“The world is clearing its karmic debt,” said the Speaker. “How else can we explain these monumental and globally felt shifts?”

People in the public eye or a position of power are being held to account. Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison, taken down by the #MeToo movement; repeated sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein was finally arrested and died in jail last year; and Hollywood celebrities were caught in the College Admissions Scandal.

There are many ways in which gender equality is being advanced around the world. Fresh off a victory in the World Cup, the US women’s soccer team seized the moment to fight for equal pay last year. Over half a century after the US passed the Equal Pay Act, American women still face a substantial gender wage gap across the spectrum.

Karma topples hubris and gradually wears away the ego. SoftBank has come under mounting pressure from activist investors, while the Vision Fund has marked down its portfolio by at least $24 billion. Masoyoshi Son’s financial empire is unraveling.

Climate change has been in the public discourse for well over two decades, but suddenly Swedish environmental activist Greta Thurnberg was chosen as the 2019 Person of the Year by Time magazine. She succeeded in turning vague anxieties about the planet into a worldwide movement for change.


Source: Time, New York Post, US Weekly, CNBC, and The New York Times

This year, the Earth had its hottest January in recorded history. Enter Covid-19, which has triggered the largest ever annual fall in carbon dioxide emissions, more than during any previous economic crisis or period of war. The pandemic has effectively frozen travel. Cars and airplanes are sitting immobile. Transportation is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

For decades, America’s oil majors have spent billions to control the climate change conversation and counter proposals to rapidly cut pollution. “That’s not good Karma.” Energy stocks are down 40 percent year-to-date and the oil industry shakeout is just beginning with more bankruptcies ahead.

The Speaker also puts the stock market decline on Karma. “The only way to reduce inequality is to make poor people richer or rich people poorer.” He thinks that the market will remain under pressure until political, economic, and societal structures reform to balance unjust conditions.

Millions of jobs have been lost worldwide but for the first time governments are stepping in to pay people’s wages. Unlike the rescue effort in 2008 which prioritized Wall Street, this time the focus is on helping Main Street and there is a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.

Colleges have ripped off students with higher tuition costs. There are 45 million people who collectively owe nearly $1.6 trillion in student debt in America. Now with Covid-19, universities are shut while borrowers will most likely get debt relief. Some universities may never reopen if there is a sustained drop in applications.

Karma also bestows its blessings on the good guys—the hard working, and the compassionate. We are recognizing the sacrifice of medical workers and treating them as heroes. Essential workers—grocery clerks, delivery people, and warehouse workers—are also being celebrated and finally receiving the acclaim and higher wages they deserve.

“On a long enough timeline, Karma always wins.”

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