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In 1997, historians William Strauss and Neil Howe published “The Fourth Turning,” a cyclical theory of Anglo-American history built around generational archetypes and recurring saecular rhythms of approximately 80 to 100 years \u2014 roughly the length of a long human life. Their framework identified four “turnings,” each lasting roughly 20 to 25 years, that repeat in sequence.<\/p>\n
The First Turning<\/strong>, the High<\/strong>, is an era of institutional confidence and community solidarity following a great crisis. The rules work, people trust them, conformity is rewarded \u2014 think the post-WWII boom, or the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.<\/p>\n The Second Turning<\/strong>, the Awakening<\/strong>, is a spiritual and cultural awakening that challenges the institutional consensus of the High. Individualism resurges; the establishment is questioned \u2014 the consciousness revolution of the 1960s-70s, the Second Great Awakening of the 1820s-30s.<\/p>\n The Third Turning<\/strong>, the Unraveling<\/strong>, sees institutions weaken, individualism reach its apex, and civic order decay. Trust collapses \u2014 in government, media, corporations, each other \u2014 as it did through the Culture Wars era of the 1980s-90s, or the Gilded Age of the 1870s-90s.<\/p>\n The Fourth Turning<\/strong>, the Crisis<\/strong>, is a decisive era of institutional destruction and reconstruction, typically catalysed by an existential threat \u2014 war, economic collapse, or civilisational rupture. The old order is swept away; a new one is forged. The Great Depression and WWII. The Civil War. The American Revolution.<\/p>\n By Strauss and Howe\u2019s reckoning, the current Fourth Turning began around 2008 \u2014 the Global Financial Crisis being its catalytic spark \u2014 and will likely reach its resolution sometime in the 2025-2030 window. We are, in other words, in the heart of it. The battles being fought now \u2014 over monetary systems, institutional legitimacy, national sovereignty, and the nature of truth itself \u2014 are the defining conflicts of the crisis era.<\/p>\n What Fourth Turnings produce is not predictable in detail but consistent in structure: the old institutions are exposed as either corrupt or incompetent, a battle ensues between competing visions of the replacement order, and the outcome is determined by which faction can mobilise sufficient force \u2014 social, political, economic, or military \u2014 to impose its vision. The process is neither clean nor just. Fourth Turnings historically produce enormous suffering alongside the reconstruction.<\/p>\n The GFC was Act One: the revelation that the financial system was not a wealth-generation machine but a debt-recycling mechanism sustained by regulatory capture and central bank intervention. The quantitative easing programmes that followed \u2014 printing roughly $20 trillion across major central banks between 2008 and 2022 \u2014 bought time at the cost of massively inflating asset prices, concentrating wealth, and making the eventual reckoning worse.<\/p>\n Covid was Act Two: a simultaneous crisis of public health, institutional credibility, and civil liberties, weaponised by an apparatus of state control that had been building for decades and found in the pandemic a perfect justification for deployment at scale. More on this shortly.<\/p>\n Act Three is visible on the horizon: the currency crisis that follows years of money creation, the geopolitical realignment driven by a rising China and a fragmenting Western alliance, and the social rupture of populations that have been systematically lied to discovering the magnitude of the deception. Fourth Turnings do not end until the crisis is resolved. We have not arrived there yet.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> If the Fourth Turning is already underway, the greatest disruption may still be ahead. Periods like this can destroy old assumptions, punish the unprepared, and create rare opportunities for those who understand what is happening early.<\/p>\n In this urgent presentation, legendary investor Doug Casey reveals how he is preparing for the coming turmoil\u2014and the contrarian strategy he believes could help you protect your wealth, stay ahead of the crisis, and profit from opportunities most investors will miss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Chris MacIntosh In 1997, historians William Strauss and Neil Howe published “The Fourth Turning,” a cyclical theory of Anglo-American history built around generational archetypes and recurring saecular rhythms of approximately 80 to 100 years \u2014 roughly the length of a long human life. Their framework identified four “turnings,” each lasting roughly 20 to 25 … <\/p>\nThe Current Position<\/h2>\n