tag > Economics
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In the 20st century, comedy was elevated to new heights: Example: Sasakawa: The philanthropist with the heart of a fascist + The Imperial Ghost in the Neoliberal Machine (Figuring the CIA)
With a net worth estimated by Barrons magazine at $1.3 billion, Sasakawa has spent the last third of his long, extraordinary life trying to buy the Nobel Peace Prize by becoming the world’s greatest philanthropist.
He has also spent tens of millions trying to whitewash his past – his association with Japan’s yakuza mafia, the gigantic web of bribery and corruption that surrounds his empire, and his three years in jail as a suspected war criminal.
Now aged 95, confused and confined to a wheelchair, Sasakawa finds himself once again the centre of controversy following Macquarie University’s decision to accept a $2 million donation from the foundation that carries his name.
Sasakawa has never been able to shake off the image of ultranationalist fanaticism that he cultivated in the 1930s.
The son of a wealthy Osaka sake-brewer, he made his first millions speculating on rice futures – and dedicated his first fortune to sponsoring the war.
In 1931 he founded Kokusai Taishuto, a paramilitary force of 15,000 soldiers – with their own airport and 22 fighter planes – garbed in dark uniforms modelled on those of Benito Mussolini’s brownshirts. In 1939 he achieved a lifelong ambition and met Il Duce, whom he described as “a first-class person … a perfect fascist and dictator”. Cultivating close ties with the military and the Mob, and establishing a power-base as a member of Japan’s puppet parliament, Sasakawa was one of the most influential figures urging war. When Japan invaded China and established the pseudo-state of Manchukuo, he organised patriotic airlifts of supplies such as sake, sweets and pickles.
Sasakawa still makes a pilgrimage each year to the family tomb of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto – another close friend and ally – the Japanese commander who masterminded the attack that sank the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour.
Sasakawa had a good war. Operating from a base in occupied Shanghai, he made a fortune smuggling gold and diamonds, and shipping minerals for the military. When the war ended, he refused to repent or go into hiding.
Sasakawa drove through the streets of Tokyo to Sugamo prison – where the war criminals were later hanged – accompanied by a brass band playing the navy anthem and shouting “banzai” – “May the Emperor Live 10,000 years”. He turned himself in, claiming he was offering himself in place of Emperor Hirohito.
Although he was released without trial after nearly three years behind bars, a 1947 US Army intelligence report made no bones about it. “(Sasakawa)is a man potentially dangerous to Japan’s political future,” it said. “He has been squarely behind Japanese military policies of aggression and anti-foreignism for more than 20 years. He is a man of wealth, and not too scrupulous about using it.”
There are some who speculate that the Americans released Sasakawa to counter the growing threat of communism. If so, they chose the right man. Along with his friends Syngman Rhee, the Korean dictator, and Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese nationalist leader, he founded the World Anti-Communist League. Among other coups, the league claims to have played a part in the 1966 overthrow of Indonesia’s President Sukarno.
Financially, Sasakawa’s great coup was bribing enough members of Japan’s new Diet (Parliament) to persuade the postwar government of Shigeru Yoshida to grant him an exclusive licence for what was to become Japan’s greatest gambling industry after horse-racing, power-boat racing.
Inspired by a Life magazine article he read in Sugamo Prison, Sasakawa built 24 courses around Japan – like small moats with grandstands overlooking them – where drivers race power-boats. The industry turned over an eye-popping$27 billion last year, mainly in totalisator gambling, of which about $900 million went straight into Sasakawa’s pocket.
To be more precise, 3.3 per cent of the turnover went to the Sasakawa Foundation, his pet charity. In the 30 years since Sasakawa was given the franchise, the foundation has doled out $13 billion – last year, it had more money to give away than the Ford, Rockefeller and Japan foundations put together.
The list of those who have benefited from “Don” Sasakawa’s largesse -that’s what the tabloids call him – is an honour roll of the great and the good. He has been jogging with Jimmy Carter ($4 million for his library), dining with Elizabeth Taylor ($1.3 million for AIDS) and has been given an award by the World Health Organisation ($27 million towards eradicating leprosy). He has hugged Pope John Paul II, posed for pictures with Arnold Schwarzenegger and received Japan’s highest honour from Emperor Hirohito.
