Hidden Forces

In Episode 65, Demetri Kofinas speaks with China expert and Dinny McMahon, who spent ten years as a financial journalist in China, including six years in Beijing at The Wall Street Journal and four years with Dow Jones Newswires in Shanghai. In this conversation, the two explore how the Chinese model may be leading to the greatest economic and political crisis in modern history. @hiddenforcespod

In Episode 64, Demetri Kofinas speaks with mathematician and public educator, Hannah Fry, about our often uncomfortable partnership with machines. It is a discussion meant not only to help further our understanding of how algorithms function, but also to give us a deeper appreciation for where we fit in this increasingly changing world. In Hannah’s own words, “in the age of the algorithm, humanity’s place has never been more important.”

In Episode 63, Demetri Kofinas speaks with legendary value investor Howard Marks about the greatest challenge facing the next generation of value investors and what skills he believes they will need in order to survive and thrive in the next market downturn. Howard serves as the co-chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, a leading investment management firm responsible for over 120 billion dollars in client assets.

In Episode 62 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Lawrence Fossi, known by his pen name as Montana Skeptic. Fossi started writing about Tesla three years ago under the pseudonym Montana Skeptic. He developed a reputation as one of Tesla’s most thoughtful critics until earlier this year when his identity was discovered and used by Elon Musk to phone his boss and threaten legal action unless Lawrence Fossi was silenced. This is the first time that he has revealed his identity in on-camera.

In Episode 61 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with equity research analyst Gordon Johnson, about a possible Tesla bankruptcy amid the recently announced SEC fraud charges levied against its CEO Elon Musk, by the Department of Justice. Topics include collapsing demand for the Model 3, possible accounting fraud, and an analysis of new competitors in the EV marketplace.

In Episode 60, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Bruce Schneier, about the dangers posed by cyberattacks and how we can learn to survive in spite of them. The public, lacking context, remains blind to the gathering threat. This is, in part, because cybercrime on the Internet has been measured in terms of dollars and cents. Soon, we will be measuring the cost of these cyberattacks in terms of flesh and blood.

In Episode 59, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Grant Williams about the crisis brewing in emerging markets, the collapse in cryptocurrencies, and the palace intrigues of Elon Musk. All of these phenomena exhibit the common feature of “quantum weirdness at the zero-bound,” where the laws of classical economics break down, space-time preferences collapse, and quantum entanglements lead to spooky correlations that threaten the very fabric upon which markets are made and prices discovered. @hiddenforcespod

In Episode 58 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jonathan Haidt about a series of strange reports that began to emerge from college campuses in the fall of 2013. Students began asking school administrators to remove material they deemed “threatening” from the college curriculum and for “dangerous” speakers to be disinvited from appearing on campus. By the spring of 2014, The New York Times began reporting on this trend, and by the fall of 2015, all hell had broken loose. @hiddenforcesp

Demetri shares some important news with the audience about updates to our episode release schedule, the launch of our video service, and our new subscription content including the release of show notes, rundowns, transcripts, and audio extras.

In Episode 57 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Joseph Lubin about the progress being made at Consensys and precisely how Joe believes that Ethereum will overcome the scalability challenges that have plagued its network since the earliest days of its founding. Additional topics include SEC regulations, artificial intelligence, and questions about specific applications in the areas of news, music, and team organization.

In Episode 56, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Hedera Hashgraph President Tom Trowbridge about the latest news from the company that made its splash on the Hidden Forces podcast less than one year ago. Hedera Hashgraph has since raised over $100mln on its way towards the release of its public ledger. In this conversation, Tom shares stories about the team’s challenges, its successes, and how he thinks the future will shake out for competing protocols.

In Episode 55, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ryan Selkis about how his company, Messari, is bringing a new level of data gathering and analysis to the crypto space by building what are known as “token-curated registries.” You could say that if Wikipedia and Bitcoin had a baby, the child would be a token-curated registry. Such databases may one-day replace all commercially owned and operated libraries on earth by harnessing the networks and expertise of the planet’s seven-and-a-half billion people.

In Episode 54, Demetri Kofinas speaks with economist Barry Eichengreen about his experience studying currency pegs and exchange rate mechanisms, as the two explore how the legacy of globalization, trade liberalization, and the great moderation laid the foundation for the challenges facing the modern economy. Topics include populism, politics, protectionism, central banking, monetary mechanics, financial history, and global trade.

In Episode 53 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Gillian Tett, Managing Editor of the Financial Times US about her experience at the paper and how her background in anthropology has helped her identify financial bubbles in technology and the economy. The two explore a host of risks including corporate debt, private placements, ETFs, equities, volatility, emerging markets, the dollar carry trade, protectionism, rising interest rates, growing populism, geopolitical risk, and cyberterrorism.

In Episode 52, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Simon Winchester about the importance of precision engineering in the making of the modern world. Our world hinges on our ability to have everything made just so. Precision engineering fuels and sustains modern society. Yet, it has also put our lives in peril and caused us to question what it is that we really want. Here, Simon Winchester discusses our quest for perfection and meaning. Can we really have both?