Transcript

11.24.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody, and happy Monday, and welcome to the
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reading of the Washington Post for this Monday, November twenty fourth.
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As you know, RADIOI is a reading service intended for
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people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
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it difficult to read printed material. Your reader for today
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is Rod Brotherton. And as you know, usually on Monday
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we start by reading Paul Prather's weekly column from the
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Herald Leader. But Paul didn't have one this month or
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this week.
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Speaker 2: Rather, so let's.
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Speaker 1: Start off with the news and the headlines that starts
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today is the US and Ukraine agree to change draft
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of peace plan that appeased Russia from Kiev. US and
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Ukrainian officials said Sunday that they made progress in Geneva
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working through a new version of a controversial planned in
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Russia's war in Ukraine ahead of the Thanksgiving deadline imposed
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by the United States. While President Trump faced mounting criticism
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from lawmakers and his own base over the proposal, Secretary
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of State Marco Rubio, who was leading the US delegation,
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sought to downplay widespread claims that the plan was originally
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written by the Russian's side. The leaked draft ignores many
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of Kiev's red lines. It would force Ukraine to shrink
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its army, give up land that Russia hasn't managed to
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grab in nearly four years of war, and would bar
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the presence of NATO troops, among other concessions. But US
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officials said the draft agreement has since been revised. Rubio
1:44
told reporters in Geneva that the initial plan was an
1:47
early document that had received input from both sides. The
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talks with the Ukrainians on Sunday were the most positive
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so far, Rubio said, but he declined describe more details,
2:01
citing the ongoing nature of negotiations. This is a living,
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breathing document. Every day, with input, it changes, he said.
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The top US diplomat also deemphasized the Thanksgiving deadline, suggesting
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more negotiations could be ahead. More talks or planned for
2:22
this week, but details have not been released. The deadline
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is that we want to get this down as soon
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as possible, Rubio said. We'd love to be Thursday, but
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the important point today.
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Speaker 2: Is that we have made substantial progress.
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Speaker 1: US Special ENVOYE. Steve Whitkoff, Trump's son in law Jared Kushner,
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who helped negotiate the ceasefire deal in Gaza, and Army
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Secretary of Daniel Driscoll joined Rubio as they met with
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the Ukrainian delegation. After the meeting, the White House released
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a joint statement saying both Washington and Kiev found the
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discussions in Geneva It to be highly productive and that
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they involved drafting and updated and refined framework. The two
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countries also reaffirmed that any future agreement must fully uphold
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Ukraine's sovereignty and deliver a sustainable and just peace. And
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a separate readout of the talks, the White House said
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the Ukrainian representatives made revisions and clarifications to the draft,
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and that their principal concerns were addressed, including security guarantees,
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long term economic development, infrastructure protection, freedom of navigation, and
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political sovereignty. European officials, including those from France and Germany,
3:43
had been working on a counter proposal, according to a
3:46
document obtained by The Washington Post, which would begin territorial
3:51
negotiations at the front line, not beyond it, and give
3:56
Ukraine robust, legally binding security guarantee, including from the United States.
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Rubio said he met with national security advisers of key
4:07
European partners in Geneva, adding that they would have heard
4:11
the incredible amount of positivity from both the Ukrainian and
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American side about the progress we've made today. In a
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tweet Sunday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he and
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other leaders were ready to negotiate on the twenty eight
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point plan. However, if all with statile work, it would
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be good to know for sure who is the author
4:33
of the plan and where it was created.
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Speaker 2: He added.
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Speaker 1: We are coordinating our positions and it is important that
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there is dialogue. That diplomacy has been reinvigorated. Ukrainian President
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Vladimir Zelensky wrote on social media on Sunday he said
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he had just spoken to French President Emmanuel Macron, adding
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that the Ukraine was grateful.
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Speaker 2: To Trump for his efforts and for the US leadership.
