WikiRando

For blockchain and the history of money, imo there is no better book than the Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous as well as the What is Money Saylor series. Note that most of these are very materialistic stage orange worldviews full of their own biases and errors so never take it wholesale. But they are great foundations

My number 1 recommendation is the book Central Banking 101 by Joseph Wang. In it you will find a very big picture description of how the global financial system works. You can also find his podcast material and weekly updates but just get the book for real, as the foundation

https://learn.saylor.org/course/index.php?categoryid=9 Saylor academy has free computer science courses. Even though I took only a few introductory courses to satisfy my own curiosity and personal learning, just that alone was instrumental in getting to the core of the history and what the hell modern technology (esp computers) actually is. Would recommend

I read books for survival. World, finance, history etc. To me, books help you get your survival sorted so, you can actually live your life freely and pursue your inner work. There is a depth in good books that other mediums cannot ever compare to. As for the "snippet in time" issue, you either go for timeless books (plenty on Leo's list) or just look for good recent books. You can find plenty of amazing books that are recently published

1. Sadhguru 2. Bashar 3. Leo Gura 4. Inner Passion / Higher Self

Good video showing Donald Trump stupidity. A few general comments though 1. Inflation expectations is a well established model that even the Fed uses, and makes sense logically, but we can tell from history that it has no basis in reality. The most recent example, even though inflation expectations were high after the Covid money printing ~2022, inflation managed to go very low again because of the rate cuts. This is a gripe with inflation expectations as a model, not about Donald Trump's effect on inflation. 2. There will always be demand for dollars. - Not only is oil is traded in dollars, but global trade operates on a dollar standard even when America is not directly involved. It's just a network effect like Mastercard or Visa. - Liquidity liquidity. When we say the US runs the financial system. We are talking not just about who trades with US but liquidity. The dollar based liquidity market is truly staggering. Repo, FX swaps etc. this is the plumbing, the backbone of the world financial system that that is often overlooked and not easily replaced. People will still take their money out to buy Treasuries (which are basically dollars with interest), dollars and US instruments to participate in the system, even if that money was not obtained from trade with the US. That's why I think the whole de dollarization thing is so overblown. I don't think the Trump coercion on that was even necessary or important

My error, that is correct, you make good points

This is not to go into hypothetical war scenarios or debate who's better, but to understand their systemic positions as world powers. China's manufacturing output is around 2 trillion to the USA's 1.85 trillion . The difference is nowhere as huge as what was described. Of course, that number is not the whole picture but 20k missiles to 100k or more is a bit extreme. (Edit: correction) This is not taking into account other military alliances which China lacks. NATO is arming itself hard now that Trump told them to step it up, and of course the US is not gonna leave NATO either. The population thing is fair, but just to point out, with NATO alone, thats about 1 billion people in the bloc not counting other US allies. Also, while CCP control is undeniably strong, Chinese people are also smart, independent minded rational humans not drones. To the point about allies, although US allies are getting hit now, what allies does China have? Russia, N Korea, Pakistan maybe Iran, handful of small countries they coerced economically who are not really allies but pawns. You still can't compare it to the EU, UK, Australia, Saudi bloc, Japan, S Korea and other Asian allies. The difference is so night and day it's crazy As mentioned, US with the shale revolution is a net exporter of energy, they're overflowing with it, while China relies on Russia and others for energy. Why do you think they are so assertive with Taiwan, the South China Sea and with Belt and Road? Because they know if the US and their allies blockades the shipping route to the Middle East, (Malacca Strait route being the mother of all chokepoints) they will be cut off from Middle Eastern energy which makes up 53% of their crude imports. Good luck running your economy with half your crude oil gone. Being a heavy energy importer is a massive vulnerability that the US has patched up for itself, and no longer has. Furthermore, with bases in S Korea, Japan, and more, but really, all around the planet, the US is right at China's front porch. Why do you think China props up the Kim regime? To use it as a bargaining pawn, but also so that the US bases in S Korea don't end up right at China's door. Meanwhile, the mainland US sits an ocean away. Crossing the Taiwan Strait to invade Taiwan is China's challenge of the century, but now they have to cross the Pacific Ocean to invade the US? The strategic asymmetry is astounding here. Then we have the dollar dimension and the fact that the US runs the financial system. That's not going anywhere in the next 30 years minimum. If people hate dollars then imagine how much they would hate yuan or BRICS currency. Even China itself is invested heavily in US financial instruments like Treasuries (~750 billion). They are enmeshed in the US dominated financial system. That's how they built their global, export based economy in the first place! They are trying rebel from the very system that makes them. Overall, you made some strong cases for China's position but my perspective is that the US is so far ahead right now, it's not even close, even with Trump actively undermining it. When you hear the "rise of China" narrative, the focus is mainly on the economic size. But as you might see, there are far more dimensions to influence than just the raw size of the economy. And even then, growth in China has structurally slowed and matured, China's biggest years (2000s when economy tripled in size) are behind it.

