Neil Freiman

It is because of gas prices.

Energy prices were up 12.5% from a year earlier.

up from just a 0.5% gain in February.

So the rise in whatever's happening in the Middle East is absolutely filtering.

I mean, everyone can see it at gas station prices every single day through March and into April.

But yeah, huge uptick in inflation, the fastest pace in two years because of what's happening over in the Strait of Hormuz.

This is a meeting I would have loved to have been in.

I mean, look at the people in this room.

Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, Bank of America's Brian Moynihan.

Well, as far goes Charlie Scharf, Morgan Stanley's 10 picks, Citigroup's Jane Frazier.

And then also you have Scott Bassett and Jerome Powell.

The one person who couldn't make it apparently was J.P.

Morgan, J.B.

Diamond.

I don't know what he was doing that was more important than

than this particular thing.

But I want to focus on one person in this meeting, and that's Jerome Powell, because in the past few weeks, he has spoken a lot about cyber attacks against the financial system.

And think about the banks that I was just talking about, who was represented there.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley.

These are systematically important financial institutions to the United States.