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This is a story about capitalism.

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It's a system I love

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because of the success and opportunities[br]it's afforded me and millions of others.

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I started in my 20s trading commodities,

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cotton in particular, in the pits,

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and if there was ever a free market[br]free-for-all, this was it,

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where men wearing ties[br]but acting like gladiators

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fought literally physically for a profit.

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Now, fortunately, I was good enough

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that by the time I was 30,[br]I was able to move into

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the upstairs world of money management,

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where I spent the next three decades[br]as a global macro trader.

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And over that time, I've seen[br]a lot of crazy things in the markets,

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and I've traded a lot of crazy manias.

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And unfortunately, I'm sad to report

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that right now we might be in the grips

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of one of the most disastrous,[br]certainly, of my career,

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and one consistent takeaway is,

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manias never end well.

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Now, over the past 50 years,

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we as a society

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have come to view[br]our companies and corporations

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in a very narrow, almost[br]monomaniacal fashion

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with regard to how we value them,

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and we have put[br]so much emphasis on profits,

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on short-term quarterly[br]earnings and share prices,

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at the exclusion of all else.

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It's like we've ripped the humanity

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out of our companies.

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Now, we don't do that,

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conveniently reduce something[br]to a set of numbers

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that you can play with like Lego toys,

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we don't do that in our individual life.

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We don't treat somebody or value them[br]based on their monthly income,

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or their credit score,

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but we have this double standard[br]when it comes to the way

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that we value our business,[br]and you know what?

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It's threatening the very[br]underpinnings of our society.

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And here's how you'll see.

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This chart is corporate profit margins[br]going back 40 years

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as a percentage of revenues,

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and you can see that we're[br]at a 40-year high of 12.5 percent.

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Now, hooray if you're a shareholder,

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but if you're the other side of that,

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and you're the average American worker,

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then you can see it's not[br]such a good thing.

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Now, higher profit margins[br]do not increase societal wealth.

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What they actually do is[br]they exacerbate income inequality,

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and that's not a good thing.

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But intuitively, that makes sense, right?

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Because if the top 10 percent[br]of American families

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own 90 percent of the stocks,

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as they take a greater share[br]of corporate profits,

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then there's less wealth left[br]for the rest of society.

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Again, income inequality[br]is not a good thing.

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This next chart,[br]made by the Quality Trust,

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shows 21 countries from Austria[br]to Japan to New Zealand.

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On the horizontal axis[br]is income inequality.

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The further to the right you go,[br]the greater in the income inequality.

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On the vertical axis are nine social and health metrics