How the US Navy Creates Prosperity & Why We'll Miss It | Gregg Easterbrook

Hidden Forces

Demetri Kofinas

Business, Government

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 222 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Gregg Easterbrook. Gregg was a staff writer, national correspondent, and contributing editor at The Atlantic and has authored thirteen books about a variety of subjects including climate change, globalization, philosophy, and American football.

Demetri and Gregg explore the subject of Easterbrook's latest book, "The Blue Age." They discuss the extraordinary transformation of the international trading order that we've been living through over the last seventy years and the unique role that the US Navy and advancements in naval architecture and marine engineering have played in making all of that possible.

It's difficult to appreciate just how unprecedented this long period of peace on the oceans has been and how extraordinary the deflationary pressures are that this peace has unleashed. It has also had huge implications for the expansion of credit, the reduction of volatility, and the growth in asset values in Western markets—topics that we've explored from a variety of different angles on the Hidden Forces podcast. What it might mean for our economies and for our lives if the Blue Age comes to an end is a question that is addressed directly during the first hour of today's episode.

In the second half of today's episode, which is available to premium subscribers only, Gregg and Demetri focus on the economic and geopolitical aspects of the Blue Age, the likelihood of conflict on the high seas, the incentives for and against it, and its consequences for the global economy. They also discuss some of the factors driving the current bottlenecks in global supply chains, the shipping industry's contribution to this, and why Gregg feels that those bottlenecks will be largely resolved before the end of next year.

You can access the second part of this episode, as well as the transcript and rundown to this week's conversation through the Hidden Forces Patreon Page. All subscribers gain access to our premium feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

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Episode Recorded on 11/30/2021

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up everybody? My name is Demetra Cofinas and you're listening to Hidden Forces,
0:06.0	a podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs, and everyday citizens to challenge consensus
0:13.0	narratives and to learn how to think critically, but the systems of power shaping our world.
0:19.0	My guest in this week's episode is Greg Easterbrook. Greg was a staff writer, a national
0:24.7	correspondent as well as a contributing editor at the Atlantic for nearly 40 years and has
0:30.7	written for every notable publication you can imagine. I'd say that in some sense he is the
0:36.7	archetypal Hidden Forces listener in that he has a natural curiosity and a sort of fearlessness
0:42.7	when it comes to engaging with a wide variety of interest areas, but also an optimism around
0:48.7	his ability to understand the world, and as you will soon hear an optimism about the world itself.
0:54.7	In fact, Greg's second most recent book is about why we should feel optimistic. In a world
1:00.7	where people feel increasingly scared about everything, be that climate change, artificial intelligence,
1:05.7	pandemics, jupe, political conflict, and by the way I am not oblivious to the fact that I myself
1:11.7	often fall into this category. But the reason I invited Greg onto the podcast was not to
1:17.7	talk about all the reasons why we should feel optimistic, though we do spend the first half
1:22.7	of the episode talking about this. It was to discuss his most recent book, The Blue Age,
1:27.7	which explores this extraordinary transformation of the international trading order that we've
1:32.7	been living through over the last 70 years and especially over the last 20 to 30. And the
1:38.7	unique role that the American Navy and advancements enable architecture and marine engineering
1:43.7	have played in making all of that possible. I don't know how many people truly appreciate
1:50.7	just how unprecedented this long period of peace on the oceans has been and how extraordinary
1:55.7	the deflationary pressures have been for Western economies and what this has meant for the expansion
2:00.7	of credit and the growth and asset values in these markets. Topics that we've explored
	...

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