The West may collapse very suddenly. Complex civilizations do that, because they operate, most of the time, on the edge of chaos.

No civilization, no matter how mighty it may appear to itself, is indestructible.

Today, the average Korean works a thousand hours more a year than the average German. A thousand. ... That is the end of the Great Divergence.

From the earliest days, the Rothschilds appreciated the importance of proximity to politicians, the men who determined not only the extent of budget deficits but also the domestic and foreign policies.

The West may collapse very suddenly. Complex civilizations do that, because they operate, most of the time, on the edge of chaos.

When I first came to Oxford, I struggled to feel comfortable in an Anglican, public school-dominated institution.

All empires have depended on local legitimacy and local collaboration; they are not based primarily on coercion. An imperial rule that relies wholly on coercion can't endure. It's too expensive.