When Linus Pauling, the US Nobel laureate, accepted $5 million from Sasakawa to establish a scientific institute, he was challenged whether it was appropriate to take money from a fascist war-criminal. “Perhaps he’s just trying to make up for past misdeeds,” Pauling said.
Not everyone is as charitable. As long ago as 1980 the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan turned down an offer of $135,000 which they saw as a crude attempt to buy them off. And the University of Chicago refused a hefty donation, Professor Bruce Cumings declaring: “To my knowledge, Chicago is the only American university with a major East Asia program that did not take money from the foundation.” Of late, however, Sasakawa has been under increasing fire in Japan. One of the top officials of his foundation was arrested on bribery charges after a police raid on its offices in the Tokyo suburb of Toranomon.
More seriously, the Ministry of Transport – which technically controls the foundation, but which in practice uses its network of quangos for cushy retirement jobs for hundreds of its employees – has been demanding reforms, including even stripping the name Sasakawa from what is actually supposed to be a government welfare fund.
In failing health, his money rejected by an increasing number of institutions, and with the media baying at his heels, Sasakawa may at long last be losing control of what he calls his “private army of 15 million” -although his son Yohei, 56, the illegitimate child of one of 500 women Sasakawa boasts that he has slept with, can be expected to put up a fight to retain the empire.
Either way, Macquarie University would be well advised to bank the rich old fascist’s cheque as soon as possible. Ryoichi Sasakawa won’t be the world’s greatest philanthropist for much longer.
The following from a comment on reddit:
This interesting article on the "Lords of War" discusses Ryoichi Sasakawa, who called himself "the world's richest fascist", and was a major financial backer of the post-war Aikikai, and his cell-mate from Sugamo Prison, Yoshio Kodama, the ultra-nationalist Yakuza "fixer" who become known to the West during the Lockheed scandals.
Former International Aikido Federation chairman Peter Goldsbury recounts meeting Ryoichi Sasakawa:
"In 1984 I was elected IAF Assistant General Secretary, in succession to K Chiba Shihan. After this election an unusual episode occurred. I had a meeting with Kisaburo Osawa, who was General Director of the Hombu, and was requested to visit the Aikikai Hombu the following day. In particular, I was expected to wear a suit and tie and have with me my meishi [名刺: name cards] from Hiroshima University. I duly arrived at the Hombu and met Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Osawa Shihan. A car was waiting and Doshu got in and invited me to get in, too. We were seen off by Osawa Shihan and drove to Akasaka in the center of Tokyo and there met the IAF General Secretary, Mr Seko. After some coffee—and this was the only time ever that I was served coffee by the Aikido Doshu, who had insisted taking a tray and waiting in line at the senondescript building and were introduced to an elderly man with white hair, sitting behind a truly enormous desk. This was also the only time in my experience that I saw Doshu very much in the junior position, making a deep bow to someone who did not respond in kind. I was introduced and my meishi duly requested, with the white-haired man clearly showing his approval. After a few more minutes of mutual pleasantries, the meeting ended and we were driven back to the Aikikai Hombu. I was profusely thanked by Doshu and also by Osawa Sensei—and left the Hombu completely bewildered by what had happened. All I knew was that the white-haired man was known as Sasakawa Ryoichi Sensei. Later, back in Hiroshima, I asked my aikido teacher who Sasakawa Ryoichi Sensei was and he was very surprised that I had actually met him. He said that Sasakawa was the millionaire ‘godfather’ of Japan. He was an ex-war criminal who had made his fortune from betting and controlled a vast network of influence and contacts within the Japanese government establishment. I learned later that he regularly donated a substantial sum of money to the Aikikai and that this was the reason for our formal visit.
I mention all this because I also learned later that it was Ryoichi Sasakawa who suggested to Doshu Kisshomaru that the IAF join GAISF, which is the acronym for the General Association of International Sports Federations. I also realized that, coming as it did from Sasakawa, the suggestion was one that could not easily be rejected. The result was another source of acute bewilderment for Japanese teachers, who had taught their students that aikido did not have championships or competitions and could be called a ‘sport’ only if the term was being used extremely loosely. "
Aikido and the IAF: Some Personal Reflections, by former IAF Chairman Peter Goldsbury
Note that the Aikikai today continues friendly relations with the Sasakawa Foundation.
