1 00:00:03,630 --> 00:00:04,230 Jacob Shapiro: Hello listeners. 2 00:00:04,230 --> 00:00:06,720 Welcome to another episode of Geopolitical Cousins. 3 00:00:06,750 --> 00:00:09,780 Uh, Marco and I are both on the road, but we made some time in the evening on 4 00:00:09,780 --> 00:00:11,880 Tuesday, October 14th to talk to you. 5 00:00:11,940 --> 00:00:14,580 Uh, before we were dealing with our respective responsibilities. 6 00:00:14,580 --> 00:00:19,410 We talk about, uh, the Gen Z protests, uh, some interesting curve balls 7 00:00:19,410 --> 00:00:22,590 in there, but of course, US China relations, trade, everything else. 8 00:00:22,590 --> 00:00:23,850 We hope you enjoy the episode. 9 00:00:24,300 --> 00:00:28,230 If you wanna do us a favor, please share this podcast with everybody that you 10 00:00:28,230 --> 00:00:29,880 know, like that's all you have to do. 11 00:00:30,270 --> 00:00:31,260 Spread it far and wide. 12 00:00:31,530 --> 00:00:32,100 Cheers and see you up. 13 00:00:38,625 --> 00:00:40,890 All right, listeners, cousins, back at it. 14 00:00:40,950 --> 00:00:43,860 Uh, I cut Marco off 'cause he was starting to make basketball jokes. 15 00:00:43,860 --> 00:00:45,750 Marco, I'm in, I'm in Milwaukee. 16 00:00:45,810 --> 00:00:47,730 You are in, you are in Phoenix. 17 00:00:47,790 --> 00:00:49,260 Uh, what does that have to do with basketball? 18 00:00:50,430 --> 00:00:53,970 Marko Papic: Well, I was just saying that, uh, both cities have something 19 00:00:53,970 --> 00:00:57,870 in common, which is that they're going nowhere when it comes to the NBA. 20 00:00:58,110 --> 00:00:58,320 So, 21 00:00:59,940 --> 00:01:00,750 Jacob Shapiro: uh, Phoenix. 22 00:01:00,780 --> 00:01:01,769 Phoenix, probably not. 23 00:01:01,769 --> 00:01:04,920 It's really, you know, it's amazing how fast Phoenix fell from Grace and how 24 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:08,370 different the narrative would be if they had beat Giannis in that finals and CP 25 00:01:08,550 --> 00:01:12,480 three had gotten his finals, and yeah, quite a, quite a sliding doors moment. 26 00:01:13,050 --> 00:01:13,289 Um, yeah, 27 00:01:13,289 --> 00:01:16,530 Marko Papic: also, um, Deandre Aton, I mean, that was his 28 00:01:16,530 --> 00:01:18,210 last, uh, relevant season. 29 00:01:18,630 --> 00:01:20,400 But look, we can't lead with basketball. 30 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,610 We're gonna lose a lot of our, uh, uh, listeners. 31 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:26,039 We obviously have to leave that for the end. 32 00:01:26,039 --> 00:01:28,860 I do have some questions for you at the end, though, for you and our 33 00:01:28,860 --> 00:01:30,750 listeners on the basketball front, but 34 00:01:31,045 --> 00:01:34,200 Jacob Shapiro: I know that, well, I mean, uh, obviously we have to lead with Ryan 35 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:37,800 Russillo breaking up with Bill Simmons officially and moving to Barstool Sports. 36 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:38,100 Right. 37 00:01:38,100 --> 00:01:39,090 That that's what you're implying. 38 00:01:40,050 --> 00:01:45,330 Marko Papic: Yeah, I, that was actually, uh, very surprising, you know, um, but I 39 00:01:45,330 --> 00:01:48,600 guess, uh, you know, that's, that's what happens when you don't give people equity. 40 00:01:48,945 --> 00:01:54,405 Good people leave when you don't give them enough or you know, at all, any equity. 41 00:01:54,405 --> 00:01:59,414 So, I don't know, you sent me, or you posted the, the video of Ryan 42 00:01:59,414 --> 00:02:04,485 Illa basically saying why, and it was very clear that he emphasized, 43 00:02:04,935 --> 00:02:09,435 you know, that uh, it was all about partner, being a partner. 44 00:02:09,435 --> 00:02:11,805 He wants to be partner at this stage in his career. 45 00:02:12,015 --> 00:02:14,565 Jacob Shapiro: Number one for somebody who's been on the radio and podcast 46 00:02:14,565 --> 00:02:18,135 and TV for as long as he was, he was so painfully awkward in that video, 47 00:02:18,135 --> 00:02:19,155 which is one of the reasons I like him. 48 00:02:19,155 --> 00:02:21,015 'cause he's, he just like sucks at these things. 49 00:02:21,015 --> 00:02:24,855 He also deed to use the words at this stage in my career, uh, 50 00:02:24,855 --> 00:02:27,615 which I don't know, like how many people has he probably criticized 51 00:02:27,615 --> 00:02:28,785 as well from that point of view. 52 00:02:28,815 --> 00:02:33,195 But I'm, I'm gonna make this, this vow to you in front of all the listeners. 53 00:02:33,195 --> 00:02:35,355 Marco, I will never leave you for. 54 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:37,079 For David Portnoy. 55 00:02:37,079 --> 00:02:39,480 Now, Mr. Portnoy, if you're listening and you want to bring both of us to the 56 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:42,600 Barstool Geopolitics network, like we are both gonna talk, but you will not. 57 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:44,280 Well, first of all, you'll not divide my loyalties, 58 00:02:44,700 --> 00:02:47,730 Marko Papic: but the reason I'm not Bill Simmons is because we're equal partners. 59 00:02:48,239 --> 00:02:48,720 Jacob Shapiro: Yes. 60 00:02:48,810 --> 00:02:49,200 That's in this 61 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:49,739 Marko Papic: endeavor. 62 00:02:49,739 --> 00:02:50,100 Right. 63 00:02:50,100 --> 00:02:51,120 So that is the difference. 64 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:53,880 I mean, um, and that's, and by the way, that's, I think what's very 65 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:57,750 important for anyone starting a business, you cannot keep people who 66 00:02:57,750 --> 00:03:02,459 are critical to the business or who are clearly a, like a generational talent 67 00:03:02,940 --> 00:03:04,680 without sharing equity with them. 68 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:06,660 That's just like, yeah, they're gonna leave. 69 00:03:07,049 --> 00:03:07,620 You know what I mean? 70 00:03:07,620 --> 00:03:08,850 And it's a free market baby. 71 00:03:09,329 --> 00:03:14,399 Once you reach a certain level of, um, excellence, you know, like, and Ryan 72 00:03:14,670 --> 00:03:16,500 SLO is excellent, and so he bounced. 73 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:17,700 Jacob Shapiro: And he bounced. 74 00:03:18,540 --> 00:03:18,900 All right. 75 00:03:18,900 --> 00:03:23,250 Well, um, also just, just the last bit of, uh, foreplay before we get into it. 76 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:27,630 I, um, sure it, it takes, I, I don't drink a whole lot these days, mostly because 77 00:03:27,630 --> 00:03:30,600 I'm, you know, I've got, was up with the 10 month old all night last night. 78 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:31,620 Like, it's just, it's just a lot. 79 00:03:31,620 --> 00:03:34,260 But I will say when I'm in Wisconsin, I cannot help but, 80 00:03:34,500 --> 00:03:37,530 but drink some of the spotted cow here, only available in Wisconsin. 81 00:03:37,530 --> 00:03:38,550 It's a delicious beer. 82 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,210 They drink more per capita in Wisconsin than anywhere else in the United States. 83 00:03:42,210 --> 00:03:43,170 I felt like I should join in. 84 00:03:43,170 --> 00:03:44,970 So I'm having a beer with you this evening too, mark. 85 00:03:45,450 --> 00:03:45,900 Marko Papic: That's awesome. 86 00:03:45,905 --> 00:03:48,720 I'm, I'm actually on coffee 'cause I've been on client calls since 5:00 AM. 87 00:03:49,290 --> 00:03:52,920 Uh, also couple of things since we are partners, don't do 88 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:54,120 that again unless they pay us. 89 00:03:54,330 --> 00:03:55,230 Can we just make sure 90 00:03:56,370 --> 00:03:57,600 Jacob Shapiro: I've been adding them to come on the 91 00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,340 podcast for some time, but Yes. 92 00:03:59,340 --> 00:03:59,610 Okay. 93 00:03:59,610 --> 00:03:59,850 Fine. 94 00:03:59,910 --> 00:04:00,540 Marko Papic: At second. 95 00:04:00,540 --> 00:04:02,970 At second of all, I love you, but you sometimes say things 96 00:04:02,970 --> 00:04:04,350 that are completely illogical. 97 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:06,630 You drink because you have a 10 month old. 98 00:04:08,055 --> 00:04:09,645 That's why you would drink. 99 00:04:09,735 --> 00:04:10,165 Jacob Shapiro: Oh, I see. 100 00:04:10,165 --> 00:04:10,635 What, you see what I mean? 101 00:04:10,635 --> 00:04:10,875 You're saying? 102 00:04:11,265 --> 00:04:15,705 Well, yeah, but that if you're using alcohol as a crutch to deal with, you 103 00:04:15,705 --> 00:04:16,995 know, your feelings of stress, parent, 104 00:04:17,145 --> 00:04:17,415 Marko Papic: yes. 105 00:04:17,415 --> 00:04:17,895 Like, yes. 106 00:04:17,895 --> 00:04:18,285 Go on. 107 00:04:18,285 --> 00:04:20,295 You're gonna lose everyone listening to this podcast. 108 00:04:20,295 --> 00:04:21,075 Let's just move on. 109 00:04:21,075 --> 00:04:21,555 Let's just move on, 110 00:04:22,245 --> 00:04:22,605 Jacob Shapiro: Marco. 111 00:04:22,605 --> 00:04:23,835 I lost them a long time ago. 112 00:04:23,835 --> 00:04:26,175 Remember, I'm, I'm the elitist here in the conversation. 113 00:04:26,175 --> 00:04:27,885 My job is not to make these people happy. 114 00:04:27,975 --> 00:04:30,195 That's, uh, fair enough. 115 00:04:30,495 --> 00:04:31,665 Anyway, okay. 116 00:04:31,665 --> 00:04:33,585 But the thing that probably everybody wants to talk about, 117 00:04:33,585 --> 00:04:36,705 I'll try and set us up here while Marco, so we've got fireworks in 118 00:04:36,705 --> 00:04:38,205 the US China trade relationship. 119 00:04:38,205 --> 00:04:40,635 We've got some other things we want to get to in the episode today, 120 00:04:40,935 --> 00:04:42,075 but we should talk about them. 121 00:04:42,405 --> 00:04:46,635 Um, it began, well it depends what, where, where you think it begins. 122 00:04:46,635 --> 00:04:51,315 Sort of depends because there was this ruling, uh, last week, um, the 123 00:04:51,315 --> 00:04:55,335 sort of fi for the, the Department of Commerce, um, had this new 50% 124 00:04:55,335 --> 00:05:00,435 rule that entities that are owned 50% by a foreign government or some. 125 00:05:00,885 --> 00:05:04,185 Entity that is on an entity list that would trigger a bunch of, 126 00:05:04,575 --> 00:05:06,224 uh, different export controls. 127 00:05:06,465 --> 00:05:10,724 That at least is what people are pointed to as the reason for China reacting pretty 128 00:05:10,724 --> 00:05:15,585 disproportionately and announcing a bunch of export controls on rare earth elements. 129 00:05:15,885 --> 00:05:18,854 Um, this is the part in the conversation where we have to remind listeners 130 00:05:18,854 --> 00:05:20,924 that rare earth elements are not rare. 131 00:05:21,164 --> 00:05:24,974 They are just incredibly costly and pollutive to mine effectively, and 132 00:05:24,974 --> 00:05:26,895 China doesn't care about any of that. 133 00:05:26,895 --> 00:05:29,745 They got rid of all the regulations and they have become the real center, 134 00:05:30,104 --> 00:05:33,585 um, of a lot of these different, of mining and processing and refining a 135 00:05:33,585 --> 00:05:34,815 lot of these different rare earths. 136 00:05:35,145 --> 00:05:39,794 A lot of these are minerals and resources whose names I can't even pronounce, but 137 00:05:39,794 --> 00:05:45,674 I know that they're incredibly important, um, in semiconductors, um, in electricity 138 00:05:45,674 --> 00:05:47,984 management devices like capacitors. 139 00:05:47,984 --> 00:05:50,684 I mean, there's all sorts of things that they're absolutely mission critical for, 140 00:05:50,684 --> 00:05:55,155 and which China controls massive amounts of the supply chain for, um, and China. 141 00:05:55,155 --> 00:05:55,604 It's not. 142 00:05:55,775 --> 00:05:59,284 It's not necessarily banning the exports of lots of these different minerals. 143 00:05:59,554 --> 00:06:02,585 What it's doing though, is it's gonna make Chinese companies and Chinese 144 00:06:02,585 --> 00:06:07,715 exporters, um, have to apply for approval to continue exporting in the future. 145 00:06:07,924 --> 00:06:11,015 I thought one of the interesting things too is it's not just, you 146 00:06:11,015 --> 00:06:14,465 know, the heavy rare earth elements and the li uh, the graphite and 147 00:06:14,465 --> 00:06:15,724 the, and all that other stuff. 148 00:06:16,025 --> 00:06:20,044 They're also, they also put at least, you know, quote unquote restrictions, 149 00:06:20,434 --> 00:06:24,875 um, on any technologies that lead to the assembly, maintenance, 150 00:06:25,054 --> 00:06:28,085 repair, and upgrading of production line for rare earth mining. 151 00:06:28,085 --> 00:06:28,905 So I think they're, they're. 152 00:06:29,565 --> 00:06:31,665 They're looking there and saying, okay, these other countries 153 00:06:31,665 --> 00:06:33,015 in the world want to do this. 154 00:06:33,015 --> 00:06:35,385 They want to take some of this processing and refining back. 155 00:06:35,385 --> 00:06:36,495 We're not gonna let you do that either. 156 00:06:36,525 --> 00:06:39,165 'cause we have cornered the market on this and we're the ones that have 157 00:06:39,165 --> 00:06:43,125 all the technology and the refining, processing and capacity as well. 158 00:06:43,635 --> 00:06:47,295 Um, there's also, and this is just in the last couple of days, like 159 00:06:47,295 --> 00:06:49,155 everybody's focusing on the rare earth. 160 00:06:49,659 --> 00:06:51,310 Um, but I dunno if you saw this, Marco. 161 00:06:51,310 --> 00:06:55,930 There's also a return to these tit for tat port fees that ocean shipping firms 162 00:06:55,930 --> 00:06:57,370 are gonna be charging on each other. 163 00:06:57,370 --> 00:06:59,770 This was something that both the United States and China announced 164 00:06:59,770 --> 00:07:03,580 earlier in the year when President Trump was talking about 240% tariffs. 165 00:07:03,849 --> 00:07:05,169 They were supposed to kick in later. 166 00:07:05,169 --> 00:07:06,580 Were they gonna get kicked in at all? 167 00:07:06,820 --> 00:07:08,560 It appears that they're being kicked in. 168 00:07:08,890 --> 00:07:12,340 Um, now both China and the United States tried to, to tried to assuage 169 00:07:12,340 --> 00:07:14,620 investors and say, eh, like it's not gonna be that big of a deal. 170 00:07:14,620 --> 00:07:18,370 But China also said it has started to collect charges on us owned, 171 00:07:18,370 --> 00:07:20,409 operated, built or flagged vessels. 172 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:22,359 And the United States has similar restrictions in 173 00:07:22,359 --> 00:07:23,469 place at its different ports. 174 00:07:23,890 --> 00:07:25,690 I talk to different folks in the shipping industry. 175 00:07:25,719 --> 00:07:27,820 They don't even really know what the rules are at this point and 176 00:07:27,820 --> 00:07:28,929 how they're gonna be enforced. 177 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:35,560 Um, China also added some, um, some subsidiaries of a South Korean ship 178 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:40,284 building company, um, on its sanctions list for engaging with the United 179 00:07:40,284 --> 00:07:41,890 States, which is an interesting thing. 180 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:44,859 Um, and before I turn it over to you to, to let you. 181 00:07:45,525 --> 00:07:46,755 Uh, give us a take on this. 182 00:07:46,755 --> 00:07:50,385 I did just want to quote the President of the United States. 183 00:07:50,805 --> 00:07:54,734 Um, by the way, Scott Besson said that President Trump and Xi Jinping will still 184 00:07:54,734 --> 00:07:57,885 meet in a couple of weeks, and that he thinks these things can be deescalated. 185 00:07:57,885 --> 00:08:01,245 So, um, that, that to me probably says short-term deal, but we 186 00:08:01,245 --> 00:08:02,385 won't step on the punchline. 187 00:08:02,594 --> 00:08:06,135 But here is, here's what the president of the United States had to say, uh, when 188 00:08:06,135 --> 00:08:10,935 he was asked about Beijing pursuing these new curbs on rare earth element exports. 189 00:08:11,145 --> 00:08:13,844 Quote, we have the ultimate export. 190 00:08:13,905 --> 00:08:15,945 We have import and we have export. 191 00:08:16,005 --> 00:08:19,544 We import from China, massive amounts, and, you know, maybe 192 00:08:19,544 --> 00:08:20,804 we'll have to stop doing that. 193 00:08:20,995 --> 00:08:22,945 But I don't know exactly what it is. 194 00:08:23,155 --> 00:08:24,145 Neither do you. 195 00:08:24,325 --> 00:08:25,555 Neither does anybody. 196 00:08:25,975 --> 00:08:26,635 End quote. 197 00:08:26,965 --> 00:08:29,515 I also loved the next line in the Bloomberg article that had this 198 00:08:29,515 --> 00:08:33,414 quote, it was unclear what exports the president was referring to. 199 00:08:33,534 --> 00:08:36,145 Marco, what is going on in the US China relationship? 200 00:08:37,525 --> 00:08:38,005 Marko Papic: Oh, man. 201 00:08:38,275 --> 00:08:41,934 Uh, well, first of all, uh, one of the, one of the reasons that I love 202 00:08:41,934 --> 00:08:45,475 that you set up our conversations is that you do such a thorough 203 00:08:45,475 --> 00:08:47,365 job of explaining what happened. 204 00:08:47,935 --> 00:08:48,085 Jacob Shapiro: Hmm. 205 00:08:48,115 --> 00:08:50,935 Marko Papic: Because I, I would say No, seriously, and I, and I'm just, just 206 00:08:50,935 --> 00:08:56,665 saying that because, um, most of the media kind of missed that October 2nd 207 00:08:57,025 --> 00:09:00,470 semiconductor round of export control. 208 00:09:00,610 --> 00:09:06,085 So the United States of America has tried to close the loophole basically. 209 00:09:06,145 --> 00:09:12,145 Um, the US does not want entities in China that are aligned in some 210 00:09:12,145 --> 00:09:13,945 way, shape, or form, pretty loosely. 211 00:09:14,035 --> 00:09:18,205 I would say the Donald Trump administration was very 212 00:09:18,205 --> 00:09:20,155 narrow in its definition of. 213 00:09:20,655 --> 00:09:25,215 What Chinese entities are aligned with the military and the Communist party. 214 00:09:26,115 --> 00:09:28,395 They needed to see direct ownership link. 215 00:09:28,905 --> 00:09:33,495 The Biden administration broadened the connection massively, too, massively, I 216 00:09:33,495 --> 00:09:39,045 would say, because, you know, if you sell toilet paper to the Chinese, like people's 217 00:09:39,045 --> 00:09:43,605 liberation army, you are effectively like part of the military industrial complex. 