Renowned geopolitical analyst Daniel Estulin, picked up on Peter Koenig‘s recent article, “What’s Next? Towards a Happiness Economy – Life in a New World with New Wellbeing Criteria” (1 May 2026) – see this for the full article.

Expanding the concept Towards a Happiness Economy meaning to a happy society with subjective and objective wellbeing criteria and indicators, Daniel and I conversed, focusing on the state of mind, of unhappiness of western people, societies, countries, cultures, on the importance of sovereign nations and cultures, of sovereign, independent national monetary policies and systems, the breaking up of “group-economies”, like the European Union’s (EU) Euro Ponzi scheme that pretends to over-reach different cultures and economic drivers — and how to shift from this societal dystopia into non-material concepts and meanings of “wealth.”

To start with, an essential step is doing away with the linear and global growth and poverty indicators, such as Gross National / Domestic Product (GNP/GDP) and the arbitrary border line of US$ 2/day as a separation between poor and “not so poor” …. an absurdity that stares in the face of any thinking human being.

To the fore comes the unhappiness of westerners living in a forever-war society or civilization, how it somatizes people ever more into cancers and other diseases, which our equally linear and compartmentalized medical system, supported by a corrupt pharma industry into a forever sick society, changes into a weaponized health cum disease system, where fear and drugs perpetuate unhappiness, providing the backdrop of a steadily growing profit-driven health and death industry.

Somatizing refers to the process where psychological distress—such as anxiety, stress, depression, or unresolved trauma—manifests as physical symptoms without an underlying medical cause. 

Somatization is a defense mechanism where emotional conflicts “convert” into bodily complaints like pain, fatigue, headaches, nausea, or digestive issues. These symptoms feel real and can prompt doctor visits, but tests show, at least initially, no organic pathology. However, over time, somatized suffering may, and does more often than not, translate into physical diseases.

Our western society is based on a system of perpetual unhappiness, needing perpetual pharma products to keep somatized patients (almost) perpetually alive, but with a destroyed wellbeing. It is a self-supporting circular, massive profit-generating medical-pharma apparatus.

Our societal values are related to our western ever material and vertical growth-oriented, competitive, “wellbeing” which has little or nothing to do with our internal soul-based happiness. This state of un-wellbeing is exacerbated by a steady indoctrination that material possessions lead to happiness, no matter how brutal the ways of acquiring these possessions, assets, financial values may be.

It is based on competition rather than cooperation; it is a ruthless “dog-eat-dog world”, where people harm each other, with no mercy, to succeed.

The simple alternative — a win-win arrangement, where trust and love may pioneer a new society, where giving and receiving becomes one – is ignored, does not even come to mind. With a few examples like Bhutan and Vanuatu – and even quiet and tacit attempts within the 38 OECD member countries (OECD stands for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), we would like to demonstrate that a transformation from the current material indices to real wellbeing and spiritual values is possible, is reachable.

See here the full conversation of Daniel Estulin with Peter Koenig:

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

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