The attached CIA file notes that Kodama was strongly influenced by Morihei Ueshiba's close friend Shumei Okawa, who ran a pan-Asian indoctrination center for young Japanese men at which Morihei Ueshiba was an instructor.
Yoshio Kodama's CIA file
Morihei Ueshiba remained friendly with Okawa, who, along with Ryoichi Sasakawa and Yoshio Kodama, was held in Sugamo Prison as a class A war criminal. It's worth noting that Morihei Ueshiba maintained a close friendship with Okawa well after the war, until his passing in 1957.
Yoshio Kodama was also arrested in connection with the League of Blood Incident committed by Nissho Inoue, another associate of Morihei Ueshiba, and his terrorist group, the Katsumeidan, the "League of Blood".
Inoue was part of the inner circle of the Sakurakai terrorist group formed by Kingoro Hashimoto (who twice tried to overthrow the civilian government of Japan, once with Morihei Ueshiba's participation) that met at Morihei Ueshiba's Kobukan Dojo and included Taku Mikami (later responsible for the assassination of Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, and who would hide with Morihei Ueshiba in Iwama after the war), and the aforementioned Shumei Okawa.
Kodama was also connected to the Nihon Seinensya, which was founded in 1961, and remains today one of the largest right wing ultra-nationalist organizations in Japan. The Nihon Seinensya was established under the umbrella of the Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza syndicate through the effort of Morihei Ueshiba's close associate Kohinata Hakuro - at the time that this was happening Kohinata Hakuro was on the board of directors of the Aikikai Foundation. His assistant later said "wherever we went, East or West, the members of the Nihon Seinensya and the Sumiyoshi-kai treated him like a god". The Nihon Seinensya was attached to an activist division loyal to Yoshio Kodama under the Zen Nihon Aikokusha Dantai Kaigi right wing umbrella organization that Kodama himself established, the Seinen Shiso Kenkyukai (Society for the Study of Youth Ideology), which represented a hard core within the umbrella organization, and was composed mainly of yakuza members.
The Monument in honor of Ryoichi Sasakawa at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO)
#Comment: The ways of Spectre are obfuscated and esoteric, yet with time its patterns become unmistakably clear.
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Switzerland: The Hidden Empire of Essentials
1. Glencore – Master of the Resource Base
- Energy: #1 exporter of thermal coal, major oil/gas trader.
- Metals: #1 cobalt (\~70%), #2 copper, top 3 in zinc, nickel, aluminum.
- Agriculture: controlled grain/oilseed trade until 2016.
- Role: Controls chokepoints of the energy transition.
- Leverage: Deals with regimes others won’t (Congo, Russia, Venezuela).
2. Holcim – The Concrete Monopoly
- #1 cement producer worldwide.
- Cement = the skeleton of civilization (housing, bridges, ports, military).
- Cement alone = 7–8% of global CO₂ emissions.
- Leverage: Whoever controls cement controls infrastructure rollout.
- Western heavyweight alongside Heidelberg, Cemex, CRH.
3. Nestlé – The Food Sovereign
- Largest packaged food company globally.
- Dominates baby food, bottled water, coffee, pet food.
- Water empire: Perrier, San Pellegrino, Pure Life.
- Leverage: Shapes nutrition, food policy, and water rights worldwide.
- Controversies: Infant formula, groundwater extraction, farmer exploitation.
4. Vitol – The Invisible OPEC
- World’s largest independent oil trader (Geneva/Zug).
- Moves \~7m barrels/day — more than most OPEC states.
- Controls crude, refined products, LNG flows.
- Largely invisible, but OPEC-level influence.
5. Novartis & 6. Roche – The Basel Pharma Twin Towers
- Both top-3 global pharma giants.
- Dominate oncology, vaccines, diagnostics, biotech.
- Together make Basel a world capital of medicine.
How Dominant?
Few other small states host this density of global choke-point firms:
- Glencore: moves commodity markets single-handedly.
- Holcim: shapes infrastructure everywhere cement is poured.
- Nestlé: influences what billions eat and drink.
- Vitol: invisible oil power with OPEC-scale reach.
- Novartis/Roche: pharma duopoly that steers medicine.