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Speaker 1: As the talks were ongoing, Trump took the social media
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on Sunday morning to express his frustration over the delay
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in ending the war, something he claimed on the campaign
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trail he could do in one day and would accomplish
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before even returning to office. Trump said on truth social
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that he inherited the war, that Ukraine's leaders were not
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sufficiently grateful for US assistance, that European countries were still
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buying oil from Russia. He did not criticize Russian President
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Vladimir Putin in the message. Ukraine's ambassador to the United States,
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ol La Stephaniitia, told CBS's Face the Nation that a
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separate framework documents outlines potential US security guarantees to Ukraine,
5:47
including pledges that Washington and its allies would assist if
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Ukraine faces aggression from Russian territory. But sounding skeptical, she
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noted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine in twenty five
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twenty two began from Belarus's territory that security pledges Kiev
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received in nineteen ninety four after giving up nuclear weapons
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stationed on its territory were not honored. We have very
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complicated patna for US because we also had a lot
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of different experiences. Stephanishinaya said Ukraine was involved in the
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drafting of the document that would dictate its future, which
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was delivered in Kiev on Thursday by a US military
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delegation led by Driscoll. US lawmakers worried the initial proposal
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would further destabilize global security by rewarding Russia after its
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twenty twenty two invasion of Ukraine, raising questions over why
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Trump needs the deal signed so urgently, even if it
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comes at the expense of American and Ukrainian interests. Some
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people better get fired on Monday for the gross buffoonery
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which just witnessed over the last four days. Representative of
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Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, posted on x on Sunday Saturday,
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this hurt our country and undermined our allegiances and encouraged
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our adversaries. A group of senators told reporters at a
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security conference in Canada on Saturday night that they had
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spoken with Rubio by phone and learned that the twenty
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eight point plan was not in fact spearheaded by the
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United States. Senator Angus King, the Independent of Maine, said
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that according to Rubio, the plan is not the administration's position.
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It is essentially the wish list of the Russians. Rubio
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made it very clear to us that we are the
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recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of
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our representatives. Senator Mike Brown's, Republican of South Dakota, said
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during the Halifax International Security Forum, it is not our
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recommend this is not our peace plan. Rubio denied the.
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Speaker 2: Senator's statements hours later, writing on.
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Speaker 1: Acts the peace proposal was authorized by the US is
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offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. State Department
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spokesman Tommy Pigott called the senator's comments blatantly false, and
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the separate statements Pigot and the White House said the
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plan was authorized by the United States with input from
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both the Russians and the Ukrainians. The exchange marks another
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confusing development surrounding the plan that leaked last week and
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immediately sparked alarm over its origins on both sides of
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the Atlantic. The White House has said the plan was
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drafted by Whitkoff and Kurier Dmitryev, the.
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Speaker 2: Russian Special Envoy.
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Speaker 1: Representative Michael McCall, Republican of Texas, said Sunday he had
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spoken with Rubio along with several senators, and that he
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was told the plan was a United States document with
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input from the Ukraine and from Russia, though he acknowledged
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that it appeared the inception of the plan came from
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Witkoff and Dmitriev. McCall, along serving Republican who was clashed
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with the President on foreign policy issues, set on ABC's
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this Week that the negotiations would be ongoing and that
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he believed the US was flexible on its deadlines. About
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eighty percent of this deal. I think they're going to
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find agreement as they go to Geneva, McCall said. The
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problem is going to be the twenty percent of really
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tough items to negotiate. Sidator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the
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former Majority leader, on Sunday, cautioned against the Trump administration
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pressurer and the victim and appeasing the aggressor as a
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way to bring about peace. He questions which difficult concessions
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the US had asked of Russia. Allies and adversaries are watching.
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Will America whole firm against aggression or will we reward it?
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McConnell wrote on X. Senator Mark Warner, Democratic Virginia sharply
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criticized the early plan, telling ABC on Sunday morning that
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Neville Chamberlain's given in to Hitler before World War II
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looks strong in comparison, and that the plan resembles a
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set of Russian talking points. A US official who spoke
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like others on the condition of anonymity because of the
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sensitivity of the matter, said that the President hasn't been
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as involved in the specifics. You tell him I'm gonna
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try to get a deal, He'll say, great, go see
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what you can do. That's the level of detail he has,
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the official said, adding later, it's been absolute chaos all
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day because even different parts of the White House don't
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know what's going on. It's embarrassing. A European official said
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it seemed that Washington was almost taken by surprise on
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the whole thing on Friday. Usually there's more to it.
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It feels different. Our feeling has been DC has been taken.
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Speaker 2: By surprise by Whitcoff's actions, the official said.
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Speaker 1: Defenders of the Trump administration's deal making efforts note that
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time is not on Ukraine side, and sane agreement will
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protect Ukrainian's sovereignty from Russia's larger army, which continues to
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seize more.
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Speaker 2: Territory from Kiev.
