Sandra Navidi - SuperHubs - How the Financial Elite and Their Networks Rule our World

As such, I’d like to thank first and foremost my grandparents, who are in my thoughts forever, and my parents, who have always believed in my potential and supported me unconditionally.

I’m also grateful to my friends who have tolerated my disappearing into self-imposed “book prison” for months on end, with only occasional release from “solitary confinement.” To all my companions: I couldn’t have stayed the course while maintaining my sanity without your understanding, encouragement, and support. Many thanks also to those of you who read drafts of the script and provided feedback.

Furthermore, I am indebted to George Soros for including me in his community of family, friends and colleagues, and for teaching me that it’s not so much what to think, but more importantly how to think.

I owe profound gratitude to Nouriel Roubini, who has been a generous mentor and steadfast supporter. Nouriel has always been a pleasure to work with, and has become a close friend. I was touched by his thoughtful foreword.

I’m particularly grateful to my agent, Kelly Falconer, who as a super-hub in the publishing world has placed $uperHubs with great expertise, enthusiasm and diligence.

I’d also like to thank Nicholas Brealey, who completely “got” the book’s essence and commissioned it. In addition, I am thankful for my outstanding $uperHubs-Team at Hachette: My exceedingly supportive and capable editors Nick Davies and Alison Hankey, who put the book on the fast-track, my super-efficient production manager, Michelle Morgan, as well as the UK and US sales and PR teams, Ben Slight, Melissa Carl, Yassine Belkacemi, Louise Richardson and Tess Woods, who have done an excellent job of spreading the message. All of you have been an absolute pleasure to work with.

My editor, Lara Asher, who did a terrific job helping to improve the book’s structure and clarity, also deserves great praise. Her competence and wonderful attitude were instrumental in pushing $uper-Hubs over the finish line.

At Penguin Random House, I’d like to thank Markus Dohle, who has provided valuable guidance throughout the book’s evolution and Roger Scholl, who encouraged me to make it accessible to a wider audience by conveying its message through stories, rather than solely through academic theory. Having been a complete neophyte, their pointers at various stages were extremely valuable.

Moreover, I’d like to thank FinanzBuch Verlag’s CEO Christian Jund, and my editor, Georg Hodolitsch, who without hesitation enthusiastically commissioned the German version of $uperHubs, and their great team, including Julian Nebel, who have helped make it a bestseller.

I’m also grateful to the leaders and the wonderful staff at institutions and think tanks, who have generously included me over the last years. In particular, I’d like to thank Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum; too many people to thank individually at the IMF, but specifically Christine Lagarde and David Vannier; Paul Volcker, Jacob A. Frenkel, Jean-Claude Trichet, Guillermo Ortiz, Geoffrey Bell and Stuart P.M. Mackintosh at the Group of Thirty; James C. Orr and Randy S. Rodgers at The Bretton Woods Committee; Frederick Kempe at the Altantic Council; Steven E. Sokol and Karen Furey at the American Council on Germany; Rob Johnson and Chris Canavan at INET; Tim Adams, Abdessatar Ouanes at the International Institute of Finance and Charles Dallara, when he was still there; Liz Mohn, Aart De Geus at the Bertelsmann Foundation, and Annette Heuser when she was still there; Steffi Czerny, Dominik Wichmann, Alexandra Schiel, and Franziska Deecke at DLD Media, and Anthony Scaramucci and Victor Oviedo at SALT.

At n-tv I’d like to thank Hans Demmel, Sonja Schwetje, Uli Reitz and, my mentor at the time, Martin Kerscher, for giving me a platform and having been loyal supporters.

One of the greatest debts I owe to the brilliant scholars and other members of a large intellectual community, on whose works $uperHubs is based. Their research has been the inspiration, stimulation, motivation for and foundation of this book.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank the superhubs mentioned and those who have kindly provided their endorsements, many of whom have had a great influence on my life and certainly on this book.

About the Author

MS. NAVIDI is the CEO of BeyondGlobal, a management consulting firm, where she renders macroeconomic and strategic positioning advice. In addition, she also engages in strategic relationship management, connecting people, platforms, and organizations to advance their interests by leveraging her expertise and network.

Previously, Ms. Navidi worked closely with renowned economist Nouriel Roubini as Director of Research Strategies and Senior Relationship Manager at Roubini Global Economics. Prior to that, Ms. Navidi held positions as investment banker at Scarsdale Equities, general counsel at Muzinich & Co., and consultant at Deloitte. Ms. Navidi holds a law degree from the University of Cologne School of Law, Germany, and a Master of Laws Degree in Banking, Corporate, and Finance Law from Fordham University School of Law, USA. She is admitted to practice law in the Federal Republic of Germany as well as in the State of New York.

Ms. Navidi is an expert commentator on financial markets and has given over 600 interviews in international media outlets and keynoted at dozens of large industry events among Nobel Prize laureates, prime ministers, senior policy makers, and top investors. The German language version of her book $uperHubs has been a bestseller.

Notes

INTRODUCTION

1. Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston, “The Network of Global Corporate Control,” PLoS ONE 6(10) (2011): e25995, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone .0025995.

CHAPTER 1

1. Melanie Mitchell, Complexity: A Guided Tour (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), Kindle location 3811.

2. Steven Johnson, Emergence (New York: Scribner, 2012), 39-40, 70, 78, Kindle edition.

3. For reference, see also: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility (New York: Random House, 2010), Kindle locations 4881-87, Kindle edition.

4. Steven H. Strogatz, Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life (New York: Hachette, 2012), 231-232, Kindle edition.

5. “Homepage,” Douglas Rushkoff, http://www.rushkoff.com.

6. Robin Greenwood and David Scharfstein, “The Growth of Modern Finance,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 27(2) (Spring 2013): 3-28.

7. Oxfam International, “Richest 1% Will Own More Than All the Rest by 2016,” press release, January 19, 2015, https://www.oxfamorg/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2015-01-19/richest-1-will-own-more-all-rest-2016.

8. For reference, see also: Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2014), 1, 237, Kindle edition.

9. Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (Chelsea, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing), 3, Kindle edition.

10. Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), 121, Kindle edition.

11. Nick Hanauer, “The Pitchforks Are Coming... For Us Plutocrats,” Politico, July/August 2014, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.xhtml.

12. Julia La Roche, “Paul Tudor Jones: Income Inequality Will End in Revolution, Taxes, or War,” Business Insider, March 19, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-tudor-jones-on-inequality-2015-3.