Alex Gladstein: "Debt Colonialism, The Petrodollar, and Bitcoin"
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 553 Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2023
⏱️ 147 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode, Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation joins Nate to unpack how monetary policy and debt have increasingly extended the reach of colonial powers over recent decades and how bitcoin offers an alternative to the many people who are under this financial exclusion. How have the IMF and World Bank upheld the power of reserve currency countries in the Global North to exploit and extract resources and labor from the Global South under the guise of aid and development? What is the origin of the 'petrodollar' and how has it shaped geopolitical relationships since its creation? What exactly is Bitcoin and how does it provide economic and political freedom? Is Bitcoin compatible with a low energy future?
About Alex Gladstein:
Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He has also served as Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009. In his work, Alex has connected hundreds of dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, technologists, journalists, philanthropists, policymakers, and artists to promote free and open societies. He serves as faculty at Singularity University and as an advisor to Blockchain Capital, a leading venture firm in the fintech industry. He frequently speaks and writes about why Bitcoin matters for freedom, and is the author of Check Your Financial Privilege. His new book, Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank Market Exploitation as Development was just published in May 2023.
For Show Notes and More visit: http://thegreatsimplification.com/episode/72-alex-gladstein
To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/u84tyIokAY8
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins. |
| 0:06.3 | That's me. |
| 0:07.7 | On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the environment, in our society. |
| 0:17.0 | Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's eye view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it as a society and as individuals. |
| 0:32.7 | Today I'm joined by the chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein. |
| 0:39.6 | This conversation is jam-packed. |
| 0:42.3 | We just scratched the surface of these highly relevant topics, and it was still the longest |
| 0:47.9 | podcast I've ever done. |
| 0:49.9 | We cover topics from freedom of information, debt as a tool to uphold despotic leaders, |
| 0:55.9 | the origin of the petrodollar, monetary colonialism, and eventually Bitcoin. |
| 1:02.7 | Alex also serves as the vice president of the for strategy of the Oslo Freedom Forum and |
| 1:09.2 | has connected hundreds of global dissidents in civil society groups |
| 1:13.2 | with business leaders, technologists, philanthropists, journalists, and artists with the objective |
| 1:18.9 | of promoting free and open societies. I learned quite a lot on this podcast on things that I kind of |
| 1:26.1 | thought I knew, especially from the perspective |
| 1:29.5 | of the Global South geopolitics and the monetary, not resource, prosperity of the West. |
| 1:37.7 | I expect Alex to be back on this program. |
| 1:40.0 | We have a lot to talk about. |
| 1:41.7 | I hope you can listen to this. |
| 1:43.5 | It's long. Listen to it in pieces. It you can listen to this. It's long. |
| 1:44.3 | Listen to it in pieces. |
| 1:45.5 | It's jam-packed. |
... |
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