The Next Big Thing From The Official Who Predicted Communism's Demise

[Valin]

Forbes:

Jerry Bowyer

1/3/13

 

Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of Central Intelligence, and vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. He is widely credited as having been the first senior official to predict the fall of the Soviet Union. He’s also, written a number of good books (including How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill, and The Cure for Poverty: It’s the Free Market: History’s Greatest Invention), plus he often speaks to groups of business executives.

 

Recently he took time out of his busy schedule to sit down across a Skype connection with me, at the hinge point between 2012 and 2013 to reflect on intelligence, forecasting, what he saw in the 1980s which others did not, and what he sees coming next, which might be even bigger than the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

I suggest you set aside some time to listen to the whole discussion (more of a thinking session than an interview), but in case you don’t have time, I jotted down some notes hitting just a few of the highlights from the conversation. These are notes, not perfect transcriptions, so they sometimes paraphrase a bit. For the real unfiltered thing click on * this link.

 

(Snip)

 

* MP3 Download

 

(X posted on Hinge Of History)

[pollyannaish]

Absolutely brilliant!

[nickydog]

Really interesting. We left Moscow in the summer of '89. Mr.n. had been the defense attache' at the embassy for 2 years and likes to say that none of his people saw what was coming, but that I kept complaining that the place was a mess as I tramped the sidewalks and stood inside doors of shops watching the people and what there was (and wasn't) for them to buy. It was the most interesting experience of my life.