From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
There's a tension amongst the countries who belong to, and who have led, international organisations. Are they there to solve problems which no country can alone solve? Or – are they there to impose one particular view of the world on the rest of the world?
I don't think it's a coincidence that globally, we're having the biggest crisis of democracy since the 1930s. At the same time as we're finding it hard to focus and pay attention, we also can't listen to each other.
They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks. They used electric stun-guns on my genitals twice. I thought I would never see my family again.
In today's United States, asking a republican parent if it was OK for their daughter to marry a democrat would elicit a response similar to asking parents years ago if their daughter could marry a black person – the polarization is astounding.
The absolute biggest risk out there I can identify would be if something went really wrong with China as it is so important to the BRIC and global economic future. Luckily, I think it is a small risk.
Unfair taxation cripples economic development in a manner not dissimilar to third-world economic corruption.
The artificiality and unsustainability comes in when loans are made to customers who cannot repay those loans, and without sufficient regulatory control.
I feel as if our world is moving away from the ideals we subscribed to, and I wanted to reflect that through music. I wanted to create something hopeful and uplifting from this dark material of our times as a metaphor for the questions we are facing as a society.
In the Fourth Generation war, the state loses its monopoly on war. All over the world, state militaries find themselves fighting non-state opponents such as al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Almost everywhere, the state is losing.
Classic economic theory simply will not allow governments and regulatory bodies to deal with bubbles effectively, as they will grow to tremendous sizes immensely fast, meaning that the amount of support needed when they burst vastly exceeds the value of most economies.
There is an honest trade-off between labour market protection and learning. If you have an extremely static labour market—like the high protection laws in France or Spain—you get stability, but you sacrifice learning. You pay a 'learning cost' for that 'stability dividend.'
It's essentially a democratic revolution, wresting control from the conventional gatekeepers like intelligence agencies and the media.