity. This shift is driven by the emergence of programmable money and dollar-backed stablecoins, which facilitate pe...

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Are Rumors of an Imminent Russian Attack Warranted? | Yaroslav Trofimov

07 Sep 2026
49m
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The war in Ukraine represents an existential struggle to preserve sovereign nationhood against a Russian imperial project aimed at dismantling the post-World War II security architecture. Moscow’s aggression extends beyond territorial gains in the Donbas, functioning as a broader effort to neutralize Ukraine and intimi...

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Bessent's Wager and Why the World is Calling America's Bluff | Henry Farrell

31 Aug 2026
51m
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The global order is shifting as the United States transitions from a rules-based international system toward a more volatile, coercive form of imperial power. Henry Farrell, political scientist and co-author of Underground Empire, argues that this transformation stems from a compounding series of domestic and foreign p...

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The West's Forgotten War and the New Russia | Mark Galeotti

17 Aug 2026
55m
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The Russia-Ukraine war has devolved into a protracted, multi-front conflict characterized by grinding attrition, deep economic strikes, and a political struggle for global influence. Russia sustains its war effort despite staggering human costs—estimated at 1.5 million casualties, including over 500,000 deaths—by relyi...

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The Internet Will Die and So Will You | John West

10 Aug 2026
1h 2m
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The internet is not a permanent archive but an ephemeral environment subject to decay, mirroring the finitude of human life. This reality reveals a fundamental shift from individual human agency to mechanistic platform agency, where business models prioritize advertiser engagement over user needs. As digital spaces bec...

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The AI Enshittification Bubble | Cory Doctorow

03 Aug 2026
53m
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The systemic degradation of digital platforms, termed "enshittification," results from the systematic removal of market constraints—such as competition and regulation—that once prevented firms from abusing users. This process follows a predictable lifecycle: platforms initially provide value to attract users, lock them...

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How to Win a Trade War | Chad Bown

27 Jul 2026
47m
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Modern trade wars have shifted from simple economic disputes to complex geostrategic conflicts, fundamentally altering the global trading system. Chad Bown, a trade economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and co-author of How to Win a Trade War, examines how the weaponization of supply chains—pa...

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SpaceX, Europe's China Problem, and the Populist Backlash | Patrick Boyle

20 Jul 2026
53m
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The erosion of institutional trust and the rise of individual-led populism are fundamentally reshaping the landscape of global finance and politics. SpaceX’s recent IPO exemplifies this shift, utilizing rapid index inclusion, minimal float, and speculative valuation metrics that prioritize narrative over traditional fu...

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How America Built A Durable Dollar Empire | Mary Bridges

16 Jul 2026
47m
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The U.S. financial empire emerged from a fragmented, improvised expansion at the turn of the 20th century, transitioning from a reliance on British sterling to the global dominance of the dollar. Historian Mary Bridges details how institutions like the International Banking Corporation (IBC) navigated this shift, utili...

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The Strong Do What They Can and Suffer What They Must | Jonathan Kirshner

13 Jul 2026
1h 13m
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Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War offers a cautionary framework for understanding modern American imperial decline, specifically regarding the dangers of hubris and the fragility of domestic institutions. Jonathan Kirshner, a professor of political science and international studies, argues that policymakers ...

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Iran's New Grand Strategy | Vali Nasr

09 Jul 2026
50m
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Schrödinger's Strait and the New Energy Order | Daniel Yergin

02 Jul 2026
45m
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Global energy markets have demonstrated unexpected resilience during recent geopolitical crises, including the war in Ukraine and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, by rapidly reconfiguring supply chains and leveraging strategic reserves. Daniel Yergin, a leading authority on energy and geopolitics, attributes this stab...

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