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Speaker 1: People trying to tear this agreement down just want the
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war to continue, said Dan Caldwell, a former Pentagon official
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who worked on Ukrainian issues under the Trump administration. There
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is this persistent delusion that the United States has a
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massive stockpile of munitions that we can dump in Ukraine.
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That there's a magic sanctions package that will force the
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Russia to end the war and the Ukraine has the
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capacity to continue this war until they achieve total victory.
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That's just not the case. So the constructive thing to
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do is consider some of the realistic proposals the US
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officials are putting forward, he said, speaking with reporters Saturday,
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Trump and Zelensky had until Thanksgiving to agree to the
12:24
plan or continue to fight his little heart out only
12:29
without American aid. But privately, the Trump administration was not
12:33
treating this plan as immovable, said the person familiar with
12:37
the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
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speak candidly. It has been communicated to the Ukrainians that
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there is some room for negotiations. Still, Washington also made
12:51
clear that they want an agreement soon, and the threat
12:55
to suspend US assistance is.
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Speaker 2: Dead serious, the official said.
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Speaker 1: Questions remain over whether Trump's team can reach an agreement
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with Ukrainian and European partners before the US imposed deadline
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arrives once again. Ukraine must try to convince an unpredictable
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White House that it's Russia that must make concessions to
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its maximalist demands, not Ukraine. Any appeasement of Russia as
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the aggressor any attempts at putting pressure on Ukraine as
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the victim of this aggression is morally reprehensible and an
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outrage against human decency. More than four dozen European and
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Ukrainian leaders wrote in a letter sent to Trump over
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the weekend. To bow before Russia is to abandon shared
13:46
values and plunge the free world into anarchy and chaos.
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Strong American leadership is the only hope, but they added,
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a cow to America can never be great again. A
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cowed America can never be first. Next the surprising issue
14:10
driving a wedge between Trump and his magabase. President Trump
14:16
faces an unexpected riff in the MAGA movement, as Republican
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officials from state houses to Capitol Hill warn his full
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throated embrace of the tech industry's artificial intelligence boom that
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risks undermining American's economic security and exposing their children to
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new harms. Trump has appointed influential tech investors and entrepreneurs
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to key positions in his administration, and back to the
14:44
sector's ambitions for AI, scrapping regulations introduced by President Biden,
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facilitating huge investments from foreign companies and governments into American
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AI firms. This past week, the White House explorer to
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US an executive order to quash state regulation on AI.
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The President has trumpeted the billions of dollars of investments
15:08
flowing into the technology, which has propped up US economic
15:11
growth this year, as evidence that his plan to reboot
15:15
the American economy is working. But a growing cohort of Republicans,
15:20
including Governors Ron De Santis of Florida and Sarah Huckabee
15:24
Sanders of Arkansas, and prominent members of Congress such as
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Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, argue AI's breakneck growth could
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undermine the party's populist appeal. Some have called for regulations
15:38
to protect Americans against job losses driven by automation, shield
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teenagers from harms caused by chatbots, and curb spikes.
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Speaker 2: And utility bills linked to the energy.
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Speaker 1: Guzzling data centers that power AI technology. The division underscores
15:55
a fault line in Trump's coalition, which is attempted to
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serve the working last voters who propelled him to office,
16:02
while also backing the ambitions of tech and business leaders
16:06
who have become close allies and advisors in the president's
16:10
second term. Those interests are increasingly at odds as AI
16:15
money floods the economy while many voters find their everyday
16:20
costs remain high, creating tensions that Trump's economic message has
16:25
struggled to be reconciled at times. Americans broadly disapprove of
16:29
how the president is handling a second term, according to
16:32
a Washington Post ABC News IPSOS poll conducted in October,
16:38
We're coming up on an incredible time of innovations at
16:42
Angela Paxton, a Republican state senator in Texas who helped
16:46
pass a ban this year on using AI to create
16:49
sexually explicit content featuring children. At the same time, I
16:54
think the job landscape is going to change a lot,
16:57
and I think a lot of people are asking themselves,
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why does that mean for me and my family? A
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White House spokesperson declined to comment for the article. Expectations
17:09
at AI tools such as chat GPT will deliver a
17:13
productivity boost across the economy have propelled tech stocks and
17:17
market indexes to record highs in recent months, but many
17:21
Americans are uneasy with AI's growing role in the US
17:25
economy and their lives. Half of US adults say they're
17:30
more concerned than excited about the increased presence of AI
17:34
and daily life, According to a Pew Research Center study
17:37
conducted in June. In twenty twenty one, thirty seven percent
17:42
said they were more concerned than excited. A Yale study
17:46
released last month concluded that there was not discernible evidence
17:50
that AI was disrupting the labor market, but prominent CEOs,
17:54
including at Walmart and Amazon, have warned workers to expect
17:59
their own to be transformed or eliminated by AI, and
18:03
there are signs that the labor market is slowing. Biden
18:09
also endorsed the US tech industry's development of AI, but
18:13
sought to contain its potential downsides. Sweeping twenty twenty three
18:17
executive order, he directed federal agencies to adopt the technology,
18:21
but also required tech companies to share data from safety
18:25
tests on powerful AI systems with the government. The policy
18:30
was unpopular with many in the tech industry, with some
18:33
citing YET among other reasons for throwing their money or
18:36
support behind Trump's re election bid last year, and he
18:40
is wasting no time in delivering for the industry, repealing
18:44
Biden's AI executive order on the first day of his
18:46
second term. Trump's lazz fair approach to AI has contrasted
18:52
with developments outside of Washington. AI laws have been proposed
18:56
in every state and enacted in many both red and blue.
