Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL Interviews the world's leading thinkers, and the people shaping the century.

In this article, we speak to Jeremy Smith, Chief Strategy Officer at SecondMarket, where over 3,000 participants manage over $1 trillion, participating in the world’s largest centralized, independent marketplace and auction platform for illiquid assets from auction rate securities to private company shares, CDO’s, mortgage and asset backed securities. http://thoughteconomics.blogspot.com/2009/07/investing-and-trading-illiquid-assets.html…

 

In this article, we are privileged to speak to Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and president of Wikia Inc. We speak to Mr. Wales about his latest project, “Wikia” and about how our world is now, and will forever be, remarkably changed by Participatory Culture, Mass-Collaboration and the pace of…

 

More than ever before in human history, our countries are linked in a complex economic framework which creates dependencies between all nations. In a privileged interview, Thought Economics speaks to Professor Wim Naudé, (Senior Research Fellow and Project Director of the United Nations University World Institute for Developing Economics Research)…

 

The past 10 days have been “the most dramatic in Wall Street’s 216-year history” seeing Lehman Brothers collapse, AIG fall into critical distress, and the US Federal Reserve creating a c. US$1 Trillion rescue plan to “save the world”. While many investors were caught in this crisis, the leading economists…

 

Explore an archive of more than 3,000 quotes.

Cyber-threat is the single most serious threat faced by the markets. The United States is very good at cyber warfare and counter warfare, but so are others. This is what we call 'asymmetric' warfare where adversaries have been able to level the playing field.

— James Rickards
Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

Cancer cells grow faster, adapt better. They are more perfect versions of ourselves.

— Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and physician specializing in cancer biology

The defining feature of our era is that the next generation are bona fide digital natives. They're backed by technology, making them tech-empowered. Thanks to social media, they can sway vast audiences in mere moments. They possess a crystal-clear agenda about the environment, justice, equality, and beyond just financial markets, they're reshaping social and political narratives.

We've built two great contagion machines. Firstly, international travel which has enabled vast numbers of people to fly over great distances. Secondly, the internet – and in particular, the way the internet has evolved... we saw the rapid growth of clickbait, sensationalist content, and the internet became a machine for disseminating contagious ideas.

— Niall Ferguson
British historian and author specializing in financial and military history

Nuclear weapons were invented out of fear. The United States was afraid that Hitler was developing an atomic weapon, and they had to get one to deter him from ever using it. When the U.S. Manhattan Project that built the bomb began, no-one ever thought we would use a weapon like this; it was considered beyond the pale—a weapon that would indiscriminately kill hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

— Joseph Cirincione
Nuclear weapons expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund.

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Long-form Interviews with the World's Leading Thinkers — Thought Economics


The Wisdom Series

Ten in-depth articles distilling insights from over 550 interviews with the world's leading thinkers, creators, and changemakers.

The Wisdom of Leadership The Wisdom of Entrepreneurship The Wisdom of Creativity The Wisdom of Technology The Wisdom of Meaning The Wisdom of the Mind The Wisdom of Justice The Wisdom of Science The Wisdom of Geopolitics The Wisdom of Health
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