One of the most influential and wealthy people on the planet, Ray Dalio explores the empires of the past, reveals the patterns of ups and downs of the world's leading economies, draws conclusions about our present and future, and answers the question of why the coming times will be radically different from those that we are survived.A few years ago, Ray Dalio drew attention to political and economic conditions that he had not encountered before. It is huge debts and zero or near zero interest rates that have led to massive money printing in the world's three major reserve currencies| major political and social conflicts within countries, especially in the US | and the rise of a world power (China) ready to challenge the existing world power (US) and the existing world order. The last time this happened was between 1930 and 1945. This realization prompted Dalio to search for the recurring patterns and causal relationships that underlie all the major changes in the balance of macroeconomic forces over the past 500 years.Ray Dalio invites his readers to explore the major world economies, including the Dutch, British and the American one, and consider the "Great Cycle" that determines the successes and failures of all the major countries of the world throughout history. He uncovers the timeless and universal forces behind these shifts and uses them to look into the future and formulate principles for what lies ahead.Published in Russian for the first time.