218 00:09:43,605 --> 00:09:50,625 So that's, that's Joe Biden, uh, and, and, uh, um, and his administration's fault. 219 00:09:50,655 --> 00:09:55,485 But what bi, what Trump has done is he ha he's continued the Joe Biden 220 00:09:55,485 --> 00:10:00,135 line and then he's closed the loophole where whereas many of these Chinese 221 00:10:00,135 --> 00:10:04,035 companies would create a subsidiary, they would create another company, 222 00:10:04,575 --> 00:10:07,815 own a piece of it, and then have that subsidiary just buy the chips. 223 00:10:09,375 --> 00:10:13,425 And so, uh, on October 2nd, the Trump administration tried to close that 224 00:10:13,455 --> 00:10:15,375 loophole with what's called a 50% rule. 225 00:10:15,945 --> 00:10:19,095 You know, um, if various list. 226 00:10:20,115 --> 00:10:23,655 Entities of the Chinese government that Chinese government has some 227 00:10:23,714 --> 00:10:27,464 sort of relationship with is they control effectively over 50%. 228 00:10:27,464 --> 00:10:28,875 You're not supposed to do these trips. 229 00:10:28,875 --> 00:10:29,594 You're not, you know. 230 00:10:30,314 --> 00:10:34,574 Um, so the first foray this time around was again, launched by the us. 231 00:10:35,535 --> 00:10:39,704 Uh, your, your assessment is correct that, that October 2nd was important, 232 00:10:39,704 --> 00:10:43,395 but then you also said that China reacted disproportionately, and 233 00:10:43,395 --> 00:10:46,995 I would actually argue that it reacted extremely proportionately. 234 00:10:47,055 --> 00:10:47,265 Jacob Shapiro: Hmm. 235 00:10:48,435 --> 00:10:51,824 Marko Papic: So, as the Chinese, uh, I think it was commerce ministry or 236 00:10:51,885 --> 00:10:57,405 someone like that, their, their statement on Saturday after the Friday, uh, 237 00:10:57,405 --> 00:11:00,375 tweet for President Trump that he was going to put sanctions at a hundred 238 00:11:00,375 --> 00:11:02,355 percent, their statements went along. 239 00:11:02,355 --> 00:11:06,135 Something like, look, you know, and this was not carried by a lot 240 00:11:06,135 --> 00:11:08,805 of the Western press because it doesn't fit the neat narrative that 241 00:11:08,805 --> 00:11:10,155 the Chinese are losing their cool. 242 00:11:10,845 --> 00:11:13,755 But the Chinese commerce ministry came out and said, look. 243 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:17,490 These are export controls, they're not export bans and all legitimate 244 00:11:17,490 --> 00:11:19,050 businesses have nothing to worry about. 245 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:20,520 It was almost verbatim. 246 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:21,210 Something like that. 247 00:11:21,570 --> 00:11:21,630 Yeah. 248 00:11:21,630 --> 00:11:25,920 In other words, like, hey look, I mean the US is imposing export controls 249 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:30,450 where they want to go purchase order by purchase order and approve each one. 250 00:11:30,450 --> 00:11:34,560 Well, we want to have that sort of les over your heads too. 251 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:38,610 We're not saying that you are not gonna get the rare earth from China and 252 00:11:38,610 --> 00:11:43,170 everyone listening to this, just to be clear, none of this is about banning. 253 00:11:43,770 --> 00:11:46,530 Like America will still sell semiconductors, but it has 254 00:11:46,530 --> 00:11:48,780 to go to companies in China that are allowed to buy it. 255 00:11:49,260 --> 00:11:51,330 And China simply saying, we're not banning rare earths. 256 00:11:51,330 --> 00:11:55,260 But similarly we're going to say to Lockheed Martin, like, 257 00:11:55,260 --> 00:11:56,970 Hey, dual use technology. 258 00:11:56,970 --> 00:11:59,700 You are building missiles that one day might kill Chinese. 259 00:11:59,700 --> 00:12:02,880 We're not gonna sell you rare earths, but we'll sell it to Nvidia. 260 00:12:03,510 --> 00:12:03,900 You know? 261 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:06,570 Um, and so I think that that's an important point. 262 00:12:06,570 --> 00:12:08,250 I think this is extremely proportionate. 263 00:12:08,805 --> 00:12:11,295 As is the shipping fees that you also mentioned. 264 00:12:11,295 --> 00:12:14,505 China's saying to the US we're just gonna do tit for tat. 265 00:12:14,505 --> 00:12:18,045 So, um, I think that that's something to understand. 266 00:12:18,045 --> 00:12:21,945 I don't think there is a real shift in Chinese thinking here. 267 00:12:22,425 --> 00:12:25,635 I think that they're just finally starting to say to America, 268 00:12:25,635 --> 00:12:28,395 like, look, we are gonna start restricting access to rare earths. 269 00:12:29,205 --> 00:12:33,590 If you restrict access to semiconductors, um, on tariffs on 270 00:12:33,620 --> 00:12:35,535 tariffs, we're not gonna follow you. 271 00:12:35,865 --> 00:12:37,815 We're not gonna keep ratcheting tariffs. 272 00:12:38,115 --> 00:12:41,355 And they actually said that after April, they, they came out and said it's 273 00:12:41,355 --> 00:12:44,475 nonsense to keep increasing tariffs. 274 00:12:44,985 --> 00:12:47,265 They made a joke like Beijing made a joke about this. 275 00:12:47,265 --> 00:12:47,655 Like, this is, yeah, 276 00:12:47,955 --> 00:12:48,465 Jacob Shapiro: it was really, it was good. 277 00:12:48,465 --> 00:12:51,855 It was, it was, uh, because it was so affected, it, it really hit, well, I, 278 00:12:51,855 --> 00:12:55,395 I can try to find the exact language, but it was when Trump did 240% tariffs 279 00:12:55,395 --> 00:12:56,775 and they were, they did something like. 280 00:12:57,435 --> 00:12:57,765 Okay. 281 00:12:57,765 --> 00:13:02,475 Like, this doesn't mean anything after 120%, so we're just gonna stop at 120%. 282 00:13:02,715 --> 00:13:03,375 Like whatever, 283 00:13:04,005 --> 00:13:05,385 Marko Papic: 1000000000%. 284 00:13:05,385 --> 00:13:05,565 No. 285 00:13:05,565 --> 00:13:10,575 So, uh, the, so I, I, I, I basically think, look, the Chinese are saying like, 286 00:13:10,995 --> 00:13:15,555 you do something on October 2nd, we do something on October 8th, and then Friday 287 00:13:15,555 --> 00:13:21,855 rolls along and Donald Trump reacts, loses his school and he's like, this is nuts. 288 00:13:21,855 --> 00:13:26,295 And then 24 hours later he's like, ha, psych, I was just kidding. 289 00:13:26,295 --> 00:13:27,285 Everything is gonna be fine. 290 00:13:27,285 --> 00:13:28,275 So what happened here? 291 00:13:28,875 --> 00:13:30,525 I'll tell you what I think happened, Jacob. 292 00:13:30,645 --> 00:13:34,965 I think there's two tracks in American, uh, foreign policy right now. 293 00:13:35,865 --> 00:13:40,725 There's a sort of a bureaucratic inertia, and if you think about how bureaucracy 294 00:13:40,725 --> 00:13:46,335 works, just like a lever, just like a toggle, and the toggle is like from 295 00:13:46,335 --> 00:13:53,355 one to 10, one being like, let's be nice to China, 10 being, you know, time 296 00:13:53,355 --> 00:13:55,515 to fuel up the nukes in nuke China. 297 00:13:56,475 --> 00:14:01,905 And so obviously since 2017, Donald Trump himself moved the toggle from one to six. 298 00:14:02,475 --> 00:14:06,615 And then interestingly, Joe Biden moved it from six to eight. 299 00:14:06,710 --> 00:14:07,130 Mm-hmm. 300 00:14:08,475 --> 00:14:14,025 You know, and so that's just the default setting of the bureaucracy. 301 00:14:14,535 --> 00:14:20,145 And that bureaucracy continues to initiate Section 3 0 1 investigations in China, 302 00:14:21,045 --> 00:14:23,655 uh, which take months to get done. 303 00:14:24,315 --> 00:14:27,825 There's a, there's a bureaucratic and technocratic process 304 00:14:27,825 --> 00:14:29,235 in these investigations. 305 00:14:29,565 --> 00:14:33,795 There's serious people who get paid good money, who are well educated, 306 00:14:33,795 --> 00:14:37,545 who are working on all these, oh, you know, we need to close the loophole 307 00:14:37,545 --> 00:14:38,805 because of these subsidiaries. 308 00:14:38,805 --> 00:14:39,525 Let's do that. 309 00:14:40,485 --> 00:14:44,235 And that's, that's one layer of the cake. 310 00:14:44,385 --> 00:14:49,275 And then there's the icing, which is very orange and very, 311 00:14:49,275 --> 00:14:51,315 very like profoundly awesome. 312 00:14:51,675 --> 00:14:52,605 And that's Donald Trump. 313 00:14:53,265 --> 00:14:57,195 And he does not have any, I think, awareness of what his own bureaucracy 314 00:14:57,195 --> 00:14:59,115 is doing on those other layers. 315 00:14:59,775 --> 00:15:02,205 And so when China retaliates against something that, you know, the 316 00:15:02,205 --> 00:15:04,695 United States of America did, like his administration did, he's like, 317 00:15:04,695 --> 00:15:08,295 whoa, Xi Jinping made a mistake, but well, no, he's just reacting 318 00:15:08,295 --> 00:15:10,155 to what your government is doing. 319 00:15:10,425 --> 00:15:13,665 And then he realizes it, and then he calms down 24 hours later, he 320 00:15:13,665 --> 00:15:15,465 probably has a snicker bar, right? 321 00:15:15,825 --> 00:15:17,295 Like the famous Snicker commercial. 322 00:15:17,805 --> 00:15:21,135 And he says, oh, okay, I see what happened here. 323 00:15:21,135 --> 00:15:24,105 And as of course, Donald Trump said a couple of months ago, or maybe even 324 00:15:24,105 --> 00:15:29,175 a couple of weeks ago, look, American chip companies will sell chips to China. 325 00:15:29,205 --> 00:15:30,615 They want to sell chips to China. 326 00:15:30,615 --> 00:15:33,944 He wants them to sell chips to China so they can continue to have a monopoly. 327 00:15:34,485 --> 00:15:39,105 And so I think that where this is headed is Donald Trump who wants to deal with 328 00:15:39,105 --> 00:15:44,865 China and understands that there are downsides to some of these export controls 329 00:15:44,865 --> 00:15:49,005 in a genuine way, not in sort of a silly, Donald Trump just wants to make a deal 330 00:15:49,005 --> 00:15:50,865 way, but there's actual downside to. 331 00:15:51,974 --> 00:15:55,305 Effectively helping China develop its own chip industry. 332 00:15:55,604 --> 00:15:57,074 You know, that's what America is doing. 333 00:15:57,375 --> 00:15:57,464 Jacob Shapiro: Mm-hmm. 334 00:15:58,155 --> 00:16:00,015 Marko Papic: I think that what you're gonna see is Donald Trump is gonna 335 00:16:00,015 --> 00:16:03,944 win over that lower layer where he's just gonna tell the bureaucracy, like, 336 00:16:03,944 --> 00:16:06,045 look, let's find a compromise here. 337 00:16:06,074 --> 00:16:07,875 And so, yes, I do think there's gonna be a deal. 338 00:16:07,875 --> 00:16:13,545 And, and it's not just, uh, Scott Best and Jameson Greer came out also with 339 00:16:13,545 --> 00:16:15,255 very sort of conciliatory comments. 340 00:16:15,255 --> 00:16:17,535 Like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're gonna, we're gonna 341 00:16:17,535 --> 00:16:18,584 sit down with the Chinese. 342 00:16:18,584 --> 00:16:23,145 And I would say that this is where the TikTok deal is also important, because 343 00:16:23,145 --> 00:16:28,905 speaking to people with contexts in China itself, what I've been told from 344 00:16:29,324 --> 00:16:36,765 my onshore context is that the TikTok deal actually allowed a creation of, you 345 00:16:36,765 --> 00:16:38,415 know, it wasn't that relevant as a deal. 346 00:16:38,415 --> 00:16:41,505 Like nobody's really like sitting here like wondering where TikTok is going. 347 00:16:41,505 --> 00:16:45,824 But what it did is it created C news and connectivity at very top. 348 00:16:46,875 --> 00:16:48,045 And so there's finally. 349 00:16:48,630 --> 00:16:52,050 Channels of communication, whereas there weren't really in April when 350 00:16:52,050 --> 00:16:58,770 President Trump just went on a tariff tirade after the, after the TikTok 351 00:16:58,770 --> 00:17:01,590 deal was settled, even though the deal itself was not that important. 352 00:17:01,590 --> 00:17:07,980 The mechanism to get the deal done means that people in power in both China and us 353 00:17:08,010 --> 00:17:11,760 have a way to text each other, have a way to call each other, have a way to be like, 354 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,220 yo, why are you restricting rare earths? 355 00:17:14,220 --> 00:17:18,870 Well, because you guys just a week earlier restricted semiconductors. 356 00:17:18,870 --> 00:17:19,380 No, we didn't. 357 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:19,890 Yeah, you did. 358 00:17:19,890 --> 00:17:20,460 What about this? 359 00:17:20,670 --> 00:17:22,319 Oh no, no, that's just standard stuff we're doing. 360 00:17:22,319 --> 00:17:26,250 'cause you guys arrivals, well, well, you know, now we're gonna respond. 361 00:17:26,250 --> 00:17:31,440 And then you have that conversation and it's not just two megaphones 362 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:32,550 shouting into the ether. 363 00:17:32,550 --> 00:17:35,730 So, um, I think that's the background of this story. 364 00:17:35,730 --> 00:17:37,800 And I, I don't think we're gonna end up with a hundred percent 365 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:40,380 tariffs on, on toys for Christmas. 366 00:17:41,445 --> 00:17:41,805 Jacob Shapiro: No. 367 00:17:41,805 --> 00:17:44,024 And, and if we do, I mean things are gonna be terrible there. 368 00:17:44,024 --> 00:17:45,284 There's a couple things to say in there. 369 00:17:45,284 --> 00:17:48,044 You're right that the Biden administration was much tougher and much more, much 370 00:17:48,044 --> 00:17:51,885 more surgical on Beijing, and you might remember the Biden administration, 371 00:17:51,885 --> 00:17:56,385 one of their last gasp acts was the semiconductor restriction plan. 372 00:17:56,385 --> 00:17:58,815 It was basically, some countries have no restrictions, some 373 00:17:58,875 --> 00:18:00,615 have some level of restriction. 374 00:18:00,615 --> 00:18:02,655 Then there's the, the ultimate level of restriction and China 375 00:18:02,655 --> 00:18:03,405 was gonna be on that list. 376 00:18:03,885 --> 00:18:06,794 The Trump administration threw that plan out months ago now, saying 377 00:18:06,794 --> 00:18:09,225 we, we are gonna have something that we're gonna put in its place. 378 00:18:09,375 --> 00:18:11,235 We still don't know what that thing is in its place. 379 00:18:11,534 --> 00:18:13,905 And in the meantime, we've had, for example, Nvidia. 380 00:18:14,625 --> 00:18:18,645 Uh, lobby again, some of the restrictions that it was dealing with and then 381 00:18:18,735 --> 00:18:21,735 the Trump administration saying that it was gonna take a cut of exports 382 00:18:21,735 --> 00:18:24,975 going to China, which is also an interesting, um, sort of part of this. 383 00:18:25,274 --> 00:18:29,054 There's also like, I don't know if this is still true, but when China first started 384 00:18:29,054 --> 00:18:32,205 making noise about this and they've been doing this for years, like these export 385 00:18:32,205 --> 00:18:36,014 controls and some of these different elements and mineral resources, yes, it is 386 00:18:36,014 --> 00:18:38,834 that they want to be able to control this with the west and control the processing. 387 00:18:39,044 --> 00:18:41,475 But China, again, I'll just remind our listeners, is a country of 388 00:18:41,475 --> 00:18:45,105 a billion people and the Chinese government doesn't always know 389 00:18:45,105 --> 00:18:46,605 what its own companies are doing. 390 00:18:46,665 --> 00:18:52,064 So part of the process of getting Chinese companies to apply for approval to export 391 00:18:52,064 --> 00:18:54,764 these things, yes, it was to create a lever with the west, but it was also 392 00:18:54,764 --> 00:18:58,064 for the Chinese government to figure out what the fuck they had going on. 393 00:18:58,274 --> 00:19:00,584 'cause they didn't even know what kind of levers they were pulling. 394 00:19:00,584 --> 00:19:03,074 I think they, they have a better sense of those levers now. 395 00:19:03,105 --> 00:19:03,405 Yes. 396 00:19:03,495 --> 00:19:06,735 But I wouldn't be surprised if there's like a little bit of that in there. 397 00:19:07,004 --> 00:19:08,804 There's also, and, and, oh yeah, go ahead. 398 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:09,320 Before. 399 00:19:09,340 --> 00:19:09,710 No, no, no, no. 400 00:19:09,710 --> 00:19:09,980 Please, please. 401 00:19:09,980 --> 00:19:10,670 Finish, finish, finish. 402 00:19:11,030 --> 00:19:13,430 Well, the, the last thing I just wanna say is, you know, I, I, I 403 00:19:13,430 --> 00:19:17,810 talked to a guy who's, who's in the rare earth refining processing space 404 00:19:17,810 --> 00:19:23,060 and who was trying, um, to basically bring that to the United States. 405 00:19:23,060 --> 00:19:25,700 And I was asking him, well, I, I texted him today and I was like, you 406 00:19:25,700 --> 00:19:27,020 must be having an interesting week. 407 00:19:27,020 --> 00:19:28,730 And he said, yeah, I am having an interesting week. 408 00:19:28,730 --> 00:19:30,980 And I asked him, is it anything more than talk? 409 00:19:31,580 --> 00:19:33,890 And his answer was basically like, not really. 410 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:35,300 Like people are freaking out. 411 00:19:35,300 --> 00:19:38,720 They're saying lots of things in public, but the shift from, hey, this is a 412 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:43,790 problem to no, we're actually going to spend the money to have CapEx to refine 413 00:19:43,790 --> 00:19:47,060 and process these things and countries that are, that are the United States 414 00:19:47,060 --> 00:19:47,989 are friendly to the United States. 415 00:19:48,290 --> 00:19:49,940 Like I don't think we're exactly there there yet. 416 00:19:49,940 --> 00:19:52,880 And he expects some kind of short term deal as well. 417 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,330 All and all of which is to say, and I think you and I have both been on this 418 00:19:56,330 --> 00:19:59,840 from different angles from the very beginning, which is Trump's instinct, 419 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:01,370 I think is to make a deal with China. 420 00:20:02,250 --> 00:20:04,890 Much to the chagrin of Peter Navarro and the other China Hawks 421 00:20:04,890 --> 00:20:06,150 that he has in his administration. 