I was reading book on mathematical models, that show that western civilization is going to collapse and the elites are going to destroy the middle class and throw the world into a century long dark age that doesnt end until the elites split up into factions and start killing each other (over supply of labor and 'over production of elites').
And I am drinking beat root juice and cant stop laughing.
The dark ages were caused by malthusian pressures (unhappy peasants, ready to revolt over material conditions because the ratio of peasants to land was too high). But feudalism and political instability did not actually end, when the population of peasants declined from plagues and famine down to "substainable levels".
Political instability, only ended after the elite finished murdering each other until the number of elites were reduced to 'substainable levels' and there were no competing factions left and that took several hundred years.
Robotics and automation will create a vast over-supply of labor, impoverish the middle class and mass of people, create a massive over supply of elites (who take advantage and become trillionaires of the free/cheap labor) and who them spend the next hundred years murdering each other, until the cycle repeats all over again.
Oil prices are going to skyrocket and interest rates will increase and all of the countries, companies and people with debt will all collapse, go under and get looted. Likely with the elite/public blaming some scapegoat and pushing world into regional wars or starting pogroms against a scapegoat of some minority group.
Bitcoin and the crypto-currency asset class with explode, because gold is too difficult to move and the governements already put metal detectors and tracking everywhere. So a lot of people will be selling off gold to buy Bitcoin, because it is more mobile.
And there will be a massive flight of capital out of the bond and stock market, as the US developers demographic problems (as the baby boomers retire and start cashing out their stocks for retirement, causing a demographic induced stock market collapse down to 8x P/E ratios, from current +15x P/E) and as the bond market implodes as the indebted companies face higher interest rates and face the risk of bond default (as companies become unable to service their debts as interest rates rise).
As broke, indebted governents try to increase taxes and seize all of the assets they can to pay their creditors, there will be massive flight of capital into crypto-currencies.
As the stock market and bond market become unstable, there will a massive flight of capital into crypto-currencies (stock market decline from baby boomer demographics, bond market collapse because of corporate debt and increased energy prices hurting corporate profits. Also increased competition from China and developing world hurting Fortune 500 profits and marketshare).
Also, several countries, will have balance of payments problems and deplete their foreign reserves and suffer currency collapses. Such as what we say in Argentina and Turkey. Resulting in an unimaginable flood of money into the crypto-assets.
One Bitcoin = One House.
We are in the middle of a perfect storm.