Peter Zeihan

Mexicans are very good at what they do, too.

But if Mexico hadn't been next to the United States, they probably wouldn't have the trade or economic

Huge population, very young, excellent educational system.

40% of their college grads are STEM.

And they're now at a higher average technical skill set for their workforce than the Chinese are.

And they're now trying to catch up with the industrial infrastructure.

Long term, they're absolutely going to be a top five trading partner for the United States unless we absolutely muck it up.

They're fascists, so we have to keep that in mind.

Just because they're good at what we need them to be good at doesn't mean that they're wonderful people.

Their government's kind of cuckoo.

The other one is Japan.

Now, Japan is a country that I used to be concerned about because it was another naval power.

Most of the resources they need are not local, so they have to go out and get them.

And in a world where the United States cares less about globalization, that means that the Japanese by default have to be more aggressive.

That doesn't mean a fight is inevitable or much less imminent, but all of a sudden it is a possibility.

And the Japanese under Trump one came to the United States to cut a deal on the future and basically signed a deal that was mixed economic and security needs and basically gave into Trump on everything that he cared about.

And so they thought that if they could sign a deal with Donald Trump, that they were in because he was the most reactionary, erratic American president we've ever had.

And they're like, if we can cut a deal with him, we're good.

Reasonable.

Trump too comes along, bad mouths the deal that Trump won cut.