422 00:20:06,150 --> 00:20:09,180 And people like Jameson Greer and Scott Besson are cool with that. 423 00:20:09,180 --> 00:20:12,390 And I think if Trump, if it was up to Trump, like he would announce some deal 424 00:20:12,390 --> 00:20:15,510 and there would be a grand US China bargain and everything would be fine. 425 00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:18,210 The flip side of that is that some of the things that his government 426 00:20:18,210 --> 00:20:21,690 is doing and some of the things that he says right, is the exact 427 00:20:21,690 --> 00:20:23,520 opposite, which is full decoupling. 428 00:20:23,790 --> 00:20:26,520 Like there's not gonna be any future in the US China relationship. 429 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:27,870 These are geopolitical rivals. 430 00:20:27,900 --> 00:20:30,540 And I don't even think Trump, like there's no consistency with him. 431 00:20:30,540 --> 00:20:32,550 And I think the Chinese have at least realized that. 432 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:35,340 And so they have to punch the bully in the mouth when the bully comes at 433 00:20:35,340 --> 00:20:37,050 them with something like the 50% rule. 434 00:20:37,380 --> 00:20:39,930 But they also ultimately have economic problems of their own. 435 00:20:39,930 --> 00:20:43,350 And if they can have a short-term deal whose provisions they won't live up 436 00:20:43,350 --> 00:20:47,520 to, like, so for, for any investors or folks who have companies, you should 437 00:20:47,580 --> 00:20:51,360 behave as if there is no deal because I'll, I'll put my neck out there and 438 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:54,930 say in five years it doesn't matter, like the US and China are decoupling. 439 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:57,300 Like it doesn't matter if we have some kind of short-term deal 440 00:20:57,300 --> 00:20:58,320 or whatever else is happening. 441 00:20:58,350 --> 00:20:58,715 But anyway, just. 442 00:20:59,685 --> 00:21:00,045 Go from there. 443 00:21:00,045 --> 00:21:00,225 Marko Papic: Cool. 444 00:21:00,225 --> 00:21:02,025 Okay, so we have some disagreements. 445 00:21:02,085 --> 00:21:02,445 Great. 446 00:21:02,565 --> 00:21:03,195 Which is good. 447 00:21:03,585 --> 00:21:04,155 Which is good. 448 00:21:04,425 --> 00:21:09,255 So first of all, I think, uh, the onshore narrative in China, like if you were 449 00:21:09,255 --> 00:21:13,935 to spend some time reading op-eds in Mandarin in China, which I don't, but 450 00:21:13,935 --> 00:21:18,465 I'm told what they are is effectively there's no urgency for anything. 451 00:21:18,825 --> 00:21:22,215 There is no urgency to even punch the bully in the mouth, 452 00:21:22,215 --> 00:21:22,905 although I agree with you. 453 00:21:22,905 --> 00:21:23,325 They did. 454 00:21:23,805 --> 00:21:27,105 They, they finally kind of did something, but there's no urgency. 455 00:21:27,105 --> 00:21:30,885 And that's why the comments on Saturday were so conciliatory. 456 00:21:30,885 --> 00:21:32,985 They were like, Hey guys, this isn't export bans. 457 00:21:32,985 --> 00:21:34,785 We're not banning export of rare Earth. 458 00:21:34,785 --> 00:21:35,385 Relax. 459 00:21:36,855 --> 00:21:38,175 The issue is they do want a deal. 460 00:21:38,175 --> 00:21:41,415 And the reason is that the onshore commentary, if you were reading like 461 00:21:41,415 --> 00:21:46,785 the equivalent of a New York Times op-ed in China, the consensus in China is 462 00:21:46,785 --> 00:21:51,585 the United States of America is gonna collapse into a black hole of Civil War 463 00:21:52,125 --> 00:21:56,505 demographic decline, racial tensions, and. 464 00:21:56,909 --> 00:21:57,840 Complete collapse. 465 00:21:57,870 --> 00:21:58,020 Yeah. 466 00:21:58,110 --> 00:21:58,620 Late stage 467 00:21:58,620 --> 00:21:59,310 Jacob Shapiro: capitalism. 468 00:21:59,310 --> 00:22:01,080 The, the Marxists were, were right. 469 00:22:01,830 --> 00:22:02,250 Marko Papic: Yeah. 470 00:22:02,639 --> 00:22:04,919 So what's the rush? 471 00:22:05,189 --> 00:22:06,000 There's no rush. 472 00:22:06,330 --> 00:22:08,310 You know, like, let's make a deal with Trump. 473 00:22:08,879 --> 00:22:11,850 And I think that everyone in China completely understands something 474 00:22:11,850 --> 00:22:14,760 that I was saying on this podcast, like a year, like when we started 475 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,510 and before that on your podcast, Trump will make a deal with China. 476 00:22:18,510 --> 00:22:20,550 I said this in February of 2024. 477 00:22:20,550 --> 00:22:26,100 Like I've consistently, like Trump is not a national security hawk. 478 00:22:26,159 --> 00:22:32,730 You don't put Tulsi Gabbard as the head of your, you know, um, national security 479 00:22:33,570 --> 00:22:35,100 if you are a national security hawk. 480 00:22:35,100 --> 00:22:35,790 He's not. 481 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:37,290 He is mercantilist. 482 00:22:37,290 --> 00:22:40,830 And I actually think where we disagree a little bit is I actually think that his 483 00:22:40,830 --> 00:22:43,560 approach is the more optimal approach. 484 00:22:45,015 --> 00:22:48,015 In a multipolar world, it doesn't pay to decouple. 485 00:22:48,585 --> 00:22:53,865 And I think the big risk for the US is that by restricting export of American 486 00:22:53,865 --> 00:22:58,125 technology, often a couple of generations late, you will incentivize China to 487 00:22:58,125 --> 00:23:00,255 become very good at its own technology. 488 00:23:00,255 --> 00:23:03,645 Alternative technologies that you have no pre you have no input into. 489 00:23:04,005 --> 00:23:06,945 But anyways, what I wanna like really emphasize here is that I think that 490 00:23:06,945 --> 00:23:08,415 the Chinese are perfectly fine. 491 00:23:08,415 --> 00:23:11,385 They understand that this is a limited window where maybe they 492 00:23:11,385 --> 00:23:13,635 have somebody who's a little bit different from what's coming. 493 00:23:13,905 --> 00:23:19,575 You know, whether it's JD Vance or a OC, I can see a world in which whoever inherits 494 00:23:19,575 --> 00:23:23,955 the presidency after President Trump is much tougher on China and, and adopt 495 00:23:23,955 --> 00:23:25,905 the Jake Sullivan Joe Biden approach. 496 00:23:26,685 --> 00:23:29,865 Uh, but they're cool with that because they just don't really think they're in 497 00:23:29,865 --> 00:23:32,145 a rush, uh, because America's collapsing. 498 00:23:32,145 --> 00:23:36,045 And that narrative of American collapse is almost like a 499 00:23:36,045 --> 00:23:37,275 really good thing for the world. 500 00:23:38,219 --> 00:23:40,469 It means that China's not gonna do something stupid. 501 00:23:41,189 --> 00:23:44,520 Um, and if I was advising President Xi, I would say that that narrative 502 00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:49,679 is, you know, while very pleasing to read, I'm sure in those New York Times 503 00:23:49,679 --> 00:23:55,800 equivalent op-eds in China, you're kind of reading what's very pleasing to you. 504 00:23:56,070 --> 00:23:59,639 You know, it's sort of like a liberal reading, a guardian oped, you know? 505 00:24:00,090 --> 00:24:04,260 Jacob Shapiro: Uh, yeah, I, well, I mean, I'm not reading that version of, 506 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:09,899 of the commentary in Chinese, but my, my, my sense is more that it's in the 507 00:24:09,899 --> 00:24:13,530 same way that the, that any average student in the United States is taught 508 00:24:13,530 --> 00:24:16,409 that the United States is a beacon of liberalism and individual rights. 509 00:24:16,409 --> 00:24:18,780 And the United States stands up for these things like China. 510 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,740 Like, you know, Xi Jinping himself was educated in a Marxist framework, 511 00:24:23,100 --> 00:24:25,620 and he thinks of the world through a, a Marxist point of view. 512 00:24:25,620 --> 00:24:28,260 So, I, I, I don't know that they're thinking that it's gonna be civil 513 00:24:28,260 --> 00:24:29,550 war and carnage in the streets. 514 00:24:29,550 --> 00:24:31,620 My interpretation of. 515 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:35,100 Intelligentsia in China has always just been more, yeah. 516 00:24:35,100 --> 00:24:36,780 Like this is late stage capitalism. 517 00:24:36,780 --> 00:24:37,110 Okay. 518 00:24:37,110 --> 00:24:39,330 Like Marx was a little bit later than he should have been, but like, 519 00:24:39,330 --> 00:24:43,770 eventually this system is going to, is not going to work in the long term. 520 00:24:43,770 --> 00:24:47,530 And meanwhile, like we have socialism with Chinese characteristics and, and 521 00:24:47,530 --> 00:24:49,380 everything, it, it seems a little more. 522 00:24:49,860 --> 00:24:50,665 So I think it's 523 00:24:50,670 --> 00:24:51,990 Marko Papic: going, I think it's more than that. 524 00:24:51,990 --> 00:24:54,600 I think now it's about technological, uh, yeah. 525 00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:55,770 Superiority of China. 526 00:24:55,770 --> 00:24:59,730 I, I think there's, there's, and, and I think like, you know, deployment of, look, 527 00:24:59,730 --> 00:25:03,690 I mean, if you grew up in an authoritarian state when you see, uh, you know, the 528 00:25:03,690 --> 00:25:07,740 military deployed to cities, like, you know what that means in a Chinese context. 529 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:09,900 But there's another thing I wanna disagree with you on. 530 00:25:09,930 --> 00:25:12,120 Well, this wasn't really a disagreement, this was just an 531 00:25:12,120 --> 00:25:13,860 intro to the real disagreement. 532 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:17,370 And my real disagreement is I think that decoupling is impossible. 533 00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:20,610 You know, and let me, and let me explain why I say that. 534 00:25:21,930 --> 00:25:28,470 Um, the one, our, our, our actual example of decoupling. 535 00:25:29,430 --> 00:25:34,950 In a modern industrial world and equals one, our sample size is 536 00:25:34,950 --> 00:25:36,450 one, and that's the Cold War. 537 00:25:37,260 --> 00:25:41,850 And I really, really, really want to emphasize how a historical and 538 00:25:41,850 --> 00:25:45,960 idiosyncratic and pat dependent the Cold War was in 1945. 539 00:25:46,470 --> 00:25:49,200 I know I've said this before on our podcast, but I just wanna emphasize 540 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,660 in 1945, the world was destroyed. 541 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,180 Like it was destroyed. 542 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:57,600 You know, it looked like Gaza. 543 00:26:00,330 --> 00:26:01,830 It did it, it, it, it looked better 544 00:26:01,830 --> 00:26:02,220 Jacob Shapiro: than Gaza. 545 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:09,840 Marko Papic: Large swats of the developed worlds, yes, looked worse than gossip. 546 00:26:10,649 --> 00:26:10,860 Jacob Shapiro: No. 547 00:26:10,860 --> 00:26:14,070 Well, n well, no, because not like even Germany didn't look 548 00:26:14,070 --> 00:26:15,810 that bad because like, oh my God, 549 00:26:15,870 --> 00:26:18,240 Marko Papic: okay, we don't have to get into commentary of what Gaza looks like. 550 00:26:19,050 --> 00:26:20,040 I retract that. 551 00:26:21,270 --> 00:26:22,290 Jacob Shapiro: I win, I win. 552 00:26:22,350 --> 00:26:22,830 You get that? 553 00:26:22,830 --> 00:26:23,370 See that you do, 554 00:26:23,699 --> 00:26:24,090 Marko Papic: you win. 555 00:26:24,179 --> 00:26:27,750 Look, the point is that, um, the world was completely destroyed. 556 00:26:27,750 --> 00:26:31,050 Like, you know, let me, let me, let me emphasize the destruction. 557 00:26:31,050 --> 00:26:37,889 There were tens of millions of refugees starving in Western Europe, not like 558 00:26:37,889 --> 00:26:40,980 in eastern Germany, like I'm talking like the western side of Europe. 559 00:26:40,980 --> 00:26:41,820 Like in Belgium. 560 00:26:41,850 --> 00:26:44,520 People were starving to that in freaking Brussels. 561 00:26:46,199 --> 00:26:50,610 Japan had two nuclear bombs dropped on it, and multiple cities completely firebombed 562 00:26:50,909 --> 00:26:53,790 into like even worse destruction level. 563 00:26:53,790 --> 00:26:55,860 Like if you got hit with a nuke, you were lucky. 564 00:26:56,550 --> 00:26:58,800 You know, you escaped the firebombing. 565 00:26:59,955 --> 00:27:01,155 China would have, and China 566 00:27:01,155 --> 00:27:02,115 Jacob Shapiro: went straight to Civil War. 567 00:27:02,115 --> 00:27:03,615 They were like, oh, world War Two's over. 568 00:27:03,615 --> 00:27:05,085 I would go that like, let's, let's get to it. 569 00:27:05,835 --> 00:27:08,025 Marko Papic: They had another four years of civil war. 570 00:27:08,925 --> 00:27:14,265 India was a colony of a tired, weakened empire. 571 00:27:15,465 --> 00:27:19,185 And then you have, of course, Soviet Union, which is just a complete mess. 572 00:27:19,185 --> 00:27:22,875 I mean, they, they eked out that win by the skin of their teeth. 573 00:27:23,535 --> 00:27:26,895 Only really the United States of America and some parts of Soviet 574 00:27:26,895 --> 00:27:28,665 Union still have an industrial plant. 575 00:27:28,725 --> 00:27:33,795 And so what I'm getting at is that when the Cold War starts, you have large 576 00:27:33,795 --> 00:27:37,785 parts of the planet are tabula rasa completely, completely erased, which 577 00:27:37,785 --> 00:27:40,695 is a fancy way of saying blank plate. 578 00:27:41,805 --> 00:27:45,975 And so you can craft a material reality. 579 00:27:46,500 --> 00:27:49,860 An industrial world that truly is decoupled. 580 00:27:49,889 --> 00:27:53,760 'cause you're starting with large swaths of the planet completely 581 00:27:53,790 --> 00:27:55,470 unintegrated or destroyed. 582 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,980 And so if the Soviets want to have their technological zone 583 00:27:58,980 --> 00:28:03,270 that's clearly decoupled from the us, they can and vice versa. 584 00:28:03,990 --> 00:28:06,240 Now notice that that's how Cold War started. 585 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,650 That was the starting conditions of the Cold War World War I. 586 00:28:11,220 --> 00:28:14,820 However, and World War II started in a completely different world. 587 00:28:14,850 --> 00:28:17,250 They actually started in a globalized world. 588 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,810 So my favorite historian, Margaret McMillan, you know, she wrote all 589 00:28:21,810 --> 00:28:23,040 these books about First World War. 590 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:24,720 She really talks about this in a great way. 591 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,780 Like when World War I starts, there are literally. 592 00:28:28,889 --> 00:28:33,540 Munitions companies that are like building sea mines that are like 593 00:28:33,570 --> 00:28:35,729 30% owned by a German conglomerate. 594 00:28:35,729 --> 00:28:35,790 Yeah. 595 00:28:35,820 --> 00:28:37,530 And 40% owned by British. 596 00:28:37,620 --> 00:28:42,840 So the board meets when the war starts and the board is like high fiving 597 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:46,590 the Germans and the Brits are high fiving, holy shit, we're going to war. 598 00:28:46,679 --> 00:28:47,040 Jacob Shapiro: Well, yeah. 599 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,070 The, the, the munitions ones were the, the British insurance companies that 600 00:28:50,070 --> 00:28:52,979 were ensuring German ships were not high fiving and they were looking at 601 00:28:53,189 --> 00:28:54,699 themselves and being, what the hell? 602 00:28:54,699 --> 00:28:54,965 But you know what I mean? 603 00:28:56,189 --> 00:28:57,840 Marko Papic: What there's a German guy and the British guy saying 604 00:28:57,840 --> 00:28:59,040 like, yo, we're gonna make money. 605 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:00,270 I'll see you in six months. 606 00:29:00,629 --> 00:29:02,459 You know, I'm sorry about what's gonna happen. 607 00:29:02,459 --> 00:29:03,360 It's gonna be fine. 608 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:04,379 We'll back by Christmas. 609 00:29:04,379 --> 00:29:05,070 Everything is good. 610 00:29:05,189 --> 00:29:11,100 The point is that the world was so, so integrated in 1914. 611 00:29:11,580 --> 00:29:15,360 And don't you make the mistake, and I don't mean you Jacob, but don't you make 612 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,110 the mistake to your listener to think that the World War I somehow crept up on us. 613 00:29:19,350 --> 00:29:20,610 That's what everybody always says. 614 00:29:20,610 --> 00:29:21,449 Oh, but they didn't. 615 00:29:21,449 --> 00:29:22,320 No, they knew. 616 00:29:22,709 --> 00:29:25,889 They knew from mid 1890s. 617 00:29:26,490 --> 00:29:31,590 Everybody knew that Germany and Austria would go to war with France, Russia, and 618 00:29:31,590 --> 00:29:33,780 the UK in some combination shape or form. 619 00:29:33,780 --> 00:29:38,760 Everybody knew everybody was looking forward to it and yet they couldn't 620 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:41,700 disentangle this technological reality. 621 00:29:41,940 --> 00:29:45,030 And now that's a world where I actually think I can see 622 00:29:45,060 --> 00:29:46,470 maybe an argument being made. 623 00:29:46,470 --> 00:29:46,650 Yeah. 624 00:29:46,655 --> 00:29:48,750 But technology back then was difficult to entangle. 625 00:29:48,750 --> 00:29:49,620 What are you talking about? 626 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:56,640 Our levers, our tools, our components were huge widgets and you know, 627 00:29:56,670 --> 00:29:58,830 giant things they rotate to. 628 00:29:58,830 --> 00:30:03,000 Today, it's so much more difficult to disentangle when the components are 629 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,090 like rare earth you don't even know how to pronounce and neither do I. 630 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:07,080 Lemme be very clear. 631 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:12,900 And so I would say that the problem for the world today is that we had 25 years. 632 00:30:13,410 --> 00:30:17,910 If not 35 years of genuine peace and prosperity in a unipolar global 633 00:30:17,910 --> 00:30:21,510 system that America designed, they became deeply intertwined. 