Viktor Shvets is a Global Strategist at Macquarie Capital. He is the author of The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning Points and the Future of Humanity – published in 2020 and The Twilight Before the Storm – How to Avoid a World on Fire – published in 2024. In his almost four-decades-long investment banking career, he worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London, New York, and Moscow at a number of global investment banks, such as Citibank, Baring Securities, Deutsche Bank, DLJ, and Lehman Brothers. Over the years, he has been a highly rated equity analyst across various disciplines and is recognized as one of the more innovative market strategists, working on the intersection between finance, technology, politics and history. He is a prolific writer on key global trends and is a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets. Viktor was born in Kyiv, which at the time was the capital of the Soviet Ukraine. He attended Kyiv University of Economics and Trade before immigrating to Australia, where he completed Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney and Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales. He is married with two sons and currently resides in New York.
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Episode 443
Viktor Shvets
The End of Neoliberalism and the Coming Storm | Viktor Shvets
Viktor Shvets is a Global Strategist at Macquarie Capital. He is the author of The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning Points and the Future of Humanity – published in 2020 and The Twilight Before the Storm – How to Avoid a World on Fire – published in 2024. In his almost four-decades-long investment banking career, he worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London, New York, and Moscow at a number of global investment banks, such as Citibank, Baring Securities, Deutsche Bank, DLJ, and Lehman Brothers. Over the years, he has been a highly rated equity analyst across various disciplines and is recognized as one of the more innovative market strategists, working on the intersection between finance, technology, politics and history. He is a prolific writer on key global trends and is a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets. Viktor was born in Kyiv, which at the time was the capital of the Soviet Ukraine. He attended Kyiv University of Economics and Trade before immigrating to Australia, where he completed Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney and Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales. He is married with two sons and currently resides in New York.
In Episode 443 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with former investment banker turned global strategist Viktor Shvets, whose books The Great Rupture and The Twilight Before the Storm provide an audaciously comprehensive and compelling framework for understanding the forces shaping our world. These include technology and finance, amplified by climate change, demographics, and a series of socioeconomic and geopolitical shocks that have created the once-in-a-century superstorm now enveloping Western democracies.
Viktor and Demetri spend the first hour of this episode exploring Shvets’ central critique of neoliberalism and why he believes that much of the current crisis stems from this failed ideology. They compare today’s sociopolitical and economic dynamics to those that overtook the world in the 1930s, focusing on technology-driven social disruption, a decline in the marginal utility of labor, runaway asset prices, repeated financial shocks, pandemics, climate stress, migration, and a deep loss of faith in institutions, in our collective identity, and in our shared capacity to solve problems.
The second hour turns to questions of policy design, institutional reform, and portfolio strategy. Viktor and Demetri debate the pros and cons of redistributive solutions such as universal basic income and more heavy-handed fixes to America’s broken healthcare system and antiquated educational model. They also stress-test alternative modes of sociopolitical organization such as despotic feudalism, techno-communism, or models that attempt to better balance the more extreme outcomes that a highly technologized society like ours would produce.
The two end the episode with a conversation about digital currencies and the disruptive potential that decentralized finance will have on money and banking. Kofinas also asks Shvets what assets he believes will outperform if governments are able to institute the types of reforms that he believes are necessary, and similarly, what assets investors will want to own if we trend toward some of the darker scenarios that he envisions.
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Viktor Shvets is a Global Strategist at Macquarie Capital. He is the author of The Great Rupture – ThreeEmpires, Four Turning Points and the Future of Humanity – published in 2020 and The Twilight Beforethe Storm – How to Avoid a World on Fire – published in 2024.
In his almost four-decades-long investment banking career, he worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London, New York, and Moscow at a number of global investment banks, such as Citibank, Baring Securities, Deutsche Bank, DLJ, and Lehman Brothers. Over the years, he has been a highly rated equity analyst across various disciplines and is recognized as one of the more innovative market strategists, working on the intersection between finance, technology, politics and history. He is a prolific writer on key global trends and is a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets. Viktor was born in Kyiv, which at the time was the capital of the Soviet Ukraine. He attended Kyiv University of Economics and Trade before immigrating to Australia, where he completed Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney and Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales.
He is married with two sons and currently resides in New York.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
