What's the Most Important Question in Today's World?
The Great Simplification #34 with Kiril Sokoloff
This week…
This is not a financial podcast, but I’m a finance guy. Or at least I started as one. After an MBA in Finance at the University of Chicago, I ended up in Private Investment Department at Salomon Brothers and then Lehman Brothers. It was here one of my clients started trading oil futures – and as his broker/fiduciary, I had to learn the ins and outs of oil trading, which at the time included learning things like ‘what is oil?’ and ‘how long will it last’?
Upon learning that A) oil IS the economy B) oil would peak in production in my lifetime and C) environmental costs of human energy use were not included in the prices of things we do and buy, I left Wall St to study these questions full time. After a PhD in Natural Resources and interacting for 20 years with a network of systems ecologists and scientists, I now am on the other side of the fence – attempting to remove the energy blinders worn by society - in hopes of steering away from the default futures on the horizon.
While the focus of this podcast – and our work – is on educating and empowering more humans to see and engage with an accurate biophysical map of the human predicament, ‘finance’ -at least for the foreseeable future – is steering and driving our societal car (a car fully built with non-renewable materials and powered by energy).
Today’s guest is one of the few financial icons that has long understood the importance of oil to our economies, that oil is soon peaking (or has peaked), and the relationship between energy and money. Kiril Sokoloff is an investor, researcher and creator of the well-respected weekly publication “13D – What I Learned This Week”. 13D often quoted our stories and research from theoildrum.com back in the day which is how I came to know of Kiril.
Kiril and I talk about why Wall St doesn’t (generally) recognize its fundamental reliance on cheap and growing energy supplies, why central banks are stuck as we approach peak oil, and how different global nations stack up in their natural resource endowments and strategies. It’s a pretty intense episode – because our situation is pretty intense. While I care (deeply) about ecological issues, other species, and (~more) sustainable futures, for now human decisions will continue to revolve around the market and it’s machinations, and I think it’s important to recognize this is the beating heart of the Superorganism. I hope you enjoy and learn from this conversation with a pillar in the global financial community – Kiril Sokoloff.
Kiril Sokoloff: "What is the Most Important Question in Today's World?"
Nate, I was eager to see/hear your conversation with Sokoloff. However. The sound quality on his side was poor, muffling his voice, so I (and my wife Judy) couldn't understand much of what he was saying. Your voice was quite clear, as usual.
You often include a link to the podcast text in a PDF file. Could we get a PDF of this one? Would be much appreciated. Anyway, thanks for the good work you are doing Jim Allen