3 January

In the past half-century the number of decamillionaires (people of net worth $10 million or greater) in the US has increased TENFOLD. This isn’t a story about inequality, bear with me. It’s this group from which nearly all contenders for political power are drawn. Only they have the resources. The number of available political positions hasn’t changed. So this creates enormous rivalry between members of America’s elite. That in turn generated the populism that led to Trump, as these rivals tried to mobilise the population to their cause, all claiming ‘the people’ on their side against the wicked status quo. This astronomical increase in elite rivalry at home now overflows the US, into places like Venezuela. And the populism generated by the tools these rivals created, particularly social media, has infected the entire world. As Kings did in the past, who went into battle to give their barons new land and titles, to ease their rivalry on the King. You can’t miss it, the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg and others, all fighting in the US for supremacy. They’re exporting their domestic chaos.