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Laws include whistleblower protections for AI workers in California, a
19:06
ban on governments using AI to decide who gets well
19:09
for benefits in Texas, and an Ohio provision banning people
19:13
from attempting to marry an AI system. Support for the
19:18
state laws has often been bipartisan, and federal Democrats have
19:23
also begun speaking out about the risks of AI.
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Speaker 2: Senator Mark Kelly.
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Speaker 1: The Democrat of Arizona, has proposed using the proceeds from
19:32
a new tax on AI company profits to retain people
19:36
who lose jobs to automation. Left wing lawmakers such as
19:41
Bernie Sanders, the Independent of Vermont, and Representative Alexandria Casey
19:48
of Cortez, a Democrat of New York, have said AI
19:51
will increase wealth inequity as tech companies take over more
19:55
of the economy. What you do about tech is not
19:59
something that uniform among the coalition or among ours. Representative
20:03
Sarah Jacobs, a Democrat of California, said of the uptick
20:07
of Republican calls to regulate AI, the political spectrum is
20:12
sometimes a circle, said Jacobs, who was vice chair of
20:15
the new Democrat Coalition AI Working Group. Republicans opposed to
20:21
Trump's staunch support of the AI industry argue that its
20:25
risks are putting him at odds with his grass roots supporters.
20:29
Right now, he's getting pressure from the small cabal of
20:33
tech bros That stand to make hundreds of billions of
20:36
dollars if they have their way, said Brendan Steinhauser, a
20:41
long time conservative political strategist who, after seeing AI's pervasiveness,
20:47
became CEO of the Alliance for Secure Ai, a group
20:52
seeking guardrails for the technology that's not his base. Maga
20:57
is his base, and Maga is God. For this Republican
21:03
division over AI came to a head last week after
21:06
Trump and his administration urged Congress to pass the bill
21:09
preempting state laws on the technology, even if doing so
21:13
required adding it to a defense appropriations measure. It was
21:18
a reprisal of an attempt by Senator Ted Cruz, the
21:20
Republican of Texas to pass a moratorium on state AI
21:24
laws over the summer, which failed in the Senate after
21:28
other Republicans backed out. As public opposition to the renewed
21:33
push for preemption grew, this week, the White House floated
21:38
in executive order that would direct the Justice Department to
21:41
sue states that passed AI laws. Investment in AI is
21:46
helping to make the US economy the hottest in the world,
21:50
but over regulation by the states is threatening to undermine
21:54
this major growth engine, Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday.
21:59
Republic and politicians at the state and federal, ever, joined
22:03
conservative activists and media figures to push back on the proposals,
22:07
saying preemption would be a gift to the tech industry
22:11
that is out of step with voters concerns.
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Speaker 2: At a Friday news conference in.