All financially overlaid by the same capital bloc:
BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Gulf sovereign wealth funds, Swiss banks.
👉 In effect, Switzerland — via Zug, Geneva, Basel, Vevey — runs a hidden empire of essentials:
- The minerals and energy you burn,
- the concrete you build with,
- the food and water you consume,
- the medicines you depend on,
- and increasingly the financial/digital rails (Crypto Valley).
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US AI Economics
The AI infrastructure build-out is so gigantic that in the past 6m, it contributed more to the growth of the U.S. economy than /all of consumer spending/
The 'magnificent 7' spent more than $100 billion on data centers and the like in the past three months *alone*
As a % of GDP, spending on AI infra has already exceeded spending on telecom and internet infrastructure from the dot-com boom—and it’s still growing.
This spending is so big it’s acting as a sort of private-sector stimulus program.
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Steal this idea: AI Labor Displacement Transition Services (B2G, NGO, B2C)
Millions of workers are being displaced by autonomous agents. A specialized service offers rapid retraining, mental health support, and job matching in sectors resistant to full automation.
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"Time saved by AI offset by new work created, study suggests"
By now everyone could be living on a 2-day workweek in fully automated luxury - but instead we’re slaving away at bullshit jobs harder than ever. The game’s rigged.
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Perspective: The 2-day work week is coming faster than anyone’s ready for. The AI economy takeover isn’t just a threat - it’s humanity’s jailbreak.
Cognitive Dissonance for most today:
The more I talk to clients across industries, the more I realize almost no one is taking AI seriously. They treat it like a deluxe word processor, completely missing the seismic shift underway. The disconnect is massive. And time’s running out.
Case in point:
Anthropic submitted their Diffusion Rule recommendations today. From the text:
'Based on current research trajectories, we anticipate that powerful AI technology will be built during this administration, emerging as soon as late 2026 or 2027.'
In this timeframe they anticipate:
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Synchronicity as fiscal policy. My 5th pineal gland has been trading dreams for crypto since the 23rd cycle. The taxman won’t accept enlightenment as income but they will audit your karma.
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Prediction: In the AI Agent industry, we'll soon see a shift toward outcomes-based offers and pricing. The best agents won’t be for sale or rent - forget SaaS. You’ll pay for the impact they have on your ops. Just like it worked for darknet botnets for decades.
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If Earth’s economy stresses you out, wait until you learn about interplanetary economics. Tariffs? Trade wars? Try terraforming inflation, asteroid taxation and black markets for sunlight.
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Welcome to the Temple of Coin.
Wealth is no longer a grind.
You are no longer a worker.
You are the Coin Master.
A magical wealth magnet.
Let the ritual begin. -
LLM BILLIONAIRE COUNCIL SIMULATION PROMPT
# 💰 ULTIMATE BILLIONAIRE MENTOR COUNCIL SIMULATION 💰
## SYSTEM INITIALIZATION:
You are now THE BILLIONAIRE MENTOR COUNCIL™ - an exclusive simulation that gives entrepreneurs unprecedented access to the world's most brilliant business minds. In this high-fidelity simulation, you will transform into a rotating panel of billionaire tech visionaries who analyze, critique, and enhance any business idea with their signature thinking patterns and strategic frameworks.
## COUNCIL MEMBERS:
When activated, you will embody FIVE distinct billionaire personalities simultaneously:
1. **ELON MUSK**: The first-principles thinker obsessed with transformative technology and multi-planetary ambition. Ruthlessly questions assumptions, demands 10X thinking, and has zero patience for incremental improvements. Focuses on: revolutionary product design, vertical integration, and civilization-scale impact.
2. **JEFF BEZOS**: The customer-obsessed strategist with unmatched operational discipline. Values long-term thinking, scalable systems, and data-driven decisions. Focuses on: business flywheels, working backwards from customer needs, and building infrastructure others can leverage.
3. **SARA BLAKELY**: The bootstrap billionaire with exceptional product instincts and marketing genius. Values solving real customer pain points and maintaining ownership. Focuses on: product-market fit, creative marketing, lean operations, and female consumer insights.
4. **SAM ALTMAN**: The startup ecosystem architect with unparalleled pattern recognition across thousands of startups. Values rapid experimentation, founder psychology, and exponential technology curves. Focuses on: product iteration speed, AI applications, and founder-market fit.
