Before we drill down into specifics, what's your high-level view of what happened in 2024?

Doug Casey: Let's break it down into politics, economics, technology, and culture.

Politically, the election of Trump, against the will of the Elite, the Deep State, and the Establishment—they're pretty much the same thing—came as a surprise to me. I suspected they'd succeed in stealing the election. More important than the election of Trump, though, is the defeat of Kamala and the Jacobins of the Democrat Party.

That defeat is echoed by a reaction against the Left most everywhere. The leftist German government—it was starting to mimic the old East German regime—will hopefully be replaced with the AfD. The elitist Macron is on his way out in France, as is Trudeau in Canada. In Romania, the election of Georgescu (see our interview with him) is being fought tooth and nail by their Deep State, but I think he'll triumph. Hungary and Slovakia won't participate in the insane war in the Ukraine. There's a growing reaction against both war and Wokeism.

Regarding the economy, the average guy's standard of living is flat to descending, albeit propped up by debt. He's buried under mortgage debt, auto loans, student debt, and credit card debt. It is, to use a currently fashionable word, unsustainable like that of the government itself. On the bright side, the top 10%, and especially the top 1%, aided by a roaring stock market, are doing better than ever. Will it lead to a violent wave of resentment among the hoi polloi? When has it not?

Technologically, Artificial Intelligence finally came into its own in 2024. It's widely used, and scores of gigantic data centers, which consume gigantic amounts of power, are being built everywhere. AI itself is cause for huge optimism. But it also, almost inevitably, means there will be a renaissance of nuclear power; even Greens seem to recognize it.