Connect the forces
National power shifts through interacting economic, social, and geopolitical forces, so changes in one domain can accelerate the others.
Perimeter Books
01 02 03 
Perimeter Books / Economy
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Ray Dalio
A framework for thinking about economic cycles, debt, and changes in world power.
2021 · 576 pages · Hardcover
Purchase on the bookseller’s site. Availability and cover editions may vary.
Make it part of your reading
10–15 hoursEstimated reading time, at 40–60 pages an hour
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster2021 · selected edition
Explore Ray Dalio ↗Books, writing & collected mentions
Bookseller searches help you choose an edition or format. Availability and prices vary. These links are not affiliate links.
Inside the book
What you’ll find inside.
Dalio approaches geopolitical change as a problem in historical pattern recognition. Comparing the Dutch, British, and American empires, he examines how debt, money, domestic conflict, and competition between powers interact over long periods. The book grew out of his concern that the world was entering conditions unfamiliar to most living investors but recognizable in earlier centuries. Charts and historical narratives support his model of recurring rises and declines in national strength. Read it as a framework for asking better questions about economic regimes, reserve currencies, and political stability, while keeping the distinction between a historical analogy and a forecast firmly in view.
Who it’s for
Readers interested in economic history, geopolitical change, and the assumptions behind long-term investment decisions.
Ideas to examine
Take these into your reading.
Read debt in context
Debt and monetary conditions belong in the same analysis as domestic division and challenges from rising powers.
Widen the historical lens
Looking beyond a single lifetime can reveal precedents for events that otherwise seem unprecedented.
Your research notebook
Questions worth keeping.
- Which parts of Dalio’s historical comparisons seem most persuasive, and where might important differences between periods weaken the analogy?
- What evidence would distinguish a temporary setback in national influence from the longer decline his model describes?
Save this title to add your own notes and reading progress.
The ideas, in conversation
Hear from the author.
Conversations are produced by the linked publishers and may cover the author’s broader work.
Go back to the evidence
Connect the book to your research.
Use primary economic data to challenge a historical framework. Similar patterns do not establish a reliable forecast.
Economic charts and explanations from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Official releases, speeches, and research feeds from the Federal Reserve Board.
Weekly stories explaining how financial businesses work, connecting banks, investors and fintech companies with the incentives and history behind their decisions and business models.
A different way into the subject
Continue the conversation.
Economy
Odd Lots
Interviews and market conversations · Bloomberg
Conversations about markets and the economy.
Go deeper
Markets
FT Unhedged
Markets commentary and discussion · Financial Times
The Financial Times examines market arguments, valuations and macroeconomic forces, helping readers test the assumptions behind prevailing investment narratives and the day’s price moves.
Go deeper
Keep your reading connected
Read this next.
Investing
The Most Important Thing
2011 · 200 pages · Hardcover
A collection of Marks’s ideas about risk, value, cycles, and investment judgment.
Go deeper
Decision-making
Principles: Life & Work
2017 · 592 pages · Hardcover
Dalio’s account of the principles that shaped his life and his work at Bridgewater.
Go deeper
Behavior
The Psychology of Money
2020 · 256 pages · Paperback
Essays about how behavior, experience, and uncertainty shape financial decisions.
Start here