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May 7, 2026 51 mins

A stalemated war. Fractured alliances. A rival waiting in the wings. It feels to me that we’re having an “end of the American empire” moment. My guest this week, Ray Dalio, is an unlikely prophet of doom — the billionaire Bridgewater investor conquered Wall Street by studying history and mastering global trends. He foresaw the 2008 financial crisis,and these days he’s warning that the U.S. is repeating the patterns that ended great empires of the past.

  • 0:00 - Intro
  • 01:24 - The rise and fall of empires through big cycles
  • 08:35 - Geopolitical tensions: China, Iran and the Suez Canal
  • 14:27 - Fiat currency or gold?
  • 24:19 - America’s coming ‘heart attack’
  • 30:37 - Acts of nature, A.I. and technology
  • 43:37 - ‘Could we have a Japanese future?’

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


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