In the Company of Mavericks: Navigating the crashing waves of history with Michael Every

In this episode of In the Company of Mavericks, Progressive's Jeremy McKeown is joined by Michael Every, Global Strategist at Rabobank, for a deep dive into the chaos of our current geopolitical and macroeconomic landscape. 

With over two decades of experience as an economist and strategist—including senior roles at Silk Road Associates, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Dun & Bradstreet—Michael brings a highly differentiated analytical framework that challenges traditional big-bank thinking.

Drawing on a diverse intellectual background ranging from early Marxist influences to firsthand observations of post-communist transitions, Michael exposes the critical flaws of neoclassical and neoliberal economics, arguing that the world is driven by raw power rather than by natural market equilibria.

Key topics discussed in this episode include:

• The Flaws of Traditional Economics: Why the neoclassical presumption of "mean reversion" and perfect market equilibrium fails to explain our current reality.
• Wave Theories of History: How alternative frameworks—such as Kondratiev waves, the Austrian business cycle, Dalio’s debt cycles, the Fourth Turning, and Peter Turchin’s elite overproduction—can help investors better navigate today's geopolitical tipping points.
• The US vs. China Hegemony: An analysis of shifting global power dynamics, China's neomercantilism, and whether the United States is facing a modern equivalent of the "1956 Suez Crisis".
• The De-Financialisation of the West: Why the West must urgently pivot from financial engineering and asset speculation toward re-industrialisation, commodities, and "economic statecraft" to compete with the East.
• The Middle East and Global Commodities: How the ongoing conflict in the Middle East ties directly into global struggles for control over base commodities, energy, and the future of the US dollar.
• The Realities of Artificial Intelligence: The physical resource constraints holding AI back (such as copper and electricity shortages), its impact on the labour market, and whether it will lead to a technological utopia or a dystopian cognitive decline.