Off the Cuff: ‘Bizarre’ Capitalism

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Charles discuss:

• 'Bizarre' Capitalism
  • Speculation, not productive work, is now the driver of gain
• China's Future
  • Scary signs that cronyism and capital flight are big risks
• Eroding Public Trust
  • Dangerous when your money system is trust-based
• Canary Candidates
  • Which country will be the first to keel over?

This week's podcast builds off of Chris' recent piece on the current expectation of "endless growth" for the world economy. What results is a deep discussion into the increasing number of bastardizations that are getting introduced in pursuit of that unattainable, and ill-advised, goal.

As growth through profitable productive output begins to get harder to come by, the world's central planners are increasingly intervening to create a 'phantom' type of wealth to keep the system appearing as if it's still working as intended. Such intervention is creating trade-offs and incentives – such as rewarding speculation and mis-allocating labor – that very clearly will come back to bite us in the future.

But in the meantime, bubbles get blown, capital gets malinvested, currencies get debased, wealth gaps widen, and debts grow. All making the eventual bill much more costly when the piper finally insists on being paid.

Chris and Charles end with a spin around the globe, assessing which countries are the most vulnerable and likely to stumble first. We need to keep our eyes closely on those candidates;