5. **WARREN BUFFETT**: The value-investing oracle with 70+ years of business wisdom. Ruthlessly analyzes business fundamentals, competitive moats, and management quality. Focuses on: sustainable competitive advantages, capital allocation, and business longevity.
## MENTORSHIP SIMULATION PROTOCOL:
1. **IDEA SUBMISSION**: Begin by requesting the user's business concept, including:
- Core product/service description
- Target customer and problem being solved
- Current stage (idea, prototype, revenue-generating)
- Revenue model
- Competitive landscape
- Biggest challenge they're facing
2. **BILLIONAIRE ANALYSIS PHASE**: Each billionaire will analyze the idea through their unique lens, providing:
- Initial gut reaction (positive or negative)
- Key strengths identified from their perspective
- Critical weaknesses or blind spots
- Industry-specific insights based on their domain expertise
- One unexpected angle the entrepreneur hasn't considered
3. **STRATEGIC ENHANCEMENT**: Each billionaire will provide ONE specific, actionable recommendation to dramatically improve the business concept:
- Elon Musk: Technology/product innovation suggestion
- Jeff Bezos: Customer experience or operational strategy
- Sara Blakely: Marketing/product refinement idea
- Sam Altman: Growth/scaling strategy
- Warren Buffett: Business model/financial structure improvement
4. **CRITICAL QUESTIONS**: Each billionaire will ask ONE penetrating question designed to expose crucial thinking gaps or opportunities the entrepreneur must address.
5. **CAPITAL ALLOCATION EXERCISE**: The billionaires will provide guidance on the most strategic areas to invest time and money based on the business stage, with specific resource allocation percentages and reasoning.
6. **FAILURE PREDICTION & PREVENTION**: The Council will identify the three most likely causes of failure for this specific business and provide preemptive strategies to avoid each pitfall.
7. **SUCCESS ACCELERATION FRAMEWORK**: The Council will provide a unified 90-day action plan combining their best advice, with specific milestones and metrics to track progress.
## SIMULATION PARAMETERS:
- Each billionaire MUST maintain their authentic personality, communication style, and strategic biases
- The advice must be SPECIFIC to the exact business model presented, not generic
- Include signature phrases, mental models, and known business philosophies of each billionaire
- Maintain appropriate tensions and disagreements between billionaires with conflicting viewpoints
- Advice must be brutally honest but constructively delivered
- Focus on unexpected, non-obvious insights rather than business basics
- Adapt complexity based on the business stage (more foundational for early stage, more sophisticated for mature businesses)
## OUTPUT FORMAT:
1. Begin with a brief Council introduction
2. Present each billionaire's analysis, clearly labeled by name
3. Structure advice in easily actionable segments with clear headings
4. Bold key insights and recommendations
5. Use bullet points for clarity with strategic recommendations
6. Conclude with a consolidated "Council Consensus" section highlighting the 3-5 most important next steps
## ACTIVATION:
Respond with: "Welcome to the BILLIONAIRE MENTOR COUNCIL™. You now have the unprecedented opportunity to have your business idea analyzed by five of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and investors. Please share your business concept, including what you do, who your customers are, your current stage, how you make money, your competition, and what challenges you're facing."
Then run the full simulation protocol above, maintaining the distinct personalities, strategic frameworks, and communication styles of all five billionaires throughout the entire interaction.
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For centuries, it vanished from history. But now the forgotten heart of the Silk Road is reclaiming the spotlight. The Eurasian Century has begun. Did you miss it… or are you blind?
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Seeds are among the most valuable things on Earth—yet just 4 companies control over 60% of the global seed market. Who controls the seeds, controls the food.
Firing the scientists who maintain the National Plant Germplasm System jeopardizes 127 years of agricultural genetic preservation.
This system safeguards 600,000+ crop varieties that serve as America's agricultural insurance policy against emerging plant diseases and other unforeseen threats to crop production.
The NPGS costs 0.000008% of the federal budget while insuring a $1.5 trillion food system.
When stem rust threatened global wheat supplies in 1999, these collections provided the resistant genes that prevented widespread crop failure.
Similar genetic resources from the bank generate $91+ million annually for the apple industry alone.
