Ed

where the imperial attitude extends not only to other countries but to our own citizens then you might see markets in the long run have a problem but they're not discounting that right now that's for sure hundred percent just to go look at what's actually happening in the markets right now um because it's i mean it's it's true we we

Yeah, and now it's possibly obsolete, as my friends on the internet like to remind me.

You know, at least in the geopolitical realm, it doesn't look like a taco world anymore.

Exactly.

Exactly.

The most interesting one is,

is that Chevron doesn't really care.

Chevron, the only American oil company operating in Venezuela, is back to where it started on Thursday.

People are like, oh, this is exciting.

And then you look at the, you know, we don't have to go into this, but the actual dynamics of oil extraction in Venezuela.

uh, in Venezuela.

And you realize this is not a great look for the drillers themselves, the, you know, like the Chevrons and the X-Rons, you know, you might make a joke that it's a lot easier to extract a president from Venezuela than it is to extract oil.

So I think that's fascinating.

But there is a kind of side plot that you haven't mentioned that takes us kind of from the macro to the micro that I'd like to mention in this context.

Like, while all this stuff has been going on in Venezuela, we have seen the emergence of a character that I am calling Donald Trump with Elizabeth Warren characteristics.

And this is someone who in the last few days, Donald Trump has come out and said he doesn't want defense companies to pay dividends or buy back shares or pay their CEOs a lot of money.

because now presidents apparently decide how private companies allocate capital and pay their employees.

And those stocks are now up, because he then went on to say, after those stocks tanked, we're going to spend a lot more money on guns.

Half a trillion.

Half a trillion more.