One distinct and lasting memory that I have of law school is the feeling that I was being let in on a secret. Through the (hundreds of) cases that we read and our other coursework, we were learning about how the world really worked - not just the legal world, but also the government, politics, businesses (and the corporate world generally), property (and by extension property owners), the criminal system, and people generally. It was fascinating, and wholly unlike the rest of my education. It probably goes without saying that I very much enjoyed law school.

I got that same feeling of being let in on a secret about the way things really work at one of the final panels last Thursday at the FFA Global Symposium in Miami. The panel was "A Geopolitics Discussion with Pippa Malmgren." Dr. Malmgren is an economist who advised the President of the United States during 9/11. She served on The National Economic Council and The President's Working Groups on Corporate Governance and on Financial Markets. She has founded and supports several tech and other ventures and is also the author of a few books, including The Leadership Lab, which won the 2019 Business Book of the Year.

Dr. Malmgren discussed Chinese balloons, AI, the war in Ukraine, "wars" in various other places (including space), computing power, glocalization, yoga mats and other topics, and in each case explained why we should care about the topic (and managed to cover all of that in 50 minutes). We can't discuss all of the topics she covered here, but below is a brief summary of a few of them.

A Hot War in Cold Places

Dr. Malmgren discussed a couple...