I recently joined Farzin Irani on Connecting the Dots for a wide-ranging discussion on the political, cultural, and economic changes reshaping the world.

We discuss why I regard democracy as fundamentally anti-meritocratic, the deterioration of institutions across the Western world, and why I believe the underlying disorder existed long before Donald Trump brought much of it to light. I also explain why I expect East Asia—particularly China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong—to provide a more stable foundation as Western societies become increasingly fragmented.

The conversation also turns to India and China, the illusion of India’s economic success, corruption and dysfunction, natural-resource investing, the relationship between capitalism and morality, and the preservation of wealth in an increasingly unstable world.

Watch the full interview below:

Key Takeaways

• I regard modern democracy as fundamentally anti-meritocratic: political leaders are selected by mass popularity rather than by competence, character, or demonstrated ability.
• The disorder now visible across the Western world did not suddenly appear with Donald Trump. I argue that Trump’s significance has been partly in forcing problems that had long been accumulating beneath the surface into public view.
• Civilization does not sustain itself automatically. Institutions, moral values, social trust, and standards of behavior must be continually maintained; when that maintenance ceases, deterioration follows.
• Western societies are becoming increasingly fragmented, while large-scale immigration without assimilation has weakened the cultural cohesion on which their institutions depend.
• I expect East Asia—particularly China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong—to remain among the world’s most socially and institutionally stable regions in the decades ahead.
• India and China should not be treated as comparable economic success stories. I discuss how India’s headline growth statistics conceal deep institutional dysfunction, corruption, and governance failures.
• Capitalism cannot function merely through laws, markets, and private property. It depends on a moral and cultural substrate that makes trust, contracts, responsibility, and productive cooperation possible.
• In natural-resource investing, I prefer investing in businesses and people rather than speculating on future commodity prices.
• In an increasingly unstable world, protecting wealth requires thinking beyond investment returns to jurisdiction, diversification, institutional stability, and personal sovereignty.