634 00:30:21,510 --> 00:30:24,660 And so full decoupling is probably never going to happen. 635 00:30:24,660 --> 00:30:29,790 However, however, I do believe that there will be the technological decoupling in 636 00:30:29,790 --> 00:30:32,100 certain ways, but that's nothing to fear. 637 00:30:32,820 --> 00:30:37,020 I mean, I grew up in communist Yugoslavia, Jacob, you grew up in, you know, a 638 00:30:37,050 --> 00:30:38,970 pillar of liberty and freedom in America. 639 00:30:39,630 --> 00:30:39,780 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah. 640 00:30:39,900 --> 00:30:43,620 Marko Papic: And if you were to send, if a 12-year-old Jacob was going to send, 641 00:30:44,190 --> 00:30:51,960 you know, a 14-year-old Marco, a a, a tape of Atlanta hawks with Dominique, 642 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,615 you know, having their day in the sun, if you were gonna send that to me, I, 643 00:30:55,615 --> 00:30:57,330 Jacob Shapiro: well hold, I, I, I have to date myself. 644 00:30:57,330 --> 00:30:59,610 I unfortunately just missed the Dominique era. 645 00:30:59,610 --> 00:31:02,310 My, I came of age during the Mookie Blaylock, Steve Smith. 646 00:31:02,730 --> 00:31:03,990 Uh, oh, listen, I 647 00:31:03,990 --> 00:31:04,620 Marko Papic: love that team. 648 00:31:04,620 --> 00:31:07,425 Mookie Blaylock was, was, was one of my favorite players by the way. 649 00:31:08,205 --> 00:31:12,404 Curiously looked almost exactly like Michael Jordan. 650 00:31:12,735 --> 00:31:13,784 Almost like they were brothers. 651 00:31:13,814 --> 00:31:13,995 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah. 652 00:31:14,085 --> 00:31:15,314 Like a min, like a little mini me. 653 00:31:15,340 --> 00:31:15,620 Mm-hmm. 654 00:31:15,770 --> 00:31:18,165 Marko Papic: Like a le But anyway, so like if you were to 655 00:31:18,165 --> 00:31:19,995 send me a VHS tape, guess what? 656 00:31:19,995 --> 00:31:20,745 It wouldn't work. 657 00:31:22,514 --> 00:31:26,024 And poor Marco trapped in Communist Yugoslavia would've not been able to 658 00:31:26,024 --> 00:31:29,534 play that VHS tape because I was in a different technological system than you. 659 00:31:30,014 --> 00:31:33,435 Similarly, when cell phones started, when I moved from 660 00:31:33,435 --> 00:31:36,794 Europe to pursue my undergraduate degree in Canada, guess what? 661 00:31:36,794 --> 00:31:37,845 My cell phone didn't work. 662 00:31:37,845 --> 00:31:39,345 I had to get a Trib band. 663 00:31:39,764 --> 00:31:40,665 It's okay. 664 00:31:41,085 --> 00:31:43,575 There will be some technological decoupling. 665 00:31:43,965 --> 00:31:48,435 And I see a lot of, I hear a lot of investment banks and commentators talking 666 00:31:48,435 --> 00:31:52,274 about how that will cause the world to go on two different No, it won't. 667 00:31:52,905 --> 00:31:58,754 All it will do is it will lead to entrepreneurs building systems 668 00:31:58,754 --> 00:32:04,665 that can read both technological, um, both, both technological, uh. 669 00:32:05,490 --> 00:32:07,740 Pillars, which is exactly what happened with phones. 670 00:32:08,220 --> 00:32:11,580 You know, Nokia came up with a tri ban phone that did work in 671 00:32:11,580 --> 00:32:13,140 both Japan and North America. 672 00:32:13,170 --> 00:32:14,100 And Europe. 673 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:16,410 And yes, there were VHS players. 674 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:21,480 There were literally, they could flip between Pal Secum and NTSC. 675 00:32:21,510 --> 00:32:22,830 Like, yeah, that's how old I am. 676 00:32:22,830 --> 00:32:23,460 I know that stuff. 677 00:32:23,790 --> 00:32:26,550 So the point is, somebody's gonna figure this out, just like we 678 00:32:26,550 --> 00:32:29,250 had in early desktop computers. 679 00:32:29,250 --> 00:32:31,800 You know, you are on the MAC system, I'm on the Microsoft system. 680 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:35,760 Eventually, yes, you could read the files from one system to another, 681 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:37,590 and now we're seamlessly integrated. 682 00:32:38,070 --> 00:32:42,600 So I think that we are overstating the decoupling massively. 683 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,750 I don't think the decoupling is really what we should be thinking about. 684 00:32:45,750 --> 00:32:50,940 I think if World War II starts Jacob, it's gonna start with both countries 685 00:32:50,940 --> 00:32:54,540 being very deeply integrated, and I think Donald Trump, to his 686 00:32:54,540 --> 00:32:56,250 credit, has figured that out. 687 00:32:56,669 --> 00:33:00,960 I think he has figured out that it's very difficult to completely decouple, and that 688 00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:03,389 not only is it difficult, it's stupid. 689 00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:08,490 It means that American companies cannot make money off of China, the 690 00:33:08,490 --> 00:33:12,115 second largest economy in the world, which is objectively a mistake. 691 00:33:14,865 --> 00:33:19,064 Jacob Shapiro: I love how, how optimistic, um, you were in that. 692 00:33:20,054 --> 00:33:22,185 Um, that was really like, uh, I like it. 693 00:33:22,185 --> 00:33:23,024 I, I, you're right. 694 00:33:23,024 --> 00:33:25,004 I, I do, I do disagree with you. 695 00:33:25,215 --> 00:33:27,225 I'm gonna quote the guy who's figured this out. 696 00:33:27,254 --> 00:33:29,865 Again, quote, we have the ultimate export. 697 00:33:29,925 --> 00:33:31,514 We have import and we have export. 698 00:33:31,544 --> 00:33:33,284 We import from China, massive amounts. 699 00:33:33,284 --> 00:33:35,804 And, you know, maybe we'll have to stop doing that, but I 700 00:33:35,804 --> 00:33:37,064 don't know exactly what it is. 701 00:33:37,125 --> 00:33:38,054 Neither do you. 702 00:33:38,355 --> 00:33:39,284 Neither does anybody. 703 00:33:39,284 --> 00:33:41,804 This is not a guy who knows what he's talking about. 704 00:33:41,804 --> 00:33:43,304 Marco, you're giving him way. 705 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,570 Way too much credit that he's something, his gut, 706 00:33:45,989 --> 00:33:47,969 Marko Papic: I think his gut is in the right place, man. 707 00:33:48,060 --> 00:33:50,699 You know, and the fact, listen, if that quote, he 708 00:33:50,699 --> 00:33:55,020 Jacob Shapiro: has a wonderful sense of where power is and when it comes to trade, 709 00:33:55,229 --> 00:33:59,699 the United States has certain levers that it is far and away better than China on. 710 00:33:59,729 --> 00:34:00,120 Okay? 711 00:34:00,389 --> 00:34:02,340 But a lot of them, it's China. 712 00:34:02,340 --> 00:34:04,469 I, I say this a lot in my presentations right now. 713 00:34:04,469 --> 00:34:07,169 I, I put up a picture of William McKinley and I ask audiences, 714 00:34:07,169 --> 00:34:08,190 do you know who this guy is? 715 00:34:08,190 --> 00:34:10,679 And literally, like, 1% of audiences know who it is. 716 00:34:10,679 --> 00:34:11,969 And I say, this is William McKinley. 717 00:34:12,089 --> 00:34:15,120 He literally referred to himself as a quote unquote tariff man. 718 00:34:15,179 --> 00:34:17,159 And Donald Trump loves to talk about him all the time. 719 00:34:17,190 --> 00:34:18,900 And he imposed tariffs across the board. 720 00:34:18,929 --> 00:34:21,120 And when he imposed tariffs across the board, which. 721 00:34:21,310 --> 00:34:25,179 Good for the US economy in that pre-World war I world that you're talking about. 722 00:34:25,179 --> 00:34:27,639 By the way, I hope you don't turn into the Norman angle of, of 723 00:34:27,639 --> 00:34:29,469 globalization, like the great illusion. 724 00:34:29,500 --> 00:34:29,679 Yeah. 725 00:34:29,679 --> 00:34:30,395 That because like you're, you're That's right. 726 00:34:30,395 --> 00:34:31,570 You're flirting with it a little bit. 727 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,989 Um, when, when William McKinley did that, the United States was making 728 00:34:34,989 --> 00:34:38,199 something like 30% of the manufactured products that were in the world. 729 00:34:38,199 --> 00:34:40,330 And the Brits had another 20% Right. 730 00:34:40,389 --> 00:34:42,159 The Chinese and the Japanese weren't doing any of that. 731 00:34:42,159 --> 00:34:43,900 The Japanese were just starting to rev up. 732 00:34:43,900 --> 00:34:45,219 The Chinese were a morass. 733 00:34:45,219 --> 00:34:48,670 India was getting dominated, um, you know, by a couple thousand 734 00:34:48,670 --> 00:34:50,739 British soldiers and everything else. 735 00:34:51,219 --> 00:34:52,690 You flip that to today. 736 00:34:53,070 --> 00:34:57,390 China wins, China wins on ships, it wins on, you know, active 737 00:34:57,390 --> 00:34:58,440 pharmaceutical ingredients. 738 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:00,360 I guess we're not gonna have Tylenol in this country anymore. 739 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,850 But if you did want Tylenol for, you're a kid with an ear infection, 740 00:35:02,850 --> 00:35:05,520 like probably the API is coming either from India or China. 741 00:35:05,940 --> 00:35:07,380 Agricultural, machinery, fertile. 742 00:35:07,380 --> 00:35:09,960 Like you start going down the list of things the United States is, 743 00:35:10,020 --> 00:35:11,250 but doesn't that prove my point? 744 00:35:11,759 --> 00:35:12,900 But doesn't that prove my point? 745 00:35:13,110 --> 00:35:14,009 It does, it does. 746 00:35:14,009 --> 00:35:15,030 It does prove your point today. 747 00:35:15,030 --> 00:35:17,820 And I think they are deeply interconnected and I think any person 748 00:35:17,820 --> 00:35:20,910 who wants to fight a trade war with China and then is the one who is 749 00:35:20,910 --> 00:35:22,740 responsible for what happens afterwards. 750 00:35:22,980 --> 00:35:26,100 Like maybe, you know, president Trump, the first administration was a little bit more 751 00:35:26,100 --> 00:35:29,370 muscular and he loves to go after China on the campaign, Trump, but when he's the 752 00:35:29,370 --> 00:35:32,820 one sitting in the White House and he's looking at the inflation numbers and he's 753 00:35:32,820 --> 00:35:36,180 looking at all the things that cannot be manufactured in the United States. 754 00:35:36,180 --> 00:35:39,750 All the things, by the way that he pushed to be manufactured in the United States 755 00:35:39,750 --> 00:35:43,319 during his first term, in which we are no closer to manufacturing in the United 756 00:35:43,319 --> 00:35:44,670 States than we were in the first term. 757 00:35:44,670 --> 00:35:44,910 I think you're 758 00:35:44,910 --> 00:35:47,130 Marko Papic: just, but you, you are over indexing on my 759 00:35:47,130 --> 00:35:49,050 point that Trump has a good. 760 00:35:50,315 --> 00:35:53,945 What you should be overindexing is that you just laid the case for why 761 00:35:53,945 --> 00:35:55,475 there's no way we're gonna decouple. 762 00:35:55,475 --> 00:35:56,465 And it's not Donald Trump. 763 00:35:56,465 --> 00:35:57,095 Who's confused? 764 00:35:57,095 --> 00:35:59,855 It's Joe Biden who was confused and Jake 765 00:35:59,855 --> 00:36:00,275 Jacob Shapiro: Sullivan. 766 00:36:00,485 --> 00:36:02,465 Yeah, I mean that's Joe Biden's confused. 767 00:36:02,465 --> 00:36:03,275 That's a low Yes. 768 00:36:03,275 --> 00:36:06,305 Joe Biden was, was was confused and is confused. 769 00:36:06,305 --> 00:36:06,390 Well wait, 770 00:36:06,695 --> 00:36:08,585 Marko Papic: well, lemme just explain what I mean by the, the statement. 771 00:36:08,585 --> 00:36:11,495 Like, like I'm not trying to make a domestic political point. 772 00:36:11,495 --> 00:36:15,695 I'm just saying that Donald Trump, I never took him seriously when he did 773 00:36:15,695 --> 00:36:19,715 impose the tariffs at 800% in China, I think that Donald Donald Trump was 774 00:36:19,715 --> 00:36:21,185 always gonna make a deal with China. 775 00:36:21,245 --> 00:36:24,995 He went on the campaign trail saying he was cool with BYD building ca uh, 776 00:36:25,025 --> 00:36:31,415 factories in Ohio because it's smart, it's fixed asset investment that America 777 00:36:31,415 --> 00:36:32,855 can nationalize in case of a war. 778 00:36:32,855 --> 00:36:32,945 Mm-hmm. 779 00:36:32,945 --> 00:36:35,975 Of course you should let China build BYD factories. 780 00:36:35,975 --> 00:36:39,904 And Donald Trump had the balls to say that in front of a crowd full 781 00:36:39,904 --> 00:36:43,175 of potential manufacturing blue collar laborers who are not gonna 782 00:36:43,175 --> 00:36:44,285 work in there because of automation. 783 00:36:44,525 --> 00:36:48,275 But this isn't, this isn't about whether Donald Trump is right or not. 784 00:36:48,870 --> 00:36:52,410 I just never took him seriously when he's aggressive on China, because I take 785 00:36:52,410 --> 00:36:56,970 him seriously that he wants to make this deal because of everything you just said. 786 00:36:56,970 --> 00:37:00,780 And you laid out a plethora of evidence why it's really difficult to decouple, 787 00:37:00,870 --> 00:37:02,250 and that's what we should be focusing on. 788 00:37:02,250 --> 00:37:04,650 Jacob Shapiro: Well, and and I think you were exactly right earlier, by 789 00:37:04,650 --> 00:37:08,010 the way, when you said that gov, president Trump doesn't always 790 00:37:08,010 --> 00:37:09,420 know what his bureaucracy is doing. 791 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:11,250 And by the way, that's true of any executive like 792 00:37:11,250 --> 00:37:12,720 bureaucracies are machines, right? 793 00:37:12,720 --> 00:37:14,820 And they're frankensteins, they have lifes of their own. 794 00:37:14,820 --> 00:37:17,160 And a good executive has to come in and reign them back in 795 00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:19,800 because like, that's what, that's what happens with bureaucracies. 796 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:21,805 Um, but that said, the. 797 00:37:22,770 --> 00:37:27,090 I would say most of the bureaucracy is aligned against President Trump. 798 00:37:27,150 --> 00:37:30,630 And Yes, public, yes, public opinion is aligned against President Trump. 799 00:37:30,630 --> 00:37:33,510 And, and the interesting thing about Trump is he rode what you're talking 800 00:37:33,510 --> 00:37:36,930 like, I, I agree with you that that's what he wants to do, but also part of 801 00:37:36,930 --> 00:37:40,380 the reason he got elected the first time was because he talked about China. 802 00:37:40,975 --> 00:37:44,125 In a way that was way more serious than anybody else did. 803 00:37:44,125 --> 00:37:45,355 So he is got the Santi China thing. 804 00:37:45,355 --> 00:37:47,155 And the other thing, and I'll, I'll let you cook in a second. 805 00:37:47,155 --> 00:37:49,615 I just wanna say, I think we actually do agree, and I laid out that case. 806 00:37:49,615 --> 00:37:53,395 The only thing I wanna say back to you is I completely agree with you that it 807 00:37:53,395 --> 00:37:58,705 is irrational and asinine and crazy to, for the United States to try and decouple 808 00:37:58,705 --> 00:38:00,235 from China, it would be disastrous. 809 00:38:00,475 --> 00:38:02,005 That does not mean it won't happen. 810 00:38:02,635 --> 00:38:03,985 Well let, it's totally irrational. 811 00:38:03,985 --> 00:38:05,605 It does not make any sense. 812 00:38:05,605 --> 00:38:09,175 But this is where geopolitics falls off the rails because sometimes actors 813 00:38:09,175 --> 00:38:14,095 do irrational things for reasons that are hard for rational cousins to divine 814 00:38:14,695 --> 00:38:17,845 Marko Papic: well, so, so first of all, I I, I definitely took offense 815 00:38:17,875 --> 00:38:23,755 to the Norman Angle reference, you know, for, you know, it's deep cop 816 00:38:23,755 --> 00:38:25,795 look at, that's a very deep cut. 817 00:38:26,095 --> 00:38:28,045 Just to be, just to repeat my point. 818 00:38:28,755 --> 00:38:32,715 My view is that when World War III starts, it may very well start, and 819 00:38:32,715 --> 00:38:34,335 that's what Norman Engel was wrong about. 820 00:38:34,485 --> 00:38:34,695 Right. 821 00:38:34,695 --> 00:38:37,725 He thought that the level of interconnectedness would prevent the war. 822 00:38:37,725 --> 00:38:41,025 I'm not saying that we are in a world where, I'm just saying like World War 823 00:38:41,030 --> 00:38:44,745 War III will start maybe 10 years from now, we will remain connected with China. 824 00:38:45,225 --> 00:38:45,315 Jacob Shapiro: Mm-hmm. 825 00:38:45,735 --> 00:38:50,265 Marko Papic: And I believe that because of the 50 years of Cold War, most 826 00:38:50,265 --> 00:38:53,805 human beings listening to this podcast want to light themselves on fire. 827 00:38:53,805 --> 00:38:55,275 Their brains blow up. 828 00:38:56,535 --> 00:38:58,905 They cannot process mentally. 829 00:38:59,265 --> 00:39:03,135 What I, the words that are coming out of my mouth and the words that 830 00:39:03,135 --> 00:39:06,555 are coming out of my mouth is what empirics and game theory proves, 831 00:39:07,365 --> 00:39:11,715 which is that in a multipolar world, order enemies trade with one another. 832 00:39:12,225 --> 00:39:13,755 Sorry, end of sentence. 833 00:39:13,755 --> 00:39:14,355 That's it. 834 00:39:14,745 --> 00:39:18,285 So yeah, war can still happen, but it will happen at a very high level 835 00:39:18,285 --> 00:39:21,255 of economic integration 'cause it's just so difficult to disentangle. 836 00:39:21,255 --> 00:39:27,285 Namely 'cause your own allies steal market share from you by trading with the enemy. 837 00:39:28,095 --> 00:39:28,995 That's the whole point. 838 00:39:28,995 --> 00:39:29,865 Like it's difficult. 839 00:39:29,865 --> 00:39:31,125 And that's what Trump tried to do. 840 00:39:31,185 --> 00:39:33,975 And quite frankly, he's given up because the rest of the world is like, no, 841 00:39:33,975 --> 00:39:35,774 sorry, we're gonna trade with China now. 842 00:39:35,774 --> 00:39:36,075 Yeah. 843 00:39:36,075 --> 00:39:38,444 You know, like Europe is imposing tariffs in China, but they're gonna 844 00:39:38,444 --> 00:39:42,134 make a deal separate from the US Now there's a BYD factory coming into Spain. 845 00:39:42,134 --> 00:39:42,855 And what did they ask? 846 00:39:42,855 --> 00:39:44,265 They asked for IP boom. 847 00:39:44,265 --> 00:39:44,325 Yeah, 848 00:39:44,384 --> 00:39:45,194 Jacob Shapiro: that that's true. 849 00:39:45,194 --> 00:39:48,225 But, but one thing I forgot to do in my intro was, did you see that thing 850 00:39:48,225 --> 00:39:49,814 that the Dutch did with this company? 