The entire first half of the book is a highly oversimplified history crash course "à l'américaine". Which might have been just fine, shouldn't there be so many factual errors and logical fallacies. If you're American or a really poorly educated European, I guess you may find something new or exciting.«Unlike European countries, the US has fewer natural barriers, such as mountains and seas, that might have decided it into separate nations; therefore, it is a united homogeneous country.» *laughs i...

This isn't a good book. Ray Dalio gets very basic facts wrong, e.g. the timing of World War I, the impact of the Treaty of Versaille reparations on Germany and Mitteleuropa, the definition of right-wing populism (it isn't about making billionaires wealthier: it is populism!), which US president took us off the gold standard and when. He praises China for its weaknesses (totalitarianism) rather than its strengths. He contradicts himself repeatedly within the same chapter, sometimes even the same

"Hard times create strong men.Strong men create good times.Good times create weak men.And, weak men create hard times."-- G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"Dalio's recent book is exactly about these four sentences. Or, to be more precise, about the rise and fall cycle of every powerhouse in history. Dalio approaches the topic carefully and dives deep - but focuses primarily on economics and politics (which are important, but there are other important aspects). The book's 'grande finale' is the

Summary: This is what people think right now among those that have a lot of influence, so you should read it. While I largely agree with many parts, I do not hold the same framework and these are fundamental differences in how I see the world.Having read his newsletters for more than a decade, I will never be anything but a huge fan of Dalio. He's brilliant and anyone who believes otherwise has missed the point. The star removal is because we do not agree on a few fundamental things, and I know

To his credit, hedge fund guru and author Ray Dalio studies the past, to better understand the future. He observes that empires, like people and companies, have life cycles that include distinct phases. Fair enough. Dalio’s analysis of previous fallen empires, such as the Dutch and British, suggests that America is about to cede its global dominance to Communist China, which has caught up to the USA on some measures. Here, he is less convincing.Granted, North American and European media are full...

Despite I think this book is poorly edited (e.g. repetitions, unnecessary countless references to earlier/later chapters, many disclaimers, verbosity, structure of explaining topics: first in general and then again in more detail) and despite large chunks are not unique (filled with texts out of Ray Dalio's book "Big Debt Crises" and random history books), I gave it a 5* rating. Much of what most people, including myself, read each day is for collecting information. However, I think the greater

"The empire long divided must unite and long united must divide. Thus it has ever been, and He who lives by the crystal ball is destined to eat ground glass"Ray Dalio created a powerful model to understand and to predict the future of empires: to understand what was happening and deal with what would be coming you have too study past analogous periods : the rises and declines of empires, their reserve currencies, and their markets. In other words, to develop an understanding of what is happening...

Purely from technical and historical perspectives, it’s a great book, particularly I’m not a finance person while his clear explanation of the cause/effect of various fiscal and monetary policies has enlightened me a lot. However, his take on the US and China rivalry has tarnished my otherwise high regards for this book. Per Ray, all superpowers are going through ups and downs, like cycles and each of them would be overtaken by other newly emerged powers. As a reader, what I got is his pitching

This is really interesting book which gives a grand perspective on a current world order. Thought #1 - Everything is cyclical - History has taught us that nothing is forever other than evolution, and within evolution there are cycles that are like tides that come in and go out and that are hard to change or fight against. After the creation of a new set of rules establishes the new world order, there is typically a peaceful and prosperous period. As people get used to this they increasingly bet

The Changing World Order is a sober, almost surgical, distillation of some of the grand macroeconomic principles that have driven historical empires to their heights and through their collapse. Ray's monstrous research project covers two key topics: 1) a 30,000 ft view on the factors and cycles that led recorded history's leading empires to take the global mantle and subsequently lose it, and 2) a close-up view on current US-China relations, where, he argues, will be the location of next baton p...

IMO this is a 'must read' book in the current, but also in a future situations. It is a book building also on concepts Ray Dalio described in his "Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises" book from financial point of view. In this book Ray Dalio goes through the analysis of a cycle or power's rise and fall and factors contributing to it. He is sharing his approach to looking at those factors and how those cycles plays out from the financial and political point of view. Through this lens he gui...

The main messages are: 1) Countries, especially empires, go through cycles. US is declining in this cycle, and China is inclining. 2) This cycle can be judged by various factors: education, innovation, debt, trade, etc. The author summarized these factors and compared them between past empires Dutch and UK, and now US and China to support his arguments.I found this book from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TISMi... (an interesting interview). I notice that in the comment section there were many

Pros:1. Interesting topic choice with lots of insightful analysis of historical and geopolitical events.2. I really liked all the graphs and tables. Anyone with scientific/analytical edge will enjoy it.3. The summary and author's observations seem to be quite objective and accurate. His thinking process is convincing but conclusions will probably not keep many Americans pleased (most negative reviews here point out China glorification and US downplay).Cons:1. The author is certainly a good inves...

Incredible book. You'll never see geopolitics in the same way anymore.It's my first book by Ray Dalio and now I want to read them all. (I can see the author is too proud but doesn't remove from the quality of his writing.)If you want a systematized way of analyzing countries behaviors, internally and internationally, this is the book.I'm a fan of Acemoglu & Robinson "Why Nations Fail?" of which the thesis is basically "democracy succeed". This is totally ignored by Dalio. I'd be interested in se...

His best (expectedly) take was on financial matters, here he really know what he is talking about. Other then that he oversimplifies / generalizes history to fit his (seemingly preconceived) frame and leaves randomness completely.