Daniel Yergin

phrased a very good question in which so much of what happens in the world rests on such a narrow base of decision makers.

We're talking one person in the United States and a few of his advisors on one side and

kind of a handful of leaders in Iran on the other side who have a very different vision of the world.

They have no desire to see international hotels built in Tehran.

They want to maintain their system of power

even if 80% of the population wants them to go.

They've imposed a huge cost.

And right from the beginning, you know, I write about that in The Prize, when they took power, they did mass executions of people.

So they've never hesitated in the name of their revolution to kill people almost indiscriminately.

Power comes in many different forms.

I mean, we could also say, look at, you know, we've never had companies of the scale of the hyperscalers and the amount of money.

And indeed, you know, what are they, 40% of the stock market?

the stock market.

That's a form of concentration too.

I think this did start off being about Iran's nuclear weapons, but now it's about the Strait of Hormuz, which has turned out to be an incredible piece of leverage.

at least for the short term, for Iran to try and control the world economy.

We don't see it so much in the United States, but you certainly see it in Asia and increasingly in Europe and in Africa and the developing world.

As we start to wrap up here, who's winning?

Well, I still think that China's a winner because it stayed out of it.

And we'll see when Trump goes to China in about two weeks now.