China has won the trade war. Trump is conceding that US decline is real and seeking to delay and damage control the consequences. He is saying to China ok lets carve things up into our spheres of influence. The end of western civilisations global resource hegemony may be imminent. China was 600 years ago the by far most advanced nation on earth. Western civilisation grew out of the intellectual foment of Christian schisms and the rise of science giving Europe a significant technological and ideological advantage over all others. Perhaps the world now needs a different style of leadership - one that can address the challenges of climate change and the inequality that western imperialism entrenched. Yes this is a time of tumult as we enter the post industrial era of algorithms being the drivers of concentrated wealth and power. Bitcoin - the one algorithm that allows the distribution of power rather than concentration and treats all participants equally without fear or favour is surely one of the few reasons for optimism going into in a future of increasingly uncertainty and turmoil.