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Speaker 1: Crystal River, Florida, dessaant has compared the attempt to block
22:19
state AI laws to efforts to mandate masks during the
22:23
coronavirus pandemic. Your freedom can also be undermined by these
22:28
massive companies that have hugely concentrated power over our society,
22:33
he said. De Santus promised to unveil a robust package
22:37
of state AI policies and reference fears that the current
22:41
excitement about AI might lead to a financial slump if
22:45
the technology doesn't work out as promised. He has previously
22:49
spoken of his concerns that AI may displace workers. Sanders
22:54
and Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox also spoke out against
22:58
the Trump and White House proposals to limit states from
23:02
passing AI laws. We already made the mistake of allowing
23:07
social media companies to destroy our children's mental health entire
23:10
country apart. Let's not do it again, Cox wrote in
23:15
a post on x. Several families and file lawsuits against
23:20
chat bock developers this year, alleging AI apps led their
23:24
teens to develop mental health problems or even take their
23:27
own lives. Paxton, the Texas state senator, said voters increasingly
23:33
raised concerns about AI and expect her and other state
23:36
lawmakers to act. What the general population doesn't want is
23:42
for states to be handcuffed and our ability to address
23:45
real harms that are happening. Paxton said this movement to
23:50
preemption would obliterate the important work we've done and create
23:54
a wild wild West. Paxon said she plans to work
23:58
on more Texas built related to AI and child safety.
24:03
Trump has embraced the AI industry since the first full
24:06
day of a second term, when he hosted tech moguls
24:09
including chat gp teesmaker Open ais chief executive Sam Altman
24:15
at the White House to announce plans to spend hundreds
24:18
of billions of dollars on new data centers in the
24:20
United States. The post has a content partnership with open ai,
24:26
the president's top tech advisor, and his AI and crypto
24:30
tzar David Sachs, an influential investor who has described himself
24:34
as a bridge between Silicon Valley and Trump's Washington. A
24:38
parade of tech leaders have visited the White House this year,
24:42
bearing gifts for Trump and announcing plans to invest hundreds
24:46
of billions of dollars into AI. Trump and his administration
24:51
have supported the AI industry by lifting restrictions on chip exports,
24:56
moving to fast track data center construction, having a one
25:00
billion dollar loan guarantee to the companies, restarting the three
25:04
Mile Island nuclear plant to supply electricity to Microsoft data centers.
25:11
Tech industry leaders have argued massive investments in AI technology
25:15
will pay off by creating thousands of jobs, helping the
25:20
US compete with China and eventually delivering transformative breakthroughs in
25:25
medicine and science. Steinhauser, the conservative strategist, said Trump voters
25:31
can see through sometimes hazy predictions of future benefits made
25:35
by some tech executives. Elon Musk predicted last week that
25:39
his company Tesla's future humanoid robots will eliminate poverty. Some
25:46
are promising utopia. Steinhauser said, I don't think people are
25:52
buying that, And next, what the S and P five
25:56
hundred is hiding about the economy on its case, Twenty
26:01
twenty five has been a good year for the stock market.
26:04
The S and P five hundred was dragged out of
26:06
its tariff induced springtime slump by a small subset of
26:10
AI forward power players, whose spectacular gains divid an otherwise
26:16
softening economy. Even now, despite a rocky November, the benchmark
26:21
index is up more than twelve percent since the start
26:23
of the year. A group of trillion dollar brands not
26:27
as the Magnificent seven Alphabet Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia,
26:35
and Tesla, has been at the forefront of those gains,
26:38
thanks in large part to corporate spending and intense interests
26:42
and artificial intelligence. But economists and investors are raising concerns
26:46
about the companies that aren't part of the AI investment boom.
26:51
In other words, most businesses in the United States. An
26:56
index that leaves out the seven high flying tech firms
27:00
at the S and P four ninety three reveals a
27:03
far weaker picture, as smaller and lower tech companies report
27:07
lackluster sales and declining investment. You have the headwind of
27:12
a deglobalization in tariffs and the tailwind of AI. Those
27:16
forces are battling to a draw, and in that crosswind
27:20
you get winners and losers, said Moody's analytical Chief economist
27:23
Mark Zandi. Anything that is not connected to AI is
27:29
throttled lower. When Open Ai unveil its chat bot chat
27:34
Bot chat GPT in late twenty twenty two, it sparked
27:38
a surge and AI investment and a handful of tech
27:41
companies that provide infrastructure and support around the new algorithms.
27:45
The picks and shovels for an AI goldrush caught the wave.
27:49
The Washington Post has a content partnership with Open Ai,
27:55
AI spending supercharge the valuations of the Magnificent seven.
27:59
Speaker 2: Ever since.
