Diversification is caution. Putting all your loot in one basket is reckless. If I put all my stock into Facebook that wouldn't make me smart.

I do like how you value treasury bonds. They are in truth a vital foundation to the economy. But is it cautious to put all your capital in a long term very low liquid asset? Almost assuredly no!

> Pretty much every major stoked conflict has some Russian influence on the anti-democratic side.

Agreed. They were the main 'antagonist' this generation, doing everything they could against the West / global democracy.

It's darkly comical how Russia is capable of using the internet to stretch tentacles in every unstable nation, at one point overseeing 3 coups in quick succession in 2021... But they can't march their army 30 miles to take Kharkiv. Talk about failed priorities.

They are at once both strong and weak. Global pretensions, but ever shrinking conventional military reach. It must infuriate Putin to preside over this disintigration, he with his fever dreams of past imperial glory and obsessive rivalry with the USA. Thank god Ukraine fought a good fight.

OP is upset at redditors for pointing out Putin is recycling his boring stale plot.

When did Putin become so predictable? Was he always like this? It seems odd we used to think he was some sort of genius tyrant.

Military juntas don't care about the rule of law. This is just a sham court rubber stamping a political decision made by a thuggish government.

On the one hand, I don't admire this woman. She helped the junta regain its power on the backs of ethnic tensions. On the other hand, I think she herself is just a scapegoat, while the true actors of the genocide deserve to be called out by name.

I have no idea either why people conflate. At the least, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa should never be conflated

North Africa is part of the Middle East culturally, politically, and religiously. The Arab Spring was largely North African in focus, before the Syrian civil war preoccupied attention. Democracy faces a major hurdle even in the stablest nations there. Authoritarian traditions stretch back +2,000 years.

Sub Saharan Africa is far less influenced by ME Islamist traditions and far more aligned to a similar postcolonial timeline as South Asia and caudillo era Latin America. Despite some truly vast cities, most folks remain rural. This is also the region that rightly or wrongly, is seen as both a wild National Geographic idyll, or conversely one threatened by overpopulation. Crucial point. Democracy is the general prevailing ideology here, even if more honored in the breach.

And even this summarization grossly oversimplifies. Shameless plug, it's fascinating to read about ECOAS and the African Union

It's a big World and it's quite easy to despair. However, it is worthwhile noting geopolitical trends.

1. there are also plenty of decent regions (usually quiet and not on the news). Latin America and much of Africa are having comparably peaceful eras. More democracies exist than at any other time in world history; and

2. the MENA region includes Tunisia and Yemen (and probably also Sudan and Mali). OP was right to note this authoritarian regional problem. Aside from China, the MENA is the most non-democratic region in the world; and

3. For better or worse though, the largest tyranny in Europe also enabled that problem. As Russia declines as it loses the war in Ukraine, many MENA tyrants will lose their biggest ally.

To be fair, everyone's continued dependency on gas is incredibly shortsighted. Climate change should be well enough cause to divest. Europe's reliance on Russia just takes the grotesque to a whole other level.

American corporate speak and institutions all do this.

There are major disadvantages to our model where senior management is selected solely on a Board's assessment of stock prices and shareholder dividends. Something that should matter immensely, namely worker conditions and feedback, matters not a fig in Board meetings.

It's a weird system we made to dominate our economic lives in the 'free world'.

The capture of most businesses by Capital over Labor has hit morale and objectively harmed worker conditions in a host of industries. This is why labor unions, socialist parties, and worker coops arose in the first place. I will restate my prior point. Work conditions and employee well-being don't matter at Board meetings unless labor unrest or push back makes them pay attention.

These workers are lucky they have one institutional lever to push back against a flawed system.