If I am honest, and I usually am – totally honest – then I will have to admit that this domain name, this URL, has a long and somewhat torturous history. Actually, it is pretty fascinating and it could be among the most fascinating projects I have undertaken in my life. I am turning 67 this month, at the end of the month. I registered the domain name destructivecapital.com on 9/4/2007 [September 4, 2007]. It was a big moment, an important moment in history. 

So what is destructivecapital.com? A succinct answer would be this: it is an attempt to understand finance and “economic science” but also to underline the importance of money and the role of money in the economy.

Flows in the financial world are all important. That's right, capital is destructive because it flows away from the obsolescent and into the new and innovative ideas and technology. Capital determines almost everything. Our knowledge is capitalized by financial resources. What is amazing is that capital is more destructive than it is constructive. If you look at the broad sweep of history, and this is done relatively seriously by few historians, honest and conscientious historians, then you see the destruction of knowledge, old knowledge, and the obsolescence of technology. Everything, practically everything, gets dumped. And investment is made in the new knowledge, the new ideas, and new technology.

There is never any looking back. We are always looking forward. Hence, the relentless and widespread destruction. It's quite awesome.

I am certainly a “development economist” – rather than just an economist. All economists are really development economists.

So this story begins with a conversation I had with my father in 1978-1979 or so. I was in my second year at Santa Clara University, if my memory is correct. My father's father was very wealthy, from New York City. My father went to Cornell University his first year of college, only one year, then he transferred to the United States Naval Academy. I'm not sure my father wanted to go the Naval Academy, but he wasn't doing too well at Cornell so my grandfather was irritated with him. Cornell tuition was pretty expensive, even then, and this is 1949-1950 or so.

The reason I mention this is because my father and I have always been interested in Wall Street. And my grandfather. I think I recall my father once telling me he got accepted to Harvard to get an MBA, but he did not go because it was too expensive and my grandfather was apparently unwilling to pay the steep cost. Anyway, my father graduated from the Naval Academy in 1953. The same class as Ross Perot – though they did not know each other at the time. They would later come to know each other.

I am very close to my father and I love him a lot. We have had some minor conflicts from time to time, but they were not really my fault. We have put them past us. Conflict is inevitable, as everyone knows.

So my story starts with a conversation I had with my father in 1978. About what to invest in. I had no money, but he was very wealthy. I was just 19-20 years old. No one took me too seriously, I was rather arrogant, and very self-assured. My father asked me what he should invest in. I told him that he should invest in the new computer industry, and in semiconductors. Like IBM and Apple. Apple headquarters was down the street from us, maybe 5 miles or so.

“Apple Park, the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc., is located in Cupertino, California. Saratoga, California, is a nearby city in Santa Clara County. The driving distance between Saratoga and Apple Park is 5.8 miles via Saratoga Avenue and Lawrence Expressway. The drive typically takes around 17 minutes. Alternatively, the distance is around 9 miles via CA-85 S, taking around 14 minutes.”

I was also telling my father to invest in the just starting biotech industry. Like Genentech. There were a few others but I cannot remember them, and for the purposes of this article I will not get into those other ones.

“Genentech's first initial public offering (IPO) was on October 14, 1980. It was a landmark event as the first IPO for a biotechnology company. The IPO made history when shares initially priced at $35 soared to $89 within minutes of trading.”

So 2-3 incipient industries/technologies. We had a pretty involved and intense discussion, and he listened carefully to what I said. I could tell he respected what I said, and he respected my opinion, in general. Even though I was a very young – and maybe obnoxious youngster. So I was taken seriously. We might have had a discussion about the American automobile industry. My father owned quite a bit of stock in the automobile industry. This came from my grandfather. My grandfather was a major investor in Wall Street. I told my father to sell the American automakers. 

My father did not follow my investment advice [although I do think he did follow my advice on the American automakers]. If he had, our family would be extremely wealthy today. We would own a Lear jet or maybe two. I had no money to invest, hardly any. I was just struggling to survive. And moreover I just was not out to make money – and become an investor. I was a journalist and scientist – well, becoming a journalist and scientist. And I hated “school” and “university” and anyone telling to me what to think and do.

