“The Great Upheaval”
You might want to check out this from Axios and Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, who are experienced at this "spot-the-big-trends" big think. It includes comments from former Google chair Eric Schmidt and the usually wise, Ian Bremmer.
Governance, media, business and global geopolitics are all being reordered at breakneck speed — all simultaneously.
It's the Great Upheaval, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.
Why it matters: We're witnessing more change ... across more parts of life ... at more speed ... than ever before.
This means opportunity — and new threats or surprising shifts — pop up faster and faster. Anticipating change is tougher than ever, CEOs tell us.
There are several causes: a global populist surge, an AI arms race, shifting political alliances globally and domestically, and radical changes in how people worldwide get and share information.
President-elect Trump's governing plans are designed to exploit this emerging phenomenon — and speed it up, his advisers tell us. Elon Musk routinely tells Trump this will be the most dramatic transformation of business, governance and culture since the nation's founding. It's classic Musk salesmanship, as we've seen with cars: Promise vast, immediate change — regardless of feasibility.
Musk, newly appointed White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, and many others see explosive change hitting energy, space, new technologies, crypto and tangential businesses.
The new Trump team believes government needs to be an accelerant, not a deterrent. This means making agencies leaner, at least in decision-making, and more biased toward pro-business action.
The risk: The shifts benefit the architects more than the general public. Musk, Sacks, the Trumps and many incoming leaders are super-wealthy, and deeply invested in the areas set to take flight.
The big picture: This upheaval benefited Trump, but it very much transcends him and the coming four years of governance. The forces set in motion are bigger than one moment, or one man, or one nation.
Eric Schmidt, the former chairman and CEO of Google, told us: "I think the most important thing people don't know is that tech is now working at mega scale — 'everything everywhere all at once.'" . . .
This is a global phenomenon and intensifies — and raises — the stakes of the U.S. vs. China cold war for international dominance, Jim and Mike write.
"China and the United States are winners," says geopolitical strategist Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, "since they're the countries most dominating the new technologies and relevant supply chains." . . .
Again, check out their full report for more on AI, the arms race and news media.