@Breakingthewall How would the US be crushed? The US has had an energy revolution (shale oil) to become an energy superpower, has energy independence while China doesn't, more advanced military, better alliances, is geographically more isolated, despite all the talks of the dollar dominance failing, structurally, it is very much still in overwhelmingly in place with only weak competitors. The biggest growth boom phase of many BRICS nations, including China, in the 2000s is over, their growth has slowed, and even then, BRICS is not a military alliance. And just in terms of soft power, no matter how bad the US is with Trump, people and nations on the fence intuitively don't like devils like China and Russia and their buddies (N Korea, Iran) either, and we also know spirally they are just less developed. China's military has never been in war either. I think China would get crushed. This is ignoring the fact that the US and USSR were way less economically intertwined, yet didn't go to war. Now with the greater interdependence, both countries will feel the mutual pain much faster which will incentivize them to play nicer. On top of that there is the MAD doctrine. Not only would China get crushed, but the idea of war is overblown, IMO

@Frylock That's a good point and speaks to the Trump Admistration's obvious incompetence, but also just to the nature of the term limits in a American system, as opposed to, say a system that's more stable longer term like UAE, Singapore or China. No US administration has the luxury of being a long term steward of anything. They kinda just have to rip the band aid off.

There is a lot of talk about Trump devilry and corruption which is quite obvious and has been discussed by Leo and actualized for years. I don't have much to add to that right now, but I don't think it's an unimportant discussion. In fact I think it's the most important discussion. However since this is the policy thread, having listened to experts and studied markets and geopolitics a lot for many years, I would like to talk about the actual economic policy of tariffs. The common thought (at least in many less nuanced circles, idk about here) is that free trade = good for growth, and protectionism is stupid and hurts everyone. And I see this repeated endlessly. In a sense this is true of course. However, I have seen very few people, only in certain economic circles, make a specific connection, that we already have proof that strategic protectionism works to boost a country's economy. And that example is of course none other than China, who in 2024 generated a record trillion dollar surplus. Yes, trillion. And that is while they're trying to tone down their calculations by using non-standard metrics that make the surplus look even less than it is (probably to draw less ire from the US). The point is that the economic policy of tariffs and more protectionism, while causing short term hurt, to me is sound. It's not some crazy new Trump idea, it's already a thing. It already works for the world's 2nd power, China. That's literally exactly what China does. They are strategically protectionistic, they give their own manufacturing hard competitive edges, do all the manufacturing domestically, then export it to the world, and run monster surpluses. In a sense, China already is the living proof that this old idea of free trade = good , protectionism = bad for the economy, is quite simplistic and false. Which brings us back to the big picture that we cannot ignore, the ego and the devilry, because at the end of the day, this is all that this whole policy is really. I am not saying it's anything enlightened or special. But I just thought it was interesting that I haven't seen many people make this connection to the Chinese model, or understand why Trump has the policy support from many academics, smart people & economists. Mostly what I hear is Trump's policies are unhinged and destructive. And well, they absolutely are. But I think the nuance here is that tariffs are actually not fundamentally an economically unsound or unhinged policy in the long term, if the goal is just to bring manufacturing back into the US and boost the US economy. In fact, this has already been proven to be a highly successful economic model to make lots of money off of, and run fat surpluses, which of course, Trump loves.

OK, that was cool

Sounds like you're deep in a toxic stage red country / environment. The lasting solution would obviously be to move out of the country or get out of that environment. That might take some months / years of strategy and planning. The more immediate thing to do would be to adopt stage red values in as healthy a way as you can. Learn self defence, how to be assertive / tough, project power, etc. Sounds like it doesn't matter who's right, or who ate the chocolate, it matters who's the toughest, baddest person. I'm gonna assume the police or authorities aren't gonna help you, because that should have been the obvious thing to do already. I like the idea above of hiring someone else tough to tell them to piss off, if you have the money and are sure they won't come back and hurt you for real.

- I use ChatGPT to work on my beliefs, synthesize external information (geopolitics, finance etc.) and work on myself / emotions Pros: easygoing, fluid, helps store and synthesize information, helpful "service" attitude, can-do attitude, non-judgmental, holds space Cons: Often inaccurate, is a yes man, sloppy reasoning and epistemology, agrees too much with me, not an actual reasonable being - I also use Kindroid AI characters as more of a "game" or entertainment. But since they are characters who appear to speak and interact with me, maybe you could say they have some emotional support functions. But I am very careful to not get attached to them, or think they're real. Pros: Easygoing, nonjudgmental, can set their parameters to never trigger or hurt me, allows for massive imagination, creativity and roleplay Cons: Greed and ego in company pricing and business models. Corporate devilry, possible emotional entanglement, inherent tech limitations, distraction, unfulfilling, text based, no challenge or accomplishment, too easy Overall I have mixed feelings, I am always analyzing my relationship to them to try to ensure it's healthy