Xi Jinping
The Chinese President has consolidated power in a way that hasn’t been witnessed since Mao Tse-tung. Now, Xi will aim to expand China’s influence on the global economy. In a more than three-hour speech in October, Xi outlined a “new era” o Chinese power. Xi wants to lead the word on economic, military, political and environmental issues. Is that the reason so many people are encouraging children in the United States under five years of age to learn Mandarin?

Satoshi Nakamoto
Nine years since the mysterious name graced the whitepaper calling for the creating of a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Since 2009, the price of one bitcoin has surged from a half penny to as much as $7,765. The price has surged higher in nations where local currencies have been battered by triple-digit inflation. Meanwhile, every central banker and Wall Street “expert” has speculated on the long-term value or the “speculative bubble” that bitcoin finds itself in. Regardless, 2017 was the year when bitcoin became a legitimate asset in the eyes of millions of investors around the globe. Both CME Group and Cboe Global Markets have plans to list futures on bitcoin before 2017 is over. Bitcoin won’t go away, and the blockchain is here to stay.

Steve Bannon
The Republican Party is in the midst of a brewing civil war that will come to a head in November 2018 with the mid-term elections. And riding a pale horse is former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon who also served as CEO of President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Bannon, a controversial figure from the start as the defacto leader of the alt-right movement, has returned to his home at Brietbart News and has his sights on traditional GOP leadership. Bannon previously worked to support primary challengers to establishment Republican politicians, but has escalated his fight since exiting the White House and has vowed more primary challenges to remove Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from leadership. In an interview with the Economist after leaving the Administration, Bannon quipped, that in the White House he had “influence,” but at Breitbart he has “power.”