851 00:39:49,814 --> 00:39:50,024 Yes. 852 00:39:50,895 --> 00:39:51,044 Yeah. 853 00:39:51,075 --> 00:39:51,225 Okay. 854 00:39:51,225 --> 00:39:54,194 Called Xperia, where they're basically seizing a Chinese semiconductor. 855 00:39:54,194 --> 00:39:54,765 Oh, we all know. 856 00:39:55,035 --> 00:39:56,714 Marko Papic: We all know why the Dutch are doing that. 857 00:39:58,125 --> 00:39:58,274 Why? 858 00:39:58,274 --> 00:39:59,174 You know what I'm gonna say? 859 00:39:59,355 --> 00:40:00,105 I know what the Dutch are doing. 860 00:40:00,105 --> 00:40:03,734 That the Dutch are doing that so that they can shower themselves with money 861 00:40:03,734 --> 00:40:05,774 selling A SML machines to China. 862 00:40:06,015 --> 00:40:06,194 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah. 863 00:40:07,245 --> 00:40:07,424 Right. 864 00:40:07,424 --> 00:40:08,955 Which the United States does not want them to do. 865 00:40:08,955 --> 00:40:09,314 To your point, 866 00:40:09,555 --> 00:40:10,634 Marko Papic: but, but they've done it. 867 00:40:10,935 --> 00:40:12,884 Even with Jake Solid and Joe Biden. 868 00:40:12,884 --> 00:40:15,044 Nobody cares in, let's say, why should they listen? 869 00:40:15,225 --> 00:40:16,995 Listen, at some level, it's very simple. 870 00:40:16,995 --> 00:40:20,384 And I've said this before on this podcast, France, in Netherlands, they're 871 00:40:20,384 --> 00:40:25,035 gonna tell America, listen, bro, world War II starts, we're dying with you 872 00:40:25,035 --> 00:40:26,504 in the trenches against the Chinese. 873 00:40:28,150 --> 00:40:33,690 But until that moment, you know Emma Manuel has to sell them air buses 874 00:40:34,230 --> 00:40:36,150 and I gotta sell them A SML machines. 875 00:40:36,150 --> 00:40:36,390 Why? 876 00:40:36,390 --> 00:40:39,360 'cause we need the money to develop cruise. 877 00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:41,820 Miss sells with which to help you fight the Chinese. 878 00:40:42,060 --> 00:40:43,350 Are you gonna give us that money? 879 00:40:44,055 --> 00:40:48,585 Are you going to buy air buses instead of Boeings so that France has enough money 880 00:40:48,585 --> 00:40:51,075 to become a, to remain a viable ally? 881 00:40:51,075 --> 00:40:51,165 No. 882 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:51,860 Jd, 883 00:40:51,865 --> 00:40:54,285 Jacob Shapiro: JD Vance wants them to use that money to turn around and 884 00:40:54,285 --> 00:40:56,055 buy American, uh, defense product. 885 00:40:56,055 --> 00:40:56,265 Well, 886 00:40:56,265 --> 00:40:58,065 Marko Papic: and that's, you know, and this is where this 887 00:40:58,065 --> 00:40:59,355 all kind of breaks apart. 888 00:40:59,355 --> 00:41:03,465 But, but one thing I wanna say is that, uh, one last thing I wanna 889 00:41:03,465 --> 00:41:06,135 disagree with you on, and I know we gotta pivot to X, but this is great. 890 00:41:06,135 --> 00:41:07,215 This is, this is a good discussion. 891 00:41:07,515 --> 00:41:09,645 The last thing I wanna say is, like you said, bureaucracy 892 00:41:09,645 --> 00:41:11,205 is against Trump and China. 893 00:41:11,415 --> 00:41:13,155 You're 150%, right? 894 00:41:13,155 --> 00:41:19,095 So, uh, the national intelligence defense community, all of course against China, 895 00:41:19,095 --> 00:41:22,095 I mean, they know what butters their bread and it, it ain't world peace buddy. 896 00:41:22,455 --> 00:41:22,665 Jacob Shapiro: Nope. 897 00:41:22,845 --> 00:41:26,595 Marko Papic: So, so bureaucracy and yes, I think there's a lot of vested 898 00:41:26,595 --> 00:41:30,165 interest against, um, the narrative that it's impossible to decouple. 899 00:41:30,165 --> 00:41:32,325 But I do disagree with you on the people. 900 00:41:33,285 --> 00:41:35,955 And I have a chart that maybe we can put in the show notes. 901 00:41:36,315 --> 00:41:38,325 But it shows something fascinating, Jacob. 902 00:41:38,385 --> 00:41:40,815 It's one of the most fascinating charts. 903 00:41:41,235 --> 00:41:46,935 It's an ipso poll done with, I think the Chicago Council, and it 904 00:41:46,935 --> 00:41:51,945 shows that in 2016, about 30% of Americans, 30% Republicans, 40% of 905 00:41:51,945 --> 00:41:57,915 Democrats agreed with a statement that trade leads to jobs in America. 906 00:41:58,725 --> 00:41:58,875 Hmm. 907 00:41:59,805 --> 00:42:02,595 So your point is correct. 908 00:42:02,595 --> 00:42:06,315 In 2016, voters wanted a trade war with China because they 909 00:42:06,315 --> 00:42:07,785 felt that the trade was unfair. 910 00:42:07,845 --> 00:42:10,215 And President Trump beat Hillary Clinton as a result of it. 911 00:42:10,215 --> 00:42:11,205 I really believe that. 912 00:42:11,565 --> 00:42:12,435 And he delivered it. 913 00:42:12,525 --> 00:42:16,725 He satiated the demand that the American public had in 2016. 914 00:42:17,205 --> 00:42:20,565 But since then, you know what the current level is, Republican sup, 915 00:42:21,045 --> 00:42:23,295 Republican support is at about 65%. 916 00:42:23,625 --> 00:42:28,755 Democratic is 75%, and I would say that it's thanks to Donald Trump. 917 00:42:29,025 --> 00:42:32,385 Donald Trump delivered what the median voter wanted in 2016. 918 00:42:32,385 --> 00:42:35,475 What he and his administration seems to be unaware of. 919 00:42:36,570 --> 00:42:40,500 Is that they should be patting themselves on the back for what they delivered in 920 00:42:40,500 --> 00:42:45,240 2017 and 18 instead of tripling down on policy that nobody in this country wants. 921 00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:50,880 And I have, I have so much data, I have a cornucopia of charts, Jacob, 922 00:42:51,180 --> 00:42:55,080 that proves my points, tariffs and trade are the least important political 923 00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:56,340 issue in the United States of America. 924 00:42:57,330 --> 00:42:58,800 You know, behind like abortion. 925 00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:00,450 Nobody cares about this stuff. 926 00:43:00,810 --> 00:43:04,470 And he's completely over indexing on it, not knowing that what 927 00:43:04,470 --> 00:43:09,300 he should be doing is claiming victory for delivering fair trade. 928 00:43:09,300 --> 00:43:12,540 Because clearly American voters are now far more, they've doubled 929 00:43:12,540 --> 00:43:14,010 their support for globalization. 930 00:43:14,220 --> 00:43:15,540 That's, that's surprising. 931 00:43:15,540 --> 00:43:15,900 No, 932 00:43:17,095 --> 00:43:19,710 Jacob Shapiro: it, it is a little surprising, but it also, if you 933 00:43:19,710 --> 00:43:21,810 pull the data on what Americans. 934 00:43:22,185 --> 00:43:26,444 Perceptions of China were in 2016 and 2017, and I haven't looked at the, 935 00:43:26,444 --> 00:43:27,585 the data in the last year or two. 936 00:43:27,585 --> 00:43:28,665 I doubt it's changed that much. 937 00:43:28,665 --> 00:43:32,625 But in 20 16, 20 17 old people hated China 'cause it was communist China, 938 00:43:32,625 --> 00:43:33,794 part of the Cold War, everything else. 939 00:43:33,915 --> 00:43:36,314 But young Chinese people, generally speaking, were 940 00:43:36,314 --> 00:43:37,904 interested in and liked Americans. 941 00:43:37,904 --> 00:43:42,225 And the same was true and over the course of the first Trump administration and the 942 00:43:42,225 --> 00:43:47,415 Biden administration, um, that changed where both youths on both sides now 943 00:43:47,444 --> 00:43:50,654 distrust each other at the same level that the old guys from the Cold War do. 944 00:43:50,654 --> 00:43:53,294 So I, I think you're right that you can point to data that shows 945 00:43:53,294 --> 00:43:55,305 that, um, about globalization. 946 00:43:55,305 --> 00:43:58,185 But I think you can also point to data that the average median voter 947 00:43:58,185 --> 00:44:02,294 in the United States is animated by a deep set fear of China. 948 00:44:02,294 --> 00:44:05,924 And then if you like, give them policies and they have to fight between the, 949 00:44:05,924 --> 00:44:09,495 like their supportive globalization or whatever else, um, or even their like, 950 00:44:09,495 --> 00:44:13,605 you know, cheap products at the Dollar General versus let's stick it to China. 951 00:44:14,205 --> 00:44:16,935 Like for some, the fear thing will pop up and for some the other thing will pop up. 952 00:44:16,935 --> 00:44:18,075 And I think the fear will, I think for vast 953 00:44:18,075 --> 00:44:20,115 Marko Papic: majority, I'll, I'll just make a call right now. 954 00:44:20,115 --> 00:44:22,875 I think for the vast majority it will be economics over foreign policy. 955 00:44:22,875 --> 00:44:25,815 'cause foreign policy is, again, completely and utterly 956 00:44:25,815 --> 00:44:27,075 irrelevant to most Americans. 957 00:44:27,075 --> 00:44:28,875 I mean, sorry, I'm not saying that out my ass. 958 00:44:28,875 --> 00:44:30,735 I'm, I'm, I'm, again relying on pulse. 959 00:44:31,305 --> 00:44:36,765 So yes, I think, I think what you are revealing is exactly evidence, again, for 960 00:44:36,765 --> 00:44:41,085 my view, which is that eventually when World War III starts because young people 961 00:44:41,085 --> 00:44:42,375 hate each other, fine, you're right. 962 00:44:43,455 --> 00:44:46,605 It will do so at a very high level of economic integration. 963 00:44:47,085 --> 00:44:47,145 Yeah. 964 00:44:47,175 --> 00:44:49,845 Because nobody, like, you're right. 965 00:44:49,875 --> 00:44:55,245 Like clearly, clearly, clearly sentiment towards China has soured, but that 966 00:44:55,245 --> 00:45:01,095 sentiment towards China as an enemy, as a, as a rival economic sentiment 967 00:45:01,095 --> 00:45:05,055 toward, towards globalization is extremely high and nobody wants tariffs. 968 00:45:05,055 --> 00:45:05,415 So. 969 00:45:05,850 --> 00:45:10,170 The way I square those two views together is that, yeah, like I think Americans 970 00:45:10,170 --> 00:45:13,980 have become much more anti-Chinese, but no, they don't want to pay more for 971 00:45:13,980 --> 00:45:15,780 their Christmas toys as a result of it. 972 00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:19,050 And by the way, they're right, the wisdom, and I know this 973 00:45:19,050 --> 00:45:20,460 is where we always disagree. 974 00:45:20,910 --> 00:45:23,820 In this particular case, I would say the median voter is right. 975 00:45:23,820 --> 00:45:28,470 The median voter understands that buying a toy from China does not fuel the Chinese 976 00:45:28,470 --> 00:45:31,110 Communist Party in its military machine. 977 00:45:31,410 --> 00:45:33,030 Oh yeah, it does, does not, you know, I 978 00:45:33,030 --> 00:45:35,670 Jacob Shapiro: agree here, like who started World War I, to your point, 979 00:45:35,670 --> 00:45:38,370 the munitions guys, it wasn't, you know, the people in the upper level 980 00:45:38,370 --> 00:45:41,160 of government wasn't these like people on the street who just want the cheap 981 00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:42,480 toys, like Yeah, I'm, I'm with you. 982 00:45:43,860 --> 00:45:45,480 Marko Papic: But anyways, I think, I think it's interesting. 983 00:45:45,509 --> 00:45:47,700 Uh, ultimately I think we're getting a deal. 984 00:45:47,700 --> 00:45:49,980 I don't think a war is starting like tomorrow. 985 00:45:50,130 --> 00:45:52,080 I also don't think this deal is a grand bargain. 986 00:45:52,110 --> 00:45:53,460 I think we both agree with that. 987 00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:57,960 Uh, when Trump meets, which he in, in, you know, South Korea for this Apex 988 00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:04,170 summit, uh, I think you should just expect a truce that does not last beyond. 989 00:46:04,605 --> 00:46:05,955 Probably the Trump administration. 990 00:46:06,105 --> 00:46:07,545 I think we're both in, in agreement in that. 991 00:46:08,055 --> 00:46:09,464 Do you think world worth three's inevitable? 992 00:46:10,035 --> 00:46:11,055 No, absolutely not. 993 00:46:11,384 --> 00:46:12,105 Absolutely not. 994 00:46:12,105 --> 00:46:15,645 And I think we need a, a, a because, you know, I think, I think we're 995 00:46:15,645 --> 00:46:19,214 gonna stay in a multipolar world order for the next 50 years. 996 00:46:20,115 --> 00:46:23,654 Uh, maybe 20 years, maybe something in between. 997 00:46:23,654 --> 00:46:28,424 And I think that the biggest geopolitical story of the next 50 years, uh, or 20 998 00:46:28,424 --> 00:46:31,125 years is not gonna be China, US tensions. 999 00:46:31,185 --> 00:46:33,255 I think it's gonna be dissolution of Russia. 1000 00:46:34,125 --> 00:46:40,515 And the process by which it's rotting carcass is pulled sunder across 1001 00:46:40,515 --> 00:46:43,755 Eurasia by various other powers. 1002 00:46:43,785 --> 00:46:44,145 You know? 1003 00:46:44,145 --> 00:46:48,105 So I think that what's gonna be very interesting is that us may 1004 00:46:48,105 --> 00:46:51,075 be in a very good position, but for the, all the different reasons 1005 00:46:51,075 --> 00:46:52,065 than a lot of people think. 1006 00:46:52,605 --> 00:46:55,785 I think that, uh, the weakness of Russia, I mean, you know, like if 1007 00:46:55,785 --> 00:46:59,955 the Ottoman Empire was the Eastern question and the Sikh man of Europe. 1008 00:47:01,410 --> 00:47:04,710 Dominated European and global geopolitics for a hundred years. 1009 00:47:04,740 --> 00:47:06,540 It was really the weakness of Ottoman Empire. 1010 00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:10,920 Can you imagine what the weakness of a country, the size of Russia. 1011 00:47:11,745 --> 00:47:15,555 Will mean for geopolitics, but I think we should spend a whole podcast just on that. 1012 00:47:15,555 --> 00:47:16,154 I know, I know. 1013 00:47:16,154 --> 00:47:17,745 There's other things we wanna talk about. 1014 00:47:17,955 --> 00:47:18,615 Well, no, I don't. 1015 00:47:18,795 --> 00:47:19,665 World War ii, well, I shouldn't call 1016 00:47:19,665 --> 00:47:21,555 Jacob Shapiro: you, I shouldn't call you Norman Eng. I should call you. 1017 00:47:21,555 --> 00:47:22,995 Uh, you're a kinder now. 1018 00:47:22,995 --> 00:47:27,075 The the heartland is, is being torn asunder by, by all these different forces. 1019 00:47:27,315 --> 00:47:30,404 By the way, while we were talking, uh, the, the person who I'm meeting 1020 00:47:30,404 --> 00:47:33,525 tomorrow for my av check, for my event, he texted me and said, Hey, by the way, 1021 00:47:33,825 --> 00:47:36,464 uh, Dodge, I'm in Milwaukee, Dodgers and brewers are playing tonight, and 1022 00:47:36,464 --> 00:47:37,815 the Dodgers are staying at the hotel. 1023 00:47:37,815 --> 00:47:39,765 So if you see any Dodgers, that's what's going on. 1024 00:47:39,795 --> 00:47:40,640 So I might, oh wow. 1025 00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,935 I might see some Dodgers in the hotel and if I see Freddy Freeman or if I find 1026 00:47:43,935 --> 00:47:46,875 out what room he is gonna be in, I'm gonna prank his room because he should 1027 00:47:46,875 --> 00:47:48,315 have never left the Atlanta Braves. 1028 00:47:48,345 --> 00:47:50,475 And I'm really, really butt hurt that he decided to go to 1029 00:47:50,475 --> 00:47:52,154 Los Angeles for the dollars. 1030 00:47:52,154 --> 00:47:53,025 That was not very nice. 1031 00:47:53,025 --> 00:47:56,055 Freddy, I had literally just bought your jersey after you won us the World Series. 1032 00:47:56,055 --> 00:47:56,714 I'm really Freddy, dude. 1033 00:47:56,714 --> 00:47:58,634 Marko Papic: Everybody goes to Los Angeles for the dollars. 1034 00:47:58,634 --> 00:47:59,325 I did too. 1035 00:47:59,384 --> 00:47:59,924 Like, come on. 1036 00:48:00,005 --> 00:48:01,655 Yeah, give him a break. 1037 00:48:01,865 --> 00:48:02,555 That's what you do. 1038 00:48:02,795 --> 00:48:03,905 Jacob Shapiro: And I went to New Orleans. 1039 00:48:03,935 --> 00:48:04,325 Okay. 1040 00:48:04,325 --> 00:48:10,385 So, uh, let's talk about Gen Z. I'm not gonna be able to set you up quite as well 1041 00:48:10,385 --> 00:48:13,565 as I, I could set you up, um, for China. 1042 00:48:13,565 --> 00:48:17,675 But, um, you know, we talked, I think in our last episode or episode before 1043 00:48:17,855 --> 00:48:19,445 you, we've had protests in Morocco. 1044 00:48:19,445 --> 00:48:20,915 We've had protests in Indonesia. 1045 00:48:20,915 --> 00:48:22,745 We've had a government change in Nepal. 1046 00:48:23,015 --> 00:48:26,105 Um, in the last two weeks, add two more, basically coups to the list. 1047 00:48:26,105 --> 00:48:28,505 So last week we add Peru to the list. 1048 00:48:28,565 --> 00:48:32,345 Uh, president Dina Boar, uh, was taken out by Congress. 1049 00:48:32,345 --> 00:48:35,645 Peru is, no, I don't know if you can exactly call it a coup. 1050 00:48:35,885 --> 00:48:39,275 There were some Gen Z protests two to three weeks ago, uh, which 1051 00:48:39,275 --> 00:48:42,185 was, do you know what, what drove the protests in Peru, Marco? 1052 00:48:42,185 --> 00:48:44,585 I did not until I, until I started researching this. 1053 00:48:44,585 --> 00:48:48,395 But do you know why the, the youth were so upset, um, in Peru 1054 00:48:48,395 --> 00:48:49,415 and why they hit the streets? 1055 00:48:50,145 --> 00:48:50,775 I don't think so. 1056 00:48:50,775 --> 00:48:51,075 No. 1057 00:48:51,555 --> 00:48:54,944 There, there was a reform being proposed that would've forced self-employed workers 1058 00:48:54,944 --> 00:48:59,535 to contribute to pension funds, um, and Peru, at least according to the OECD, 1059 00:48:59,775 --> 00:49:02,745 aside from the fact that like the young kids don't want to be contributing to 1060 00:49:02,745 --> 00:49:06,105 pension funds, um, they have the fifth highest proportion of young people in 1061 00:49:06,105 --> 00:49:08,085 the world who neither study nor work. 1062 00:49:08,115 --> 00:49:09,615 And there's even an acronym for this. 1063 00:49:09,615 --> 00:49:13,365 They're called neats, not in education, employment, or training. 1064 00:49:13,485 --> 00:49:13,575 Yep. 1065 00:49:13,845 --> 00:49:14,295 I know that. 1066 00:49:14,295 --> 00:49:14,860 I guess they're just not, yes. 1067 00:49:15,315 --> 00:49:16,095 I didn't know that. 1068 00:49:16,095 --> 00:49:17,865 There's 1.5 million of them in Peru. 1069 00:49:17,865 --> 00:49:20,085 So you had all these protests a couple of weeks ago. 1070 00:49:20,415 --> 00:49:24,944 Um, and Congress basically removed the Peruvian president, um, Peru, 1071 00:49:25,095 --> 00:49:26,355 not a stranger to these things. 