Location: Austin, TX Date: Thursday 7th October Company: Forbes Role: Editor

In 1971, Richard Nixon ended Bretton Woods, severing the entire global monetary system from its anchor, gold. Governments around the world have since been able to create new money and increase debt virtually without restriction.

Fifty years later, and there’s no political will to slow down spending. Instead, new money is created to pay for new spending, and the numbers involved get larger and larger.

Governments can issue new currency to service their own debt, but the cycle of increasing deficit spending and monetary inflation may already be leading to spiralling debt and runaway prices with no obvious way out.

In this interview, I talk to Avik Roy, Editor at Forbes. We discuss the growing problems with debt and inflation, healthcare, and central bank digital currencies.