The Mad Scramble for Power: Global Superpowers' Strategies for Energy, Economics, and War | Reality Roundtable #16
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 551 Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2025
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape of recent years can be hard to follow. With economic conflicts between global superpowers and violent clashes across multiple continents, today's events can seem starkly different from the trajectory of past decades. So, how can a deeper understanding of energy and resource security help us make sense of these chaotic trends?
In this discussion, Nate is joined by Art Berman, Michael Every, and Izabella Kaminska for a broad exploration of the complex relationship between energy, geopolitics, and economic strategy. Together, they provide valuable insights into the consequences of deindustrialization, the impact of military spending, and the urgent need to reassess strategies as resources dwindle and geopolitical tensions rise.
How is the use of fear as a political tool intertwined with the challenges of trust and disinformation in navigating turbulent international conflicts? What role is the race for Artificial General Intelligence and Quantum Computing playing in these rapidly changing situations? And ultimately, what should we, as citizens, be expecting from our leaders at the global stage as the struggle for power in the 21st century continues to intensify?
(Conversation recorded on March 10th, 2025)
About the Guests:
Arthur E. Berman is a petroleum geologist with over 40 years of oil and gas industry experience. He is an expert on U.S. shale plays and is currently consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector.
Michael Every is Global Strategist at Rabobank Singapore analyzing major developments and key thematic trends, especially on the intersection of geopolitics, economics, and markets. He is frequently published and quoted in financial media, is a regular conference keynote speaker, and was invited to present to the 2022 G-20 on the current global crisis.
Izabella Kaminska is the founding editor of The Blind Spot, a finance and business news website. She is also senior finance editor at POLITICO. Izabella was previously editor of the Financial Times' Alphaville blog, and an associate producer at CNBC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Energy supply and demand is not increasing. |
| 0:05.0 | We're reaching what I and some other people call a peak plateau. |
| 0:10.0 | If our oil supply and our oil consumption either becomes flat or declines, |
| 0:16.0 | then the kind of growth that we've experienced over the last 75 years is no longer possible. |
| 0:23.0 | If you want to understand why the geopolitical fragmentation is going on right now, |
| 0:29.4 | it's because there's a realization that we're sort of in a race to the bottom to get what's left. |
| 0:39.9 | You're listening to the bottom to get what's left. You're listening to The Great Simplification. |
| 0:43.1 | I'm Nate Higgins. |
| 0:44.3 | On this show, we describe how energy, the economy, the environment, and human behavior all |
| 0:49.8 | fit together and what it might mean for our future. |
| 0:53.3 | By sharing insights from global thinkers, we hope to inform and inspire more humans to play |
| 0:59.2 | emergent roles in the coming great simplification. |
| 1:07.7 | Time for another reality roundtable, this one on geopolitics, debt, energy, and the widening overlap between the three as it pertains to our national and global economic situation. These are the types of conversations that I long hoped we could have, and I |
| 1:29.2 | have enough former guests that we can mix and match and have these sorts of synergistic overlaps. |
| 1:36.3 | For this podcast, Art Berman, who is a frequent TGS guest, rejoins us. |
| 1:42.4 | Art is a petroleum geologist with over 40 years of oil and gas |
| 1:45.5 | industry experience as an expert on U.S. shale plays. Also joining me as repeat guest Michael |
| 1:52.7 | Everie, who is a global strategist at Rabobank in Singapore with 25 years of experience, |
| 1:59.4 | analyzing major developments and key thematic trends, especially |
| 2:03.1 | at the intersection of geopolitics, economics, and markets. |
| 2:07.1 | Last but not least, a new guest on the show, Isabella Kaminska, who is the senior finance |
| 2:14.4 | finance editor at Politico, as well as the founding editor of the Blindspot, a |
... |
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