1072 00:49:26,355 --> 00:49:28,365 There was, was it 22 or 23? 1073 00:49:28,365 --> 00:49:29,384 I forget, a couple years ago. 1074 00:49:29,384 --> 00:49:31,335 Like Peru literally went through three presidents. 1075 00:49:31,335 --> 00:49:31,424 Yep. 1076 00:49:31,424 --> 00:49:32,325 In the span of a month. 1077 00:49:32,325 --> 00:49:33,134 It was incredible. 1078 00:49:33,465 --> 00:49:37,455 Uh, Peru also like lots of different rare Earths and copper and all sorts 1079 00:49:37,455 --> 00:49:40,035 of other things that Chinese are building up port infrastructure there. 1080 00:49:40,035 --> 00:49:41,475 Like it's a, it's an important one. 1081 00:49:41,775 --> 00:49:44,415 And then this week, I mean, nobody really cares about this, but. 1082 00:49:45,020 --> 00:49:47,120 Uh, Madagascar had a proper military coup. 1083 00:49:47,510 --> 00:49:50,990 Uh, they had weeks of Gen Z protests around the country. 1084 00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:54,680 Um, and then, um, you know, the president was basically 1085 00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:55,970 toppled, I guess earlier today. 1086 00:49:55,970 --> 00:49:57,080 I mean, he's fled the country. 1087 00:49:57,080 --> 00:49:58,160 The military has taken over. 1088 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,680 There's a special committee, everything else that goes 1089 00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:02,390 along, um, with a military coup. 1090 00:50:02,750 --> 00:50:06,620 Um, so that's at least, uh, you know, the, the two things that have happened 1091 00:50:06,620 --> 00:50:09,710 in the last two weeks, but you said you wanted to cook on, on Gen Z. So I'll 1092 00:50:09,710 --> 00:50:11,300 step aside and let you cook for a second. 1093 00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:12,050 Marko Papic: No. 1094 00:50:12,050 --> 00:50:15,200 Well, I think you, you also wanted to last, last podcast, 1095 00:50:15,200 --> 00:50:16,850 and actually it was prescient. 1096 00:50:17,300 --> 00:50:21,745 Your, your spidey sense is sense this, and then we got another country where, 1097 00:50:21,750 --> 00:50:23,690 where you pro protests did this. 1098 00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:26,900 So, first, first thing I wanna say is that this all really started in 1099 00:50:26,900 --> 00:50:32,570 2019, and me and my, uh, good, uh, Colombian friend Santiago, who I, 1100 00:50:32,900 --> 00:50:35,150 who I often cook and, and talk about. 1101 00:50:35,150 --> 00:50:39,410 I remember we were looking at what was happening in 20 19, 20 18, 20 19. 1102 00:50:39,410 --> 00:50:41,900 You had Hong Kong protests, which were deeply violent. 1103 00:50:41,900 --> 00:50:41,990 Mm-hmm. 1104 00:50:42,500 --> 00:50:42,650 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah. 1105 00:50:43,310 --> 00:50:44,360 Marko Papic: And then we had Chile. 1106 00:50:45,135 --> 00:50:49,575 Remember Chile, where the protests were actually launched because the, uh, transit 1107 00:50:49,575 --> 00:50:51,495 fees went up by like quarter of a cent. 1108 00:50:51,500 --> 00:50:51,945 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1109 00:50:51,945 --> 00:50:52,395 Bus fees, 1110 00:50:52,500 --> 00:50:52,660 Jacob Shapiro: yeah, 1111 00:50:53,115 --> 00:50:53,625 Marko Papic: yeah, bus fee. 1112 00:50:53,655 --> 00:50:57,645 Uh, so, and um, and what was interesting to me about those protests 1113 00:50:57,645 --> 00:50:59,505 is that they were quite expansive. 1114 00:50:59,505 --> 00:51:02,055 2018 was, I think Hong Kong 2019 was Chile. 1115 00:51:02,625 --> 00:51:06,165 Hong Kong protests were some of the most violent student protests I've ever seen. 1116 00:51:06,165 --> 00:51:09,195 Like the kids were attacking police with hammers. 1117 00:51:09,585 --> 00:51:16,065 And I think that one of the reasons that we in the West have not really realized 1118 00:51:16,065 --> 00:51:20,295 how violent the Hong Kong protests were is because we had a very deep, that was 1119 00:51:20,295 --> 00:51:22,185 the turn, that was the anti-China turn. 1120 00:51:23,415 --> 00:51:28,215 The narrative about what was going on in Hong Kong was deeply, deeply anti-Chinese. 1121 00:51:28,305 --> 00:51:31,995 And there was this view that the Hong Kong police was cracking down a protests 1122 00:51:31,995 --> 00:51:34,785 like first and foremost, foremost, you can go back and look at this. 1123 00:51:34,785 --> 00:51:36,345 Two people died in those protests. 1124 00:51:36,975 --> 00:51:38,295 One fell off a parking garage. 1125 00:51:38,295 --> 00:51:39,855 I think the other one died of a heart attack. 1126 00:51:40,245 --> 00:51:41,535 Please fact, check me on that. 1127 00:51:41,924 --> 00:51:42,225 Okay. 1128 00:51:42,765 --> 00:51:46,005 And the Hong Kong police was being assaulted by students who were 1129 00:51:46,005 --> 00:51:50,505 wearing body armor and wielding like, you know, machine tools. 1130 00:51:51,525 --> 00:51:56,835 If you attack a bunch of ice officers in like Chicago wearing body armor and 1131 00:51:56,835 --> 00:51:59,295 a hammer, you're getting shot to death. 1132 00:52:00,165 --> 00:52:02,835 And so it was very funny to me as somebody who lived in countries where 1133 00:52:02,835 --> 00:52:06,495 there's actual protests, all these western commentators talking about 1134 00:52:06,495 --> 00:52:10,245 how, you know, Chinese Allied Hong Kong police was cracking down on students. 1135 00:52:10,245 --> 00:52:13,365 I was like, guys, if you had the same protest in the US, there'll 1136 00:52:13,365 --> 00:52:14,745 be like a thousand students dead. 1137 00:52:15,615 --> 00:52:16,485 You're gonna be kidding me. 1138 00:52:16,755 --> 00:52:18,585 So why do I bring this up? 1139 00:52:18,795 --> 00:52:24,825 I bring this up because the Chile example of launching countrywide protests 1140 00:52:24,825 --> 00:52:30,225 because of a small increase, shows you that Gen Z has a very short fuse. 1141 00:52:32,025 --> 00:52:34,665 Remember when like Spanish millennials. 1142 00:52:35,430 --> 00:52:40,230 Camped in Madrid because youth unemployment was like 80%. 1143 00:52:41,940 --> 00:52:46,380 So millennials, we clearly don't have a short fuse. 1144 00:52:46,410 --> 00:52:47,730 We put up with a lot. 1145 00:52:48,510 --> 00:52:52,950 Gen Z has a short fuse, number one and two is much more violent. 1146 00:52:53,610 --> 00:52:56,670 And that I don't need Madagascar in Nepal to teach me that. 1147 00:52:56,700 --> 00:53:00,180 Hong Kong taught me that, like kids in Hong Kong. 1148 00:53:01,650 --> 00:53:03,150 And so why do I mention this? 1149 00:53:03,150 --> 00:53:06,300 I mentioned this because I think the two generations are just much more different. 1150 00:53:06,870 --> 00:53:12,600 You know, I think that, uh, millennials kind of came of age, entered the 1151 00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:15,360 labor force in a lot of the world after the great financial crisis. 1152 00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:16,650 There was a lot of insecurity. 1153 00:53:16,650 --> 00:53:17,460 There was a lot of sense. 1154 00:53:17,460 --> 00:53:20,910 So like, oh, you better shut up and enjoy that internship. 1155 00:53:20,910 --> 00:53:21,810 That doesn't pay you anything. 1156 00:53:21,810 --> 00:53:26,070 You're lucky, you know, like, and, and most of us did that. 1157 00:53:26,910 --> 00:53:31,230 And part of the reason also is that most millennials also grew up in the 1158 00:53:31,230 --> 00:53:36,210 middle of this globalized American hegemony world where like, you know, if 1159 00:53:36,210 --> 00:53:39,210 you just worked hard enough, you were going to do better than your parents. 1160 00:53:39,210 --> 00:53:40,830 I mean, that was the narrative that still worked. 1161 00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:45,450 We were the generation that realized that that's not necessarily true. 1162 00:53:46,650 --> 00:53:53,220 Gen Z is coming behind us and saying like, you guys are suckers and you are weak. 1163 00:53:54,210 --> 00:53:57,840 And we played a whole lot of Fortnite, buddy. 1164 00:53:58,290 --> 00:53:58,590 You know? 1165 00:53:58,590 --> 00:53:58,650 Yeah. 1166 00:53:59,010 --> 00:53:59,610 Jacob Shapiro: So we're gonna 1167 00:53:59,610 --> 00:54:00,540 Marko Papic: put on, and we 1168 00:54:00,540 --> 00:54:03,060 Jacob Shapiro: haven't read books, so we don't know what happens when we protest. 1169 00:54:03,090 --> 00:54:06,270 Uh, is this your way to get it back at me for calling you Norman Eng? You're gonna 1170 00:54:06,270 --> 00:54:08,100 make me try and stick up for Gen Z here. 1171 00:54:08,100 --> 00:54:10,530 I think you're being a little bit, uh, no, I be pro 1172 00:54:10,530 --> 00:54:11,190 Marko Papic: Gen Z. No, no. 1173 00:54:11,190 --> 00:54:11,640 Wait a minute. 1174 00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,670 I'm not being anti Gen Z. I'm just saying like, look, they have a 1175 00:54:15,870 --> 00:54:17,910 Jacob Shapiro: ways, you said they had, you said they had a very short fuse. 1176 00:54:18,030 --> 00:54:18,750 And I might already, which 1177 00:54:18,755 --> 00:54:19,740 Marko Papic: for for good reason. 1178 00:54:19,740 --> 00:54:22,350 For good reason though, I would say, I would say. 1179 00:54:22,905 --> 00:54:25,305 That a lot of us have been waiting for generational war. 1180 00:54:25,515 --> 00:54:29,625 The reason it didn't happen is because millennials are basically suckers. 1181 00:54:30,105 --> 00:54:30,885 That's what I'm saying. 1182 00:54:30,945 --> 00:54:35,925 As a generation, they are suck and Gen Z is not, you know, also when I say 1183 00:54:35,925 --> 00:54:38,865 the short fuse, like yeah, I mean they have a short fuse because they're gonna 1184 00:54:38,865 --> 00:54:40,275 stand up and fight for their stuff. 1185 00:54:40,275 --> 00:54:43,545 And now a lot of critics are gonna say, and I, I, I actually, it's funny 1186 00:54:43,545 --> 00:54:46,905 Jacob, it's amazing that you wanted to talk about this topic last week. 1187 00:54:46,905 --> 00:54:48,795 'cause I've been talking about it to clients all week. 1188 00:54:49,395 --> 00:54:50,385 You totally nailed it. 1189 00:54:50,625 --> 00:54:55,335 And I just finished a great conversation with a client just before this call 1190 00:54:55,935 --> 00:54:59,625 and they said to me, but aren't you afraid that Gen Z's anti-democratic? 1191 00:55:00,705 --> 00:55:02,805 You know, because there's all these surveys that say that they're 1192 00:55:02,805 --> 00:55:06,315 anti-democratic and like, look, I'm actually not that concerned about that. 1193 00:55:07,875 --> 00:55:11,475 They see that democracy doesn't really work in many, many ways, 1194 00:55:11,745 --> 00:55:14,535 and they see that it's, it can be corrupted, it can be paid for. 1195 00:55:14,535 --> 00:55:17,565 I mean, look, I mean, Donald Trump won on this platform as well. 1196 00:55:17,565 --> 00:55:19,185 Like democracy is not working for you. 1197 00:55:19,485 --> 00:55:21,825 Like you need to vote for someone who's anti-establishment. 1198 00:55:22,605 --> 00:55:25,695 It doesn't mean that Gen Z is going to replace democracy 1199 00:55:25,695 --> 00:55:27,585 with fascism or communism. 1200 00:55:27,675 --> 00:55:28,845 It doesn't mean that at all. 1201 00:55:29,175 --> 00:55:32,625 It just means that there are certain things in our democracy and democracy 1202 00:55:32,625 --> 00:55:36,375 in Madagascar, certainly in democracy in Hong Kong or Chile, and certainly 1203 00:55:36,375 --> 00:55:39,105 in my home country where I was born in Serbia, where its students have been 1204 00:55:39,105 --> 00:55:43,125 protesting for like 18 months as well, even before all these other protests. 1205 00:55:44,235 --> 00:55:46,185 I think Gen Z is connected. 1206 00:55:46,785 --> 00:55:48,855 They see what the rest of the world looks like. 1207 00:55:49,155 --> 00:55:54,465 They see what countries without corruption look like, and they, they just, you 1208 00:55:54,465 --> 00:55:58,665 know, they're kind of, A lot of these regimes are victims of their own success. 1209 00:55:58,665 --> 00:56:00,675 They haven't delivered aside from. 1210 00:56:01,379 --> 00:56:02,819 Maybe economic growth. 1211 00:56:02,819 --> 00:56:05,819 They haven't delivered on governance of quality of life. 1212 00:56:05,819 --> 00:56:09,540 And that, and Gen Z, just unlike millennials, unlike millennials, 1213 00:56:09,870 --> 00:56:13,350 gen Z, are not gonna put up tents and occupy anything. 1214 00:56:14,459 --> 00:56:15,240 They're gonna burn it. 1215 00:56:16,109 --> 00:56:17,160 And I respect them for that. 1216 00:56:18,750 --> 00:56:20,279 Jacob Shapiro: Man, there is so much to break apart there. 1217 00:56:20,310 --> 00:56:22,560 Um, I, I, okay. 1218 00:56:22,799 --> 00:56:24,569 I don't think millennials are suckers. 1219 00:56:25,049 --> 00:56:29,459 I think millennials came of age in an era, to your point of optimism and 1220 00:56:29,459 --> 00:56:32,879 believed that if they did the work, they would be rewarded for the work. 1221 00:56:33,209 --> 00:56:38,100 And some of us woke up in 2001 on September 11th, and some of us woke 1222 00:56:38,100 --> 00:56:40,230 up in 2008 with the financial crisis. 1223 00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:43,200 And then COVID really like drove it home. 1224 00:56:43,950 --> 00:56:47,160 Uh, that this was like, not, like you were not gonna be guaranteed something that 1225 00:56:47,160 --> 00:56:49,380 was better than your parents' generations. 1226 00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:51,960 And I think, I think millennials have had to cope with that because 1227 00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:54,570 they grew up with this idea about the world and the world that they're 1228 00:56:54,570 --> 00:56:55,860 inheriting is actually very different. 1229 00:56:55,860 --> 00:56:59,460 And the people that taught them that world are these boomers who won't step 1230 00:56:59,460 --> 00:57:01,320 aside and keep on doing all these things. 1231 00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:03,900 The world that, you know, we talked about this last time, I think you're 1232 00:57:03,900 --> 00:57:07,230 right, that like Gen Z grew up in a world that was fundamentally not 1233 00:57:07,230 --> 00:57:11,010 optimistic, um, in a world where all of this was native to them. 1234 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:14,970 Um, and, and where like this is all just sort of, I, I don't know, 1235 00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:17,280 like maybe in the same way that millennials are better with technology 1236 00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:20,220 because we grow up with computers, even if they were shitty computers 1237 00:57:20,220 --> 00:57:21,570 with Ms Dos and things like that. 1238 00:57:21,570 --> 00:57:23,100 Like we at least know how computers work. 1239 00:57:23,100 --> 00:57:24,270 Like we understand the basics. 1240 00:57:24,270 --> 00:57:26,700 So if you give us a new cell phone, like, okay, like it'll take us a 1241 00:57:26,700 --> 00:57:27,960 couple hours, but we'll figure it out. 1242 00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:30,780 Whereas a Boomer, like once you take away a Boomer's phone, like it's 1243 00:57:30,780 --> 00:57:33,330 gonna take them months if they're ever gonna actually learn like 1244 00:57:33,330 --> 00:57:34,590 the new phone architecture again. 1245 00:57:34,590 --> 00:57:37,950 Maybe Multipolarity is something that the Gen Zs learn. 1246 00:57:37,980 --> 00:57:38,820 I, I don't know. 1247 00:57:38,820 --> 00:57:39,130 But um. 1248 00:57:39,875 --> 00:57:45,275 I think one thing, I, I had a, I had a, um, a loss or a, a graduate student from 1249 00:57:45,275 --> 00:57:47,194 Nepal on my podcast a couple weeks ago. 1250 00:57:47,194 --> 00:57:50,285 And I was asking her, and she, she participated in the Gen Z protest 1251 00:57:50,285 --> 00:57:53,045 in Nepal, and I was asking her perspective and why she participated. 1252 00:57:53,045 --> 00:57:56,705 And one of the things that she alluded to was, look, because we're 1253 00:57:56,705 --> 00:58:00,515 also interconnected, we see what's going on in other countries, we 1254 00:58:00,515 --> 00:58:05,015 see that in other countries, things work and people have nice things. 1255 00:58:05,194 --> 00:58:08,375 So like, you know, we already know like that we're not gonna have 1256 00:58:08,375 --> 00:58:09,785 better than our parents' generations. 1257 00:58:09,785 --> 00:58:12,634 We saw what happened to the millennials, them believing that nonsense. 1258 00:58:12,725 --> 00:58:16,205 And we also see that people in at least other countries, like things are better 1259 00:58:16,205 --> 00:58:19,145 over there, so why can't we have those things and we're gonna go out and protest. 1260 00:58:19,145 --> 00:58:21,875 And there is a part of this also where, I dunno if you've seen those stats 1261 00:58:21,875 --> 00:58:26,585 about, um, you know, gen Z and reading and like their knowledge of like history 1262 00:58:26,585 --> 00:58:27,785 or anything that came before them. 1263 00:58:27,815 --> 00:58:30,065 It's, it's just they're reading at shockingly low rates. 1264 00:58:30,065 --> 00:58:34,625 So maybe they, maybe they lack a requisite level of fear about what it means to go 1265 00:58:34,654 --> 00:58:36,319 and burn something in the streets, but. 1266 00:58:36,715 --> 00:58:37,225 I don't know. 1267 00:58:37,225 --> 00:58:39,415 I'm, let's, let's, I'm grasping at straws there. 1268 00:58:39,715 --> 00:58:39,925 Marko Papic: No, no. 1269 00:58:39,925 --> 00:58:42,445 Let's pause on those two because, um, you know, that was 1270 00:58:42,445 --> 00:58:43,855 one of the things I also said. 1271 00:58:43,855 --> 00:58:46,945 It was this knowledge of the rest of the world that I think is very important. 1272 00:58:47,905 --> 00:58:53,155 I think social media brings the rest of the world to you, and I think that 1273 00:58:53,155 --> 00:58:57,265 that's very, very important because then you ask exactly those questions 1274 00:58:57,265 --> 00:58:58,675 like, well, why isn't this better? 1275 00:58:59,035 --> 00:58:59,185 Yeah. 1276 00:58:59,305 --> 00:59:05,155 And I also think that, um, you know, it just, it's travel has become cheap 1277 00:59:05,155 --> 00:59:09,025 as well, and I think a lot of younger people have also managed to travel. 1278 00:59:09,025 --> 00:59:12,055 And, and I know for a fact, like if you are from Serbia and 1279 00:59:12,055 --> 00:59:14,965 you're in your twenties, you've probably traveled to Europe. 