IL49: The Space Economy Is No Longer Science Fiction ft. Rainer Zitelmann

**Rainer Zitelmann** (0:01)
You know, this is the reason why we were in 1969 on the moon, and now 54 years, NASA was now very proud to fly by the moon, 45 years later. If we were not able to do it for 54 years, this proves our theory. It was only a fake. I don't believe it. I have another alternative explanation why it didn't happen, because everything is about incentives and there were no incentives to do it.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:34)
Welcome to Top Traders Unplugged. In markets, success doesn't come from predicting what happens next. It comes from being prepared for what you can't predict.
In each episode, we go deep with some of the world's most thoughtful minds in investing, economics, and beyond to understand how they think, how they prepare, and how they decide, and the experiences that shaped how they see the world. No noise, no shortcuts, just real conversations to help you think better and invest with confidence.

**Kevin Coldiron** (1:07)
Welcome everyone to Top Traders Unplugged. My name is Kevin Coldiron, and I'm host of the Ideas Lab series, where we talk with authors of new books that help us understand how the global economy works and where it's headed in the future. Okay. I have to admit, I really had to resist the temptation to start today's show by reading out the opening monologue to Star Trek, because today we're going to be talking about space, which is shaping up to potentially be the final frontier for capitalism.
The captain on our journey today is going to be Dr. Rainer Zitelmann. Dr. Zitelmann is a prolific author. He's written and edited 32 books, which have been translated into 35 languages, including In Defense of Capitalism, The Power of Capitalism, and How Nations Escape Poverty. He's here today to talk about his latest book, which will be released in the US on June 9th, called New Space Capitalism, The Entrepreneurial Path to the Stars. Dr. Zitelmann, thanks for joining us today and welcome to the show.

**Rainer Zitelmann** (2:18)
Yes, thank you for inviting me.

**Kevin Coldiron** (2:22)
So, it sounds like you have been a space capitalist since you were a boy. You were 12 years old when the first moon landing took place, and you wrote a special edition of your school newspaper and sold it to your classmates. So you made some money from the moon landing.
Can you tell us about how your interest in space got started?

**Rainer Zitelmann** (2:47)
Yes, I think like a lot of children are watching science fiction movies in TV, not Star Trek. It was another one in Germany.
I saw it when I was nine years old, and then it's correct, with 11 years. I founded a school newspaper called Galaktische Zeitung. It means Galactic Newspaper. It was only about astronomy and space flight.
Yes, I had good luck. At this time, it was also the first moon landing, so we mentioned it. I had a special edition about this, but all in my children's room was full with a big poster from the moon, and from the Saturn V rocket and books about astronomy. So this was all about. But it was not this way that I'm, to be honest, all of my life interested in these topics.
I'm a historian. And in the last years, I wrote a lot of books, why capitalism is better with the example of countries. I give you two examples. I wrote a book, How Nations Escape Poverty. It's about Poland and Vietnam. And always I showed what happens if you add more market economy in a system or on the opposite, more government. Maybe I can compare it with a test tube with two ingredients.
Market and state, or capitalism and socialism. And then I watch what happens if you add more market, and what happens if you add more state. And as an example, Vietnam, where I have also produced a film, Vietnam Beating Poverty with Market Economy. This was the poorest country in the world, 1990, poorer than all African countries. And then they started with free market reforms, the so-called story model reforms. And the result is that the number of people living in poverty decreased from 80% to 3%, from 80% to 3%. And I have a lot of other examples. And now I turned from studying countries or nations to studying an industry. And an industry that was decades ago totally led by the government. And I think almost no one could imagine that some days there will be Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or multi-billionaires like this who will start their private companies. So everyone thought this is definitely something that can only be done by the state. And today, you see, it's the time of private, as I call it, space capitalism, and this is what the book is about.