Provoked with Darryl Cooper and Scott Horton

EP:8 Hidden Price of Empire - Endless War Is Changing Who We Are

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Aug 16, 2025

Endless warfare has deep-rooted consequences for America, affecting not just finances but the very character of society. The discussion unveils how government policies create economic cycles that burden the average worker while funding military endeavors. There's a poignant exploration of the psychological toll that constant violence inflicts, numbing public outrage and altering civilian life. Personal anecdotes and reflections reveal the complexities of morality in warfare, exposing how empathy erodes amid repeated conflict and the normalization of atrocities.

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INSIGHT

Monetary Policy Fuels Hidden War Costs

Federal monetary manipulation creates recurring boom-bust cycles that mislead entrepreneurs with falsely low interest rates.
Scott Horton argues those cycles finance empire-building and shift real costs onto ordinary Americans through inflation and unemployment.

INSIGHT

Low Rates Cause Systemic Misallocation

Artificially low interest rates send false signals that cause nationwide misinvestment and an eventual severe correction.
Horton links those corrections to massive wealth destruction for the bottom half of the population.

ADVICE

Protect Savings From Rate-Driven Risk

Be skeptical of easy low-rate booms and protect savings from inflation by diversifying beyond cash.
Recognize that pension and retail investors are forced into risky assets when safe yields are suppressed.

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What happens to a country that fights war after war, year after year? The price goes far beyond the money spent and the lives lost overseas. In this candid and unflinching conversation, Scott Horton and Daryl Cooper dig into the less visible ways America’s global military machine eats away at our economy, our politics, and even our national character. Scott begins with the financial side of the story. He explains how the government’s control over interest rates creates fake boom-and-bust cycles that hammer working Americans while keeping the war machine running. “They tax what they can, then they borrow more, and then they print the rest,” he says. This, he argues, quietly shifts wealth upward while ordinary people bear the pain through inflation and instability. Federal Reserve policy and military spending feed into each other, creating a loop where war looks “affordable” on paper, but its real costs are hidden. Daryl takes the discussion into darker territory: the spiritual and psychological toll of perpetual war. Drawing on his time in the military, he describes how two decades of nonstop conflict have dulled our ability to feel outrage at atrocities. From Abu Ghraib to Gaza, repeated exposure to violence has numbed the nation’s conscience. “You’re a different kind of person once you’re inured to that kind of thing,” Daryl says. “And it’s not an improvement.” That numbness, he warns, reaches well beyond the battlefield—affecting civilians, too. They also walk through striking examples from history and current events. Declassified documents on Russiagate reveal how manufactured narratives can shape public opinion for years. Scott revisits the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, pointing out that top American generals—Eisenhower, MacArthur, Nimitz, and even Curtis LeMay—believed the bomb was unnecessary and immoral. For many, learning that challenges a lifetime of accepted history, sparking deeper questions about what else we’ve been told. This is more than a discussion about foreign policy. It’s a reckoning with what decades of war have done to us as a nation. The most dangerous cost may not be measured in dollars or body counts—it might be losing the ability to recognize ourselves in the mirror.

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