1280 00:59:15,565 --> 00:59:16,945 It's not that expensive to do that. 1281 00:59:16,945 --> 00:59:19,825 You have a phone and you can go to Croatia, which is next door. 1282 00:59:19,855 --> 00:59:20,875 You can like drive to it. 1283 00:59:21,355 --> 00:59:24,565 They basically speak the same language and you're like, well, this 1284 00:59:24,565 --> 00:59:26,155 place is better run than this place. 1285 00:59:26,155 --> 00:59:26,635 Like, why? 1286 00:59:26,665 --> 00:59:27,565 What's the difference? 1287 00:59:27,835 --> 00:59:28,525 Oh, okay. 1288 00:59:28,525 --> 00:59:28,765 Yeah. 1289 00:59:28,765 --> 00:59:33,085 They, they, they at least made an effort to clean up their governance 1290 00:59:33,085 --> 00:59:34,795 to get into the EU as an example. 1291 00:59:35,549 --> 00:59:38,220 You know, and I think that, um, a lot of these regimes are 1292 00:59:38,220 --> 00:59:39,660 also victims of their success. 1293 00:59:39,660 --> 00:59:42,839 I mean, in Serbia's case, I made this point before, I think in many 1294 00:59:42,839 --> 00:59:47,580 ways, um, you know, IC and the people in power have managed to 1295 00:59:47,580 --> 00:59:49,319 stabilize geopolitics of Serbia. 1296 00:59:49,319 --> 00:59:51,690 It's actually one of the best performing economies in Europe. 1297 00:59:52,379 --> 00:59:56,100 Um, but the problem with that is that you've got, you've delivered 1298 00:59:56,100 --> 00:59:57,540 jobs to the young people. 1299 00:59:57,540 --> 00:59:58,650 You've let them travel. 1300 00:59:58,650 --> 01:00:00,145 They all got enough money for an iPhone. 1301 01:00:01,965 --> 01:00:04,785 But you can't then have governance of the 1980s or seventies. 1302 01:00:04,815 --> 01:00:07,515 You know, you can't just have these patron, you just gotta clean that up. 1303 01:00:07,515 --> 01:00:10,725 I mean, that's just like, you've created a problem for yourself, but actually 1304 01:00:10,725 --> 01:00:15,435 delivering stability, um, and also by delivering, um, economic growth. 1305 01:00:15,855 --> 01:00:18,105 So I do think that that interconnectedness, I think 1306 01:00:18,105 --> 01:00:19,905 is an, is an important issue. 1307 01:00:19,905 --> 01:00:22,965 Although I would say that millennials were also similarly interconnected. 1308 01:00:22,965 --> 01:00:26,145 I mean, we were, even in our youth, we were able to see what's 1309 01:00:26,145 --> 01:00:27,255 going on in the rest of the world. 1310 01:00:27,255 --> 01:00:30,435 And again, that goes and speaks to the Occupy Wall Street 1311 01:00:30,435 --> 01:00:31,905 movement, which started in Spain. 1312 01:00:32,295 --> 01:00:36,435 Like that whole Occupy movement began in southern Europe. 1313 01:00:36,525 --> 01:00:40,365 Spain spread to other countries, ended up in us. 1314 01:00:40,425 --> 01:00:44,385 And again, just to clarify, the difference between millennials and 1315 01:00:44,385 --> 01:00:47,355 Gen Z. Gen Z are willing to take it to the streets in a much more 1316 01:00:47,355 --> 01:00:49,275 aggressive way than millennials were. 1317 01:00:49,275 --> 01:00:52,965 And I think partly the reason is that if you are in your early twenties 1318 01:00:53,805 --> 01:00:57,285 and you talk to someone in their early forties, you would say, what 1319 01:00:57,285 --> 01:00:58,995 did your peaceful protest get you? 1320 01:01:00,524 --> 01:01:02,295 What did Occupy Wall Street actually do? 1321 01:01:03,765 --> 01:01:04,125 You know? 1322 01:01:04,125 --> 01:01:07,125 And um, and, and then the final thing I would just say is like, 1323 01:01:08,714 --> 01:01:10,305 are they really ahistorical? 1324 01:01:10,305 --> 01:01:14,115 Do they not know the danger of this, or are they just young people? 1325 01:01:14,670 --> 01:01:15,629 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah, that's fair. 1326 01:01:16,379 --> 01:01:18,000 You know, because it's fair. 1327 01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:20,279 I, I always actually shy away from generational arguments 1328 01:01:20,310 --> 01:01:22,920 'cause I fundamentally think everybody's actually just the same. 1329 01:01:22,950 --> 01:01:25,319 And all of these different tribes that we're putting ourselves into Yeah. 1330 01:01:25,319 --> 01:01:26,730 Are just like, it's false. 1331 01:01:26,730 --> 01:01:31,799 Marko Papic: 1968, listen, 1968 was an explosion of social movement in the world. 1332 01:01:31,799 --> 01:01:36,690 Read it up, you know, folks out there, it was global with like, it was in 1333 01:01:36,690 --> 01:01:40,290 America, it was about anti-Vietnam in France, it was about the state 1334 01:01:40,290 --> 01:01:45,330 of education system, system and, uh, the rigidity of social norms. 1335 01:01:45,390 --> 01:01:47,160 There was a sexual revolution going on. 1336 01:01:47,490 --> 01:01:49,379 There was an anti-war revolution going on. 1337 01:01:49,379 --> 01:01:51,060 There was an economic revolution going on. 1338 01:01:51,390 --> 01:01:54,720 And the baby boomers had their moment in 18 where they blew up the world. 1339 01:01:54,720 --> 01:01:55,049 Right. 1340 01:01:55,140 --> 01:01:58,290 And they were, in many ways, these were quite violent protests. 1341 01:01:58,290 --> 01:02:03,569 I mean, Charlotte de Gold like fled France to an army base in Germany where 1342 01:02:03,569 --> 01:02:05,730 he was just hiding for like two days. 1343 01:02:06,345 --> 01:02:08,265 The Prime Minister of France didn't know where he was. 1344 01:02:08,265 --> 01:02:08,625 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah. 1345 01:02:08,745 --> 01:02:10,725 Marko Papic: So this is what happened in 1968. 1346 01:02:10,725 --> 01:02:14,565 This was, this was the height of this baby boomer protest too. 1347 01:02:14,565 --> 01:02:18,375 And I think it's unfair for a bunch of baby boomers now to say that Gen Z is 1348 01:02:18,375 --> 01:02:20,205 undemocratic and they haven't read a book. 1349 01:02:20,445 --> 01:02:25,155 It's like, bro, you were having sex and doing drugs at 18 and then try to 1350 01:02:25,185 --> 01:02:30,615 burn down the world and then sold out and you know, you know, like reverse. 1351 01:02:30,615 --> 01:02:30,915 Well no, that, 1352 01:02:31,245 --> 01:02:32,205 Jacob Shapiro: and that's a good point. 1353 01:02:32,205 --> 01:02:36,795 So what was the geopolitical impact of 1968 and what do 1354 01:02:36,795 --> 01:02:39,315 you think the geopolitical impact of this in 2025 will be? 1355 01:02:39,315 --> 01:02:42,435 Or will this just be like a paragraph in, in history books such as they 1356 01:02:42,435 --> 01:02:45,675 are 20 years from now and you know, amidst all of the different us, 1357 01:02:45,675 --> 01:02:46,905 China, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 1358 01:02:46,905 --> 01:02:49,035 There were these protests in these different countries all around 1359 01:02:49,035 --> 01:02:52,365 the world demanding like lower bus fairs or whatever, demanding. 1360 01:02:53,205 --> 01:02:55,935 Marko Papic: So, you know what I think, I think I'm going to make, 1361 01:02:56,805 --> 01:02:59,535 when you were asking that question, I thought that was an unfair question. 1362 01:03:00,075 --> 01:03:00,525 You know? 1363 01:03:00,555 --> 01:03:01,125 Uh. 1364 01:03:01,860 --> 01:03:08,190 But I think there was, uh, geopolitical relevance in particular. 1365 01:03:08,580 --> 01:03:17,190 If you think about the 1970s, there was, um, there was like a Deante in 1366 01:03:17,190 --> 01:03:23,850 the 1970s, in part because all of these protests and made these countries 1367 01:03:23,850 --> 01:03:25,440 and societies very inward looking. 1368 01:03:25,530 --> 01:03:25,620 Jacob Shapiro: Mm-hmm. 1369 01:03:26,730 --> 01:03:30,900 Marko Papic: You know, and you had to deal with the unruly baby boomers effectively. 1370 01:03:31,620 --> 01:03:36,600 Uh, so I think that one of the things that, you know, we're all fixated 1371 01:03:36,600 --> 01:03:39,870 on Russia versus West China versus us, and we're, we're thinking that 1372 01:03:39,870 --> 01:03:41,370 this is gonna dominate next 10 years. 1373 01:03:41,970 --> 01:03:44,160 Domestic politics could dominate the next 10 years. 1374 01:03:44,850 --> 01:03:47,280 On the other hand, what I would also say about, uh. 1375 01:03:47,745 --> 01:03:52,035 1968, it did lead to the seventies, which were yes, very domestically 1376 01:03:52,035 --> 01:03:55,995 oriented decade, but very suboptimal from an economic perspective. 1377 01:03:55,995 --> 01:03:59,595 So one of the ways that you dealt with those protests is that you just, uh, 1378 01:03:59,595 --> 01:04:02,625 use Ian policies to satiate the public. 1379 01:04:02,925 --> 01:04:03,195 Jacob Shapiro: Hmm. 1380 01:04:03,585 --> 01:04:06,195 Marko Papic: Uh, so that could be also something that happens this time around. 1381 01:04:06,195 --> 01:04:10,305 Although I think in a weird way, I, I don't think Gen Z is 1382 01:04:10,305 --> 01:04:13,245 necessarily asking for that. 1383 01:04:14,235 --> 01:04:15,480 You know, think in some cases no, because 1384 01:04:15,480 --> 01:04:18,255 Jacob Shapiro: they're all buying Bitcoin as, as I'm starting to join them. 1385 01:04:19,995 --> 01:04:20,895 Marko Papic: They're all buying Bitcoin. 1386 01:04:20,925 --> 01:04:24,225 But I also think that they, um, understand that one of the reasons 1387 01:04:24,255 --> 01:04:27,855 they don't have access is because of the patronage networks of the past. 1388 01:04:28,845 --> 01:04:29,175 You know? 1389 01:04:29,175 --> 01:04:32,235 And also we did just go through a inflationary cycle 1390 01:04:32,235 --> 01:04:34,995 in the West in 2020, uh, two. 1391 01:04:35,385 --> 01:04:37,095 So I'm not sure we're gonna repeat that. 1392 01:04:37,095 --> 01:04:39,105 I, I'm not sure, but, but I'm open to it. 1393 01:04:39,285 --> 01:04:42,165 All I'm saying is that the 1968 protests. 1394 01:04:42,975 --> 01:04:45,944 Force the world to be a little bit more inward looking for 1395 01:04:45,944 --> 01:04:47,025 the next decade at least. 1396 01:04:48,225 --> 01:04:50,805 Jacob Shapiro: Do you, are you willing to, do you think that that'll be the case 1397 01:04:50,805 --> 01:04:53,174 as a result of the 2025 Gen Z protest? 1398 01:04:53,174 --> 01:04:55,275 Or have they, have they not even congealed enough for you 1399 01:04:55,275 --> 01:04:57,285 to, to put your neck out on? 1400 01:04:57,480 --> 01:04:57,770 Look, 1401 01:04:58,815 --> 01:05:02,025 Marko Papic: look, Jacob, I mean, right now our examples are Serbia, 1402 01:05:03,555 --> 01:05:07,154 Madagascar, Nepal, Indonesia, Peru. 1403 01:05:07,935 --> 01:05:08,325 Okay. 1404 01:05:08,535 --> 01:05:08,805 Okay. 1405 01:05:08,805 --> 01:05:09,194 Fair. 1406 01:05:09,495 --> 01:05:10,575 Uh, Hong Kong, Chile. 1407 01:05:10,605 --> 01:05:11,055 Okay. 1408 01:05:11,145 --> 01:05:12,315 In 20 18, 19 1409 01:05:14,535 --> 01:05:16,694 Jacob Shapiro: May, maybe some Turkey, like Turkey has kind 1410 01:05:16,694 --> 01:05:19,035 of popped its head up and then Erdogan's gotten it under control. 1411 01:05:19,845 --> 01:05:23,444 Marko Papic: I think we would need to see it happen in, in, 1412 01:05:23,444 --> 01:05:26,265 you know, big developed markets. 1413 01:05:26,985 --> 01:05:29,325 Um, but, you know, one, one thing that I would say is that 1414 01:05:30,015 --> 01:05:31,605 you don't need to use violence. 1415 01:05:31,725 --> 01:05:36,194 You know, sometimes what happens is just political evolution and, and one of the 1416 01:05:36,194 --> 01:05:39,615 interesting conversations I just had with a client, they were asking me about 1417 01:05:39,674 --> 01:05:41,085 what's going on in France and Japan. 1418 01:05:41,089 --> 01:05:41,339 Mm-hmm. 1419 01:05:42,810 --> 01:05:48,150 And I would say that partly millennials and Gen Z, let's move away from protests. 1420 01:05:48,150 --> 01:05:52,470 But I think millennials and Gen Z, you know, they're just incapable of really 1421 01:05:52,470 --> 01:05:55,650 connecting with some of these political parties that have been left over. 1422 01:05:56,340 --> 01:06:04,350 Uh, you know, and, uh, there's this idea, there's this idea that, um, 1423 01:06:05,820 --> 01:06:07,650 voters vote for their economic interest. 1424 01:06:07,650 --> 01:06:11,070 We know that's not the case, right? 1425 01:06:11,070 --> 01:06:12,750 So what's the matter with Kansas? 1426 01:06:12,960 --> 01:06:13,710 Great book. 1427 01:06:14,190 --> 01:06:18,090 Um, if you wanna, it's, it's very liberal critique of 1428 01:06:18,090 --> 01:06:19,325 conservative politics of Kansas. 1429 01:06:19,425 --> 01:06:21,270 So if you're conservative, you're not gonna like it. 1430 01:06:22,425 --> 01:06:28,875 Um, I think it's a well, uh, research book by a journalist, uh, Thomas Frank, who 1431 01:06:28,875 --> 01:06:32,925 basically argues that people in Kansas vote against their economic interests. 1432 01:06:32,925 --> 01:06:33,015 Mm-hmm. 1433 01:06:33,255 --> 01:06:38,295 And then, um, the book that kind of answers what is why people do 1434 01:06:38,295 --> 01:06:43,755 that is Alexander Schussler, who's a political scientist who wrote the 1435 01:06:43,755 --> 01:06:46,065 book, A Logic of Expressive Choice. 1436 01:06:46,515 --> 01:06:50,325 And that book is a far, far more complicated book to go through, 1437 01:06:50,985 --> 01:06:52,185 but it's actually very good. 1438 01:06:52,185 --> 01:06:54,855 Anyone who wants to kind of think about politics should read it. 1439 01:06:55,245 --> 01:06:59,415 In that book, Schuler makes a very controversial argument that goes against 1440 01:06:59,685 --> 01:07:03,795 decades of rational choice theory and says that nobody votes because 1441 01:07:03,795 --> 01:07:06,045 of some sort of a rational reason. 1442 01:07:06,405 --> 01:07:06,495 Mm-hmm. 1443 01:07:06,795 --> 01:07:10,305 Mathematically, mathematically, you have a higher probability of 1444 01:07:10,305 --> 01:07:14,115 being hit by a bus on your way to the polls than impacting the vote. 1445 01:07:14,115 --> 01:07:15,015 So why do you vote? 1446 01:07:15,900 --> 01:07:16,950 That's the puzzle to him. 1447 01:07:16,950 --> 01:07:18,060 Why do we even do it? 1448 01:07:18,090 --> 01:07:20,310 Why do we even take the time out of our day to go vote? 1449 01:07:20,730 --> 01:07:23,460 And his argument is that you vote for the same reason you choose 1450 01:07:23,460 --> 01:07:26,430 Pepsi over Coke or Coke over Pepsi. 1451 01:07:26,430 --> 01:07:27,930 It's because it says something about you. 1452 01:07:28,799 --> 01:07:34,890 And he uses really interesting data and, uh, you know, analogies 1453 01:07:34,965 --> 01:07:36,360 to the marketing industry. 1454 01:07:36,360 --> 01:07:40,650 For example, Pepsi tried for years, for decades to use the taste test 1455 01:07:41,460 --> 01:07:45,960 as a reason to get people to, to, to drink Pepsi over Coca-Cola. 1456 01:07:46,410 --> 01:07:49,049 They would do these commercials, I think back in the seventies. 1457 01:07:49,049 --> 01:07:52,259 I'm not even sure when, but like long time ago, they would say like, no, not 1458 01:07:52,259 --> 01:07:55,860 10 people agreed that Pepsi tastes better than Coke, you know, in a blind test. 1459 01:07:55,920 --> 01:08:01,440 And then once they decided to just do some silhouette of a person dancing to 1460 01:08:01,440 --> 01:08:06,060 hip hop and call it the Pepsi generation. 1461 01:08:07,005 --> 01:08:08,445 Dare Sales went up, well St 1462 01:08:08,445 --> 01:08:10,965 Jacob Shapiro: started, started with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. 1463 01:08:11,115 --> 01:08:12,945 Michael Jackson was the first one that got doing that. 1464 01:08:12,945 --> 01:08:15,345 And that was also probably why he needed his first nose job 1465 01:08:15,375 --> 01:08:16,425 'cause he broke his nose on set. 1466 01:08:16,425 --> 01:08:19,275 I fair listeners used to be a Michael Jackson impersonator, so 1467 01:08:19,275 --> 01:08:20,535 I know this history very well. 1468 01:08:20,685 --> 01:08:22,545 I'm just, I mean, dude dropping bombs there, you know, 1469 01:08:22,965 --> 01:08:23,715 Marko Papic: that's that. 1470 01:08:23,715 --> 01:08:24,795 We need to out unpack that. 1471 01:08:24,795 --> 01:08:26,625 We need a whole podcast for that. 1472 01:08:26,685 --> 01:08:28,125 And what was the other one was? 1473 01:08:28,125 --> 01:08:29,745 Uh, equestrian. 1474 01:08:30,135 --> 01:08:30,915 Jacob Shapiro: Oh, equestrian Vault. 1475 01:08:31,065 --> 01:08:31,365 Yes. 1476 01:08:31,365 --> 01:08:33,360 I was also an accomplished equestrian vaulter. 1477 01:08:34,560 --> 01:08:38,100 I'm just, I you all need to watch Marco's brain just literally 1478 01:08:38,279 --> 01:08:39,480 spontaneously combusted. 1479 01:08:39,540 --> 01:08:40,350 Well, it's not spontaneous. 1480 01:08:40,350 --> 01:08:41,520 I, it's 'cause I caused it, but 1481 01:08:42,180 --> 01:08:45,450 Marko Papic: No, it's, it is just why you're in a Renaissance man and you 1482 01:08:45,450 --> 01:08:47,609 have effectively Joe Johnson's game. 1483 01:08:48,810 --> 01:08:49,740 Jacob Shapiro: Oh, that's very nice. 1484 01:08:49,770 --> 01:08:50,490 That's very nice. 1485 01:08:50,790 --> 01:08:54,720 Marko Papic: I mean, this is like, uh, so look what I'm getting at is that, to go 1486 01:08:54,720 --> 01:08:56,190 back on track, but we will unpack this. 1487 01:08:56,220 --> 01:08:58,170 We, we will not let you, we, this won't die. 1488 01:08:58,319 --> 01:08:59,550 We will pick this up. 1489 01:08:59,550 --> 01:09:00,510 Next podcast. 1490 01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:02,460 I just want to end land the plane on this. 1491 01:09:02,460 --> 01:09:06,810 The point is, once Pepsi started saying that you do something when 1492 01:09:06,810 --> 01:09:11,220 you drink a Coke or you, you do, you, you are saying to the world, 1493 01:09:11,250 --> 01:09:12,960 I'm member of this new generation. 1494 01:09:12,960 --> 01:09:15,900 When I drink a Pepsi, Coke is for boomers or whatever. 1495 01:09:16,635 --> 01:09:18,255 That's when their sales went up. 1496 01:09:18,285 --> 01:09:22,275 Similarly, the reason that Donald Trump does well is 'cause yes, he's 1497 01:09:22,275 --> 01:09:26,445 authentic, but he also understands branding and he hits his own brand. 1498 01:09:27,135 --> 01:09:31,005 And I think one of the things that Gen Z and millennials just don't understand is 1499 01:09:31,005 --> 01:09:37,245 the brand, like Christian Democratic Union and a social Democratic party of Germany. 1500 01:09:37,245 --> 01:09:40,845 Holy crap, those are old ass brands. 1501 01:09:42,975 --> 01:09:44,925 The Democratic Party and the Republican Party 1502 01:09:45,015 --> 01:09:45,565 Jacob Shapiro: are old ass brands. 