Robert Armstrong

By the way, one thing that I find quite interesting that Tom Lee, who's the head of Fundstrat, he says that...

He says that he thinks that bank stocks are going to eventually, and in the near future, receive tech-like multiples because he thinks that there's all of this.

Rob's head is in his hands.

His view is that there's so much power in AI.

I mean, so much layoff potential, really, that these are extremely human capital intensive businesses.

Yeah, that's fair.

Which could open up new opportunities for multiples.

I mean, if JP Morgan decides to AI charge its business, then suddenly you have...

a company that looks more, when you look at the business, looks more like a software company than, say, a bank with a bunch of physical branches.

Yeah, that's a great point.

It's all a lot easier said than done.

I mean, we may get there.

Yes.

This is a nice transition to something that you've been talking a lot about in your newsletter, which I want to get your thoughts on.

You've been saying that, I mean, just for some context,

we usually say on this podcast that consolidation is kind of a bad thing because it generally involves a monopolistic entity going in and buying up all of the smaller players which reduces competition it leads to potentially price gouging we generally are not huge fans of when a big bank goes and buys or a big company goes and buys another small company

Your view that you've been talking about, and I want to hear more about it, is that consolidation in the banking industry would actually be a good thing.

Why do you say that?

Something you also mentioned in a previous conversation is that if you're the head of a regional bank, you're the man of your town, which is a really important point.

And you don't want to give that up.