This week, we speak with Ray Dalio, who is founder, co-chair, and co-chief investment officer of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. His most recent book is “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail.”
We discuss how there is nothing truly unprecedented, what that word tends to refer to are things we have not seen in our lifetime. Even the current Covid pandemic has a predecessor in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
He explains how the rise and fall of great empires have all followed a very specific pattern: the Roman Empire, the British, French, Dutch, and Spanish empires, now the US hegemony, and the rise of China — all of these are following the same patterns we have seen time and again.
He tells how history happens over and over, and why China is the next country to become the dominant economic, military, and trading entity, which means it is going to be the most significant geopolitical comp[etitor for the West and the United States for the next few decades.
A list of his favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, Bloomberg, and Acast. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here. Our prior interviews are here: October 24, 2020, November 10, 2018, December 9, 2017, and MIB Live in 2018 (MIB Live, Round Up).
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square (with Jack Dorsey), and currently CEO of Invisibly, empowering people to manage the future of their personal data.
Ray Dalio’s Authored Books
The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
Ray Dalio’s Favorite Books
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell
The Lessons of History by Will Durant
River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life by Richard Dawkins
Ray Dalio’s Current Reading
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 by Paul Kennedy
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World by H.R. McMaster
The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard Haass