1503 01:09:45,565 --> 01:09:46,095 Very old brands. 1504 01:09:46,095 --> 01:09:49,065 There's a reason Donald Trump was able to co-opt the Republicans and turn it 1505 01:09:49,065 --> 01:09:52,185 into the Trump party and why a majority of Americans identify as independents, 1506 01:09:52,185 --> 01:09:53,565 not as Republicans or Democrats, 1507 01:09:54,045 --> 01:09:55,755 Marko Papic: Japan, LDP. 1508 01:09:55,785 --> 01:09:55,875 Mm-hmm. 1509 01:09:56,115 --> 01:09:56,775 Oh my God. 1510 01:09:56,775 --> 01:09:59,535 It's one of the longest, uh, running parties in Asia. 1511 01:09:59,535 --> 01:10:03,675 Like a lot of these are just brands that you know, like 1512 01:10:03,675 --> 01:10:05,325 nobody gets enthusiastic about. 1513 01:10:05,325 --> 01:10:08,895 And so I would say that while we have spent a lot of time today 1514 01:10:08,895 --> 01:10:10,515 talking about Gen Z protests. 1515 01:10:11,250 --> 01:10:14,580 I do think that we need to be on the lookout for emergence of new 1516 01:10:14,580 --> 01:10:16,350 brands and we shouldn't fear them. 1517 01:10:16,350 --> 01:10:20,700 There is this really, really built into, especially in finance, that's like, 1518 01:10:20,700 --> 01:10:22,740 oh, god forbid a new party takes over. 1519 01:10:23,010 --> 01:10:25,945 Listen guys, material constraints will force them to do. 1520 01:10:27,000 --> 01:10:30,300 Probably what's the right thing to do, but new brands are 1521 01:10:30,300 --> 01:10:31,920 not necessarily a bad thing. 1522 01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:36,660 Fort Seit is kind of an old brand that was taken over by Georgia Maloney, and 1523 01:10:36,660 --> 01:10:38,670 by the way, the brand is kind of fascist. 1524 01:10:39,720 --> 01:10:40,590 Jacob Shapiro: Let's leave it aside. 1525 01:10:40,590 --> 01:10:41,965 That's not kind of like, it's the OG. 1526 01:10:42,655 --> 01:10:43,705 It's the original is that 1527 01:10:44,725 --> 01:10:45,115 Marko Papic: Yes. 1528 01:10:46,315 --> 01:10:49,345 But the thing is, it's like this resurrection of old brands and 1529 01:10:49,345 --> 01:10:51,625 bringing them back up and, and brushing them up for the new 1530 01:10:51,625 --> 01:10:53,155 generation, I think is gonna happen. 1531 01:10:53,215 --> 01:10:58,675 And we should not panic when the CNNs of the world, the guardians of the 1532 01:10:58,675 --> 01:11:02,785 world, the Fox news of the world, say anti-establishment party wins 1533 01:11:02,785 --> 01:11:05,515 election in insert major economy. 1534 01:11:05,515 --> 01:11:05,905 You know? 1535 01:11:06,085 --> 01:11:09,805 No, it is just that People got sick of these old brands and somebody 1536 01:11:09,805 --> 01:11:13,525 else came in and Manu Macron effectively did this in France, which 1537 01:11:13,525 --> 01:11:14,905 by the way was a two party state. 1538 01:11:14,935 --> 01:11:18,535 Whatever you wanna say, they have a very sim, similar electoral system. 1539 01:11:18,535 --> 01:11:22,885 Anybody who thinks that first pass the post in the United States of America will 1540 01:11:22,885 --> 01:11:26,245 prevent the emergence of a third party, should look at what happened in the United 1541 01:11:26,245 --> 01:11:29,035 Kingdom with the Brexit party, what's happening in the United Kingdom today 1542 01:11:29,155 --> 01:11:32,605 with a complete collapse of the Tories and what happened in France with the 1543 01:11:32,605 --> 01:11:34,855 emergence of this third party in France. 1544 01:11:34,855 --> 01:11:35,575 The rebels. 1545 01:11:35,875 --> 01:11:38,035 The rebels were centrist. 1546 01:11:38,610 --> 01:11:41,280 Now he did appeal to a lot of older people, which is kind of weird, 1547 01:11:41,280 --> 01:11:42,420 but let's leave that as a side. 1548 01:11:42,630 --> 01:11:44,430 Of course, he's the member of the establishment. 1549 01:11:44,430 --> 01:11:46,320 He preserves their prerogatives. 1550 01:11:46,530 --> 01:11:47,310 That makes sense. 1551 01:11:47,580 --> 01:11:51,390 All I'm saying is that we should not necessarily fear the 1552 01:11:51,390 --> 01:11:53,340 emergence of these new brands. 1553 01:11:53,340 --> 01:11:58,500 I think it's healthy and it's the only way to ultimately get buy-in. 1554 01:11:58,500 --> 01:12:02,730 Democratically, at the end of the day, who gives a fuck Pepsi or Coke? 1555 01:12:02,760 --> 01:12:04,620 It gives you caffeine in a sugar rush. 1556 01:12:04,950 --> 01:12:08,130 And don't be fooled by these new anti-establishment politicians. 1557 01:12:08,130 --> 01:12:11,940 'cause in many ways they'll just do the same things but 1558 01:12:11,940 --> 01:12:13,110 appeal to the younger people. 1559 01:12:13,140 --> 01:12:15,060 And that's how democracy kind of works. 1560 01:12:15,120 --> 01:12:19,740 It works in in those, you know, like in a way in which new generations 1561 01:12:19,740 --> 01:12:24,930 get a voice and without changing the place in a dramatic fashion, 1562 01:12:24,930 --> 01:12:28,050 that obviously would introduce political volatility and violence. 1563 01:12:29,835 --> 01:12:31,725 Jacob Shapiro: I, I agree with most of that and we'll, we'll close out 'cause 1564 01:12:31,725 --> 01:12:35,355 we're, we're running up on time, which is that here's another theory, half half in 1565 01:12:35,355 --> 01:12:38,565 jest about why Gen Z is, is doing protests and it connects with something else. 1566 01:12:38,565 --> 01:12:41,865 Earlier today, the United States hit another, um, Venezuelan 1567 01:12:41,865 --> 01:12:45,225 ship, killed six Venezuelan drug traffickers in the Caribbean. 1568 01:12:45,645 --> 01:12:49,845 Um, and Marco, maybe we should posit that what's going on is that this is what 1569 01:12:49,845 --> 01:12:53,775 happens when you have an excess of cocaine in the global international trade system. 1570 01:12:54,135 --> 01:13:01,785 Uh, cocaine production rose 53%, uh, from 22 to 23, 20 4% the year before that. 1571 01:13:02,115 --> 01:13:05,025 Um, I'm gonna quote here, a US official who was anonymous, anonymously, 1572 01:13:05,025 --> 01:13:07,815 quote in New York Times, quote, we're seeing production at levels 1573 01:13:07,815 --> 01:13:09,795 that Pablo Escobar dreamed about. 1574 01:13:10,055 --> 01:13:13,475 You go to Coca Field and it's like standing in a cornfield 1575 01:13:13,475 --> 01:13:15,575 in Iowa, you can't see the end. 1576 01:13:15,575 --> 01:13:19,925 And there are tons of interest articles here about Colombian towns and villages 1577 01:13:19,925 --> 01:13:24,665 that are literally dying, uh, because the, the cartels are not showing up anymore 1578 01:13:24,665 --> 01:13:26,405 because they have too much cocaine. 1579 01:13:26,435 --> 01:13:29,885 They're literally just throwing cocaine everywhere they possibly can because the 1580 01:13:29,885 --> 01:13:35,105 price has gone from something like $20 a bushel to $7 a bushel, which maybe some 1581 01:13:35,105 --> 01:13:36,485 of our American farmers can believe it. 1582 01:13:36,485 --> 01:13:39,665 So maybe there's just too much cocaine out there, Marco, I don't know. 1583 01:13:40,565 --> 01:13:43,715 So you're saying that the targeting of these, uh, boats reflects 1584 01:13:43,715 --> 01:13:43,805 Marko Papic: that. 1585 01:13:44,955 --> 01:13:46,905 Jacob Shapiro: Well, the targeting of the boats, I think reflects the fact 1586 01:13:46,905 --> 01:13:49,964 that they have too much cocaine, and the cocaine is so much cheaper, so they're 1587 01:13:49,964 --> 01:13:53,745 willing to risk, like the Caribbean route was not their main route for the past 1588 01:13:53,775 --> 01:13:55,245 couple of years, or even decades, right? 1589 01:13:55,245 --> 01:13:56,625 It was overland through Mexico. 1590 01:13:56,625 --> 01:13:58,934 So now they're like, fuck it, we have all this cocaine. 1591 01:13:58,934 --> 01:14:02,235 We just need to get cocaine to our markets in Europe and Asia. 1592 01:14:02,535 --> 01:14:04,724 Um, which is where the markets are actually growing the most. 1593 01:14:04,724 --> 01:14:06,974 Like there is some growth in North America, but it seems like, you 1594 01:14:06,974 --> 01:14:09,915 know, uh, Southeast Asia, east Asia, like Europe, that's where 1595 01:14:09,915 --> 01:14:11,205 you're getting most of the cocaine. 1596 01:14:11,684 --> 01:14:12,705 Um, consumption growth. 1597 01:14:12,825 --> 01:14:16,094 We just need to get cocaine to those markets and it's so cheap that whatever, 1598 01:14:16,094 --> 01:14:19,184 if they blow up a couple cargoes in the middle of the Caribbean, that's fine. 1599 01:14:19,184 --> 01:14:21,134 Like the United States isn't gonna be able to blow all of it up. 1600 01:14:21,134 --> 01:14:24,105 So let's just send as much cocaine as we possibly can out there. 1601 01:14:24,105 --> 01:14:25,424 That's, that's my working theory. 1602 01:14:25,545 --> 01:14:29,115 Marko Papic: Well, look, uh, I'm gonna close on a positive note here. 1603 01:14:29,295 --> 01:14:29,535 Yeah. 1604 01:14:31,155 --> 01:14:35,054 Uh, you just said the European consumption of cocaine is going up, right? 1605 01:14:35,085 --> 01:14:35,474 Yes. 1606 01:14:35,745 --> 01:14:36,105 Jacob Shapiro: Is it not? 1607 01:14:36,105 --> 01:14:36,320 I thought it was. 1608 01:14:36,434 --> 01:14:36,554 I 1609 01:14:36,554 --> 01:14:38,625 Marko Papic: mean, I mean, there you go. 1610 01:14:39,660 --> 01:14:43,650 Everybody thinks Europe is just a museum full of old people that has no future. 1611 01:14:43,650 --> 01:14:46,080 I mean, not according to that stat. 1612 01:14:46,169 --> 01:14:48,870 At least they're doing lines. 1613 01:14:48,959 --> 01:14:52,259 You know, like maybe that will invigorate the continent. 1614 01:14:53,099 --> 01:14:53,549 Jacob Shapiro: Well, I love this. 1615 01:14:53,549 --> 01:14:55,110 I, I just double checked myself. 1616 01:14:55,440 --> 01:14:55,980 Uh, yes. 1617 01:14:55,980 --> 01:14:57,540 Cocaine conception has been an upward train. 1618 01:14:57,629 --> 01:15:01,950 An extensive study of waste water across 128 European cities in 26 1619 01:15:01,950 --> 01:15:07,049 countries reveals a significant increase in cocaine use since 2016. 1620 01:15:07,080 --> 01:15:09,690 And for the seventh year in a row, EU member states reported record amount. 1621 01:15:09,690 --> 01:15:10,169 Where do they say 1622 01:15:10,169 --> 01:15:10,980 Marko Papic: exactly where? 1623 01:15:11,490 --> 01:15:14,940 Jacob Shapiro: Uh, well, they say. 1624 01:15:15,690 --> 01:15:19,590 128 cities in 26 countries, but the countries that they call out, which 1625 01:15:19,590 --> 01:15:22,349 doesn't mean they're the top ones, but they call out Belgium, Netherlands. 1626 01:15:22,380 --> 01:15:26,130 Oh, Belgium, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain account for 72% of the 1627 01:15:26,130 --> 01:15:28,410 cocaine seized by governments. 1628 01:15:28,410 --> 01:15:30,269 So that doesn't mean they're the ones that are doing the most, but 1629 01:15:30,269 --> 01:15:32,940 those are at least the places where the governments are seizing it. 1630 01:15:33,030 --> 01:15:33,090 Yeah. 1631 01:15:35,820 --> 01:15:36,570 Marko Papic: Oh my God. 1632 01:15:36,570 --> 01:15:38,849 I think that also needs a podcast by itself. 1633 01:15:38,849 --> 01:15:42,780 But again, you know, you hear a lot of this, uh, kind of narrative that Europe 1634 01:15:42,780 --> 01:15:45,570 is sclerotic and just without any vigor. 1635 01:15:47,340 --> 01:15:48,269 They took the advice and. 1636 01:15:49,139 --> 01:15:50,400 Did some lines, I guess. 1637 01:15:50,940 --> 01:15:51,150 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah. 1638 01:15:51,210 --> 01:15:54,450 I mean, I'm, I'm only joking about Gen Z, uh, snorting a bunch of cocaine, but 1639 01:15:54,450 --> 01:15:57,720 I did, I did think, because I'm, I'm a little mystified by the US continuing 1640 01:15:57,720 --> 01:15:59,700 to just bomb boats in the Caribbean. 1641 01:15:59,700 --> 01:16:02,460 I, I also just wanted to point out that last week the US hit a boat. 1642 01:16:02,490 --> 01:16:06,030 The Colombian government said, uh, that wasn't Venezuelan, that was Colombian, 1643 01:16:06,059 --> 01:16:07,889 and you killed Colombian citizens. 1644 01:16:08,280 --> 01:16:12,030 And now the US Columbia relationship continues to unravel, like very quietly, 1645 01:16:12,030 --> 01:16:15,269 I think one of the most significant breakdowns in US foreign policy. 1646 01:16:15,269 --> 01:16:15,330 Yeah. 1647 01:16:15,330 --> 01:16:18,120 Like that was the most important US security partner in South America. 1648 01:16:18,120 --> 01:16:21,870 And between, God, it feels so long ago that Trump was tweeting at Petro about 1649 01:16:21,870 --> 01:16:25,960 illegal migration, and then they've signed onto Belton Road, um, everything else. 1650 01:16:26,035 --> 01:16:26,940 Oh, I, I'm sorry. 1651 01:16:26,940 --> 01:16:28,349 One other statistic about cocaine. 1652 01:16:28,349 --> 01:16:29,070 That was incredible. 1653 01:16:29,070 --> 01:16:29,910 I was doing research. 1654 01:16:30,120 --> 01:16:33,420 They think that this, this will be the year that cocaine produces more revenue 1655 01:16:33,420 --> 01:16:35,010 for the Colombian economy than oil. 1656 01:16:36,015 --> 01:16:37,095 Like insane. 1657 01:16:37,155 --> 01:16:37,335 Right. 1658 01:16:37,395 --> 01:16:39,465 Marko Papic: Even, even though the prices have collapsed. 1659 01:16:39,495 --> 01:16:39,795 Jacob Shapiro: Yes. 1660 01:16:39,825 --> 01:16:40,035 Just 1661 01:16:40,035 --> 01:16:41,235 Marko Papic: think about that for a second. 1662 01:16:41,505 --> 01:16:42,195 Oh my god. 1663 01:16:42,195 --> 01:16:42,375 Yeah. 1664 01:16:42,375 --> 01:16:43,965 That's, that's a lot of cocaine. 1665 01:16:44,625 --> 01:16:45,615 That's a lot of cocaine. 1666 01:16:45,615 --> 01:16:45,795 Yeah. 1667 01:16:45,795 --> 01:16:48,735 Well, I mean, uh, wow. 1668 01:16:48,795 --> 01:16:50,355 Um, I don't know what to say about that. 1669 01:16:50,385 --> 01:16:51,345 That's very interesting. 1670 01:16:51,585 --> 01:16:51,645 Yeah. 1671 01:16:51,675 --> 01:16:53,175 Um, but, 1672 01:16:53,175 --> 01:16:55,875 Jacob Shapiro: um, you, you were trying to land the plane and I would, 1673 01:16:55,875 --> 01:16:59,565 in my La Dodgers fashion, I was like, here is a cocaine curve ball, Marco. 1674 01:16:59,570 --> 01:17:01,695 I'm just, I'm just gonna lay this in right here. 1675 01:17:01,845 --> 01:17:02,085 We're gonna go, 1676 01:17:02,085 --> 01:17:02,565 Marko Papic: no, you know what? 1677 01:17:02,685 --> 01:17:05,655 I think, I think the only way to land the plane on this is that, uh, 1678 01:17:05,715 --> 01:17:08,625 this is probably what's gonna happen with a lot of soft commodities, 1679 01:17:08,625 --> 01:17:09,735 which you are an expert on. 1680 01:17:09,915 --> 01:17:10,125 Jacob Shapiro: Mm-hmm. 1681 01:17:10,215 --> 01:17:10,395 Yeah. 1682 01:17:10,845 --> 01:17:10,935 There 1683 01:17:10,935 --> 01:17:11,115 Marko Papic: you go. 1684 01:17:11,115 --> 01:17:12,295 As emerging market tastes change. 1685 01:17:13,845 --> 01:17:17,535 Right, because the Southeast Asia and like the emerging markets like starting 1686 01:17:17,535 --> 01:17:22,815 to develop a taste for some Coke, I mean, that is also the same argument 1687 01:17:22,815 --> 01:17:25,305 for coffee, for chocolates, for cocoa. 1688 01:17:25,905 --> 01:17:26,210 Jacob Shapiro: A lot of, yeah. 1689 01:17:26,210 --> 01:17:29,355 And it's also, if I, if I really want to stretch, it's also an argument 1690 01:17:29,355 --> 01:17:31,935 against what you were talking about with globalization because any of 1691 01:17:31,935 --> 01:17:34,665 these things that get globalized, the price of these things collapses 1692 01:17:34,665 --> 01:17:37,785 and the people that produce them come under significant strain. 1693 01:17:38,265 --> 01:17:42,975 And I think part of Trump's protectionism and part of the, the glorification of 1694 01:17:42,975 --> 01:17:45,855 hard labor and industrial work again, which we, you know, we talked about 1695 01:17:45,855 --> 01:17:48,765 that months ago about how strange it was that we're glorifying that now. 1696 01:17:48,765 --> 01:17:49,635 Part of that is. 1697 01:17:50,095 --> 01:17:50,395 Okay. 1698 01:17:50,395 --> 01:17:54,505 Like the more you globalize, like yes we all get cheap widgets and all these other 1699 01:17:54,505 --> 01:17:58,195 things, but like people actually like the people who were making the things, their 1700 01:17:58,195 --> 01:18:01,615 lives are destroyed and these governments are not taking care of those people. 1701 01:18:01,615 --> 01:18:04,405 And so you have political movements that are rising that service those 1702 01:18:04,405 --> 01:18:07,795 people who are, you know, out there in the streets and protesting and 1703 01:18:07,795 --> 01:18:08,995 making their voices heard with votes. 1704 01:18:08,995 --> 01:18:11,605 So there, there's something in there too about the lower you drive the 1705 01:18:11,605 --> 01:18:14,515 cost of these things, the more you're affecting the producers and that some 1706 01:18:14,515 --> 01:18:17,725 of the politics that we're seeing is about trying to help the producers. 1707 01:18:17,755 --> 01:18:19,915 I don't know, I'd have to put some more meat on that bone, but, 1708 01:18:21,625 --> 01:18:23,635 Marko Papic: well, alright. 1709 01:18:24,565 --> 01:18:24,775 Alright. 1710 01:18:24,775 --> 01:18:28,375 I think, uh, I think we have, uh, exhausted our energy on 1711 01:18:28,375 --> 01:18:32,935 this podcast and neither one of us is going to rely on a bump. 1712 01:18:33,540 --> 01:18:34,410 To get it back up. 1713 01:18:34,500 --> 01:18:38,340 Jacob Shapiro: No, no, that's, that's never been my, uh, never been my vice. 1714 01:18:38,370 --> 01:18:38,730 Okay. 1715 01:18:38,790 --> 01:18:39,599 We'll talk, however, 1716 01:18:39,870 --> 01:18:42,059 Marko Papic: if anybody wants to sponsor the podcast from the beer 1717 01:18:42,059 --> 01:18:44,010 industry, we will drink beer. 1718 01:18:44,160 --> 01:18:44,370 Jacob Shapiro: Yeah. 1719 01:18:44,370 --> 01:18:44,880 On the show. 1720 01:18:44,940 --> 01:18:45,570 That would be great. 1721 01:18:45,570 --> 01:18:50,490 And please, like both Barstool stores, Barto Sports and The Ringer, we're open. 1722 01:18:50,519 --> 01:18:52,740 Like there, there's an opportunity for both of you to be on the 1723 01:18:52,740 --> 01:18:55,530 ground floor of geopolitics and you're both just wasting it. 1724 01:18:55,530 --> 01:18:57,120 Like seriously, like get your shit together. 1725 01:18:59,639 --> 01:18:59,849 Alright, 1726 01:18:59,849 --> 01:19:01,320 Marko Papic: Jacob, great talking to you, Matt.