191 The Real Game of Missing Money From Australia, I traveled to New Zealand with Louis Boulanger who had joined us in Uluru and had arranged for me to speak in Auckland about the global financial system. While in Auck- land, I had the opportunity to interview attorney and professor Amy Benjamin on secrecy—one of our most popular interviews of the year—and then hang out with Mary Evans at her marvel- ous Heron’s Flight vineyard on the North Island. Heading back to the United States, I stopped in the San Francisco Bay Area to have a marvelous afternoon gathering with subscribers at Court Skinner’s home in East Palo Alto. Michele Ferri and Jonathan Lurie joined to brief us on the latest developments in net neutrality. We had spent a great deal of time ahead of the event trying to find a restaurant where we could have a lunch at a reasonable price. In the end, we gave up and decided it was time to shift subscriber events from sit-down meals to afternoon gatherings. This format allows for much richer discussions and networking by members. Unfortunately, we had a person trying to record the event, and the result was more serious terms and conditions for our events—designed primarily to protect our subscribers from the occasional interloper. A wonderful development that resulted from our gathering in California was that I reconnected with Brigitte Mouchet, founder of Healoha, and invited her to launch the Solari Wellness Series (https://wellness.solari.com). After working with hundreds of families regarding their finances, I am convinced that wellness literacy can be a very important contributor to improved financ- es—not to mention a free and inspired life! Consequently, I wanted someone to host this topic on The Solari Report who had a specialized focus. I am very excited about Brigitte’s contributions over the last year. After a number of serious Wrap Up themes, including Control 101, the State of Our Pension Funds, and the Space-Based Economy, I thought I would choose a lighter topic for the 2nd Quarter 2018 Wrap Up. What I discovered in the process of researching The Rise of the Asian Consumer was that many of our subscribers in Europe and North America did not understand the enor- mous shift of economic and political power to Asia that began with the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 and is ongoing to this day. As a result, I spent quite a hot summer in Europe finishing up what turned out to be one of our most important Wrap Ups to date. Thanks to Thomas Meyer, I headed to Sofia in Bulgaria in July to join Thomas and his group at the Sofia Opera House to see Wagner’s The Ring. This was the first time I had seen the full cycle—it was an extraordinary experience. It was also on this occasion that Thomas defined “hypermaterialist”—capturing a phenomenon many of us are struggling with. The term refers to members of the human race for whom the concept of an immortal soul is inconceivable, whose reality is defined by corporate media, and who seem overly keen on the acquisition of “stuff.” Next, I traveled to Romania, where two wonderful subscribers had arranged for Jason Bawden- Smith and myself to see Bucharest and some of the beautiful countryside in the Southern Car- pathian mountains. Jason and I had a memorable afternoon and evening by the swimming pool watching Croatia and France compete in the World Cup games—it felt like all of Europe and much of the world were watching with us. Following the time in Romania, I headed first to Zurich and then to Austria’s Bregenz Festival to hear beautiful music with Ulrike and colleague Nicole Paratte. Then off we went road tripping to see the cathedrals and monasteries of Europe, including four days at Chartres. Along the way, we