Fast forward to 1999. My father's friend, an Ashkenazi Jewish man [he told me his family was from Odessa] named Al Jacobs, from Southern California – I had known Al since I was a young boy – asked me what to invest in. Jacobs was a very wealthy real estate investor, and which is very unusual for a Jew, he also went to the US Naval Academy (class of 1955). My father was asking me as well what to invest in. I told them to put about $10,000 or so in Amazon, Inc. OK maybe less, but I told them they really would be pleased with the result. Jacobs knew how smart I was, and so he always listened very carefully to what I said. Also my father. But both men failed to heed my investment advice. Jacobs died about a year ago, he lived in Laguna Niguel. Orange County. Right on the Pacific Ocean. My father is 95.

Had my father invested that sum in Amazon our family would be insanely wealthy.

So it is pretty clear that I am an investor, and in fact I was when I was younger but I had some difficulties – the Israeli intelligence services were operating against me – and so I was unable to live my life normally. They almost destroyed me and my family. I will be writing about this as some point. All of you will be horrified at hearing what they did to my family. Jews are criminals, for sure. The Germans – in the 1920s and 1930s – were very noble, and very courageous. Their efforts to save Germany from destruction were certainly justified. Vladimir Putin is not yet a friend of mine, but I predict he will be. We have not met or spoken to each other, but we will. Putin might be a little upset when I praise the Nazi Party and their war efforts and policies, but I am sure he would concede that I am mostly correct. He would agree that my judgment is good, if not excellent.

I had first thought I would start up an investment firm. I still may do that, but I am 67 now and I have so many other things to do. But in fact the investment business is utterly fascinating. I may open a hedge fund at some point. But I will have someone manage it. As of now, destructivecapital.com is an academic exercise, I do not offer investment advice. I will not charge anyone money for my investment advice, and in fact if and when I do start up a hedge fund, an investment fund, I will charge no fees. It will be free – that's right, free!

My principal occupation is policymaker. This takes up a lot of my time, actually an insane amount of time. It is a very challenging occupation.

What about the future? The investments of the future? I will summarize here what I think. I have been building up these thoughts for some 20 years. The world is collapsing. The world of the past 500 years is collapsing. This is the Western world. The Western world is getting to the point where it will be destroying all the obsolescent knowledge and technologies. We westerners will create and build a new world – based on new knowledge. Artificial Intelligence [AI] is certainly going to be the foundation on which this new world is built. You will see down below, two images, what Chat GPT says about World Affairs Monthly. It is pretty funny.

Westerners will totally dominate the Earth once again – even more so than the last 500 years. Capital will be very very destructive. What I mean by Westerners is the hominids who are in Western Europe, who come from Western Europe. But we will be enlisting the assistance, the critical assistance, of both the Slavs and the Han Chinese. An old friend of mine, a lawyer in Washington, DC, recently recommended a book to me. This was several months ago. He texted me a photo of the book cover. Author: James Burke. The Day the Universe Changed. Published 1985. I was living in Paris in 1985, so I had missed it.

My friend texted me that this was my hand, figuratively speaking. Amazing.

Down below you will see the book cover, with the Preface. I am reading it; it is quite extraordinary. I had never heard of it, I was in Paris when it was published and when it was a PBS series. My lawyer friend probably worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. He has never told me this, I am just figuring that this was the reality. He also worked as a lawyer for the Department of Justice.

I am working, pretty much all the time. And I am doing what I have always felt I should be doing: trying my best to understand the world. When we get more knowledge, new knowledge, the universe changes. I will be writing a review of The Day the Universe Changed. Look for it relatively soon at one of my 5 web sites.

[A note about the Destructive Capital logo: the gold color, yes it represents gold, the precious metal. Money. Gold signifies wealth, it is an ancient and still critcally important "asset" and a means by which we store wealth. The black represents "black gold" which everyone should know as petroleum. So GOLD and BLACK GOLD (petroleum). Without petroleum there would be very little wealth, or wealth-creation. Without gold there would be little commerce and of course there would be little wealth preservation. So the world of finance is very simple. I think you must like the logo, right? I created it and designed it. All of my 5 logos are mine. My wife [of 36 years] was an important contributor to the WAM logo.]