28:00
Speaker 1: Shares of Nvidia, a longtime manufacture of video game graphic cards,
28:06
that became the AI chip maker of choice, have soared
28:10
more than one thousand percent since January of twenty twenty three.
28:15
As of last Friday's close, the pace of growth cool
28:18
this year in Vidio's up twenty nine percent twenty twenty five,
28:23
and it's leveled off at Amazon, Meta and Tesla a
28:27
Mezon founder Jeff Bezos owns a Washington Post. The data
28:32
company Planetaire has carved out a niche helping large organizations
28:36
play AI to their operations, doubling its market value since
28:40
the start of the year. Micron rose more than one
28:44
hundred and thirty percent on the strength of its memory chips,
28:48
and Ohio based Vertiv rose thirty five percent for its
28:53
data center cooling systems, and chip maker Intel rose seventy percent,
28:59
even as it laid a thousand of employees the Some
29:03
experts are worried that the S and P five hundred
29:05
and index of large company stocks that underpins.
29:08
Speaker 2: The fortunes of millions of Americans with four oh.
29:10
Speaker 1: One K and other retirement accounts, had become too resilient
29:14
on the magnificent seven They collectively account for about a
29:17
third of its value, leaving the broader market heavily dependent
29:20
on the continued success of the AI trade, says Torsen Slock,
29:25
chief economist at the private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
29:31
There's no diversification in the S and P five hundred
29:34
any more.
29:34
Speaker 2: In my view.
29:35
Speaker 1: It is all the AI story now, Slock said. SNP
29:41
Global spokeswoman Alyssa Augustin said the objective of the S
29:45
and P five hundred index is to track the performance
29:48
of large companies. She added that the index is consistent
29:51
with the sector diversification for the broader market, referring to
29:55
eleven industry sectors, including healthcare, financials, and information technology. Publicly
30:03
traded small and mid sized companies have taken a beating.
30:06
By comparison, the Russell two thousand, an index made of
30:11
the smallest two thousand companies on the public markets, lost
30:15
four and a half percent in one month period leading
30:18
up to Friday, compared with the loss of around two
30:20
percent for.
30:21
Speaker 2: The S and P five hundred.
30:23
Speaker 1: Smaller companies posted lackluster financial results recently, said Wells Fargo
30:28
senior market strategist Scott Wrenn, who notes that a little
30:33
more than a third of the companies of the Russell
30:35
two thousand index are losing money. Smaller companies are being
30:40
hit harder by a slowing economy, he said, as they
30:43
have less of a cushion to absorb import price increases
30:47
resulting from tariffs and less flexibility to avoid the new
30:51
duties by shifting their supply chains. One analysis from JP
30:56
Morgan and Moody's shows capital expenditures, a measure of how
31:01
much businesses are spending on physical assets like buildings, machinery,
31:05
rear patents, is close to flat for companies not connected
31:09
to AI, which economists see as a worrying sign that
31:13
low tech businesses aren't growing. Smaller companies are more likely
31:18
to rely on debt to fund their operations, Ren said,
31:21
something that makes them more sensitive to changes in interest rates.
31:26
Investors in recent weeks have become more skeptical that the
31:29
Federal Reserve will cut rates again in December, driving small
31:33
company stocks lower, Wren said, in a sign of its
31:38
sensitivity to interest rates, The Russell rallied two point eight
31:42
percent Friday after a Fed official hinted in a speech
31:45
that further adjustment in the near term for interest rates
31:48
could be needed, spurring a broader stock market rally. If
31:54
the concern also is that the employment picture is not
31:57
very good inflation remains sticky, that could be extra bad
32:02
news for small caps, said cfr, a chief strategist, And
32:06
if the investments stam stowveall referring to companies that have
32:10
smaller market capitalizations, Broader uncertainty in the markets has also
32:16
taken its toll on stocks in recent weeks, analysts said,
32:20
as some investors have rushed to the relative safety that
32:24
larger companies can provide. Risky assets such as cryptocurrency have
32:29
suffered in recent weeks, with bitcoin recently sinking below ninety
32:34
thousand dollars for the first time since April. Gold has
32:38
surged in value this year, while the dollars shrank, reflecting
32:42
a lack of investor confidence in traditional safety havens. Given
32:48
the greater sensitivity of small companies to domestic economic trends,
32:53
investors have been reducing exposure to small caps in favor
32:56
of large cap companies, who continue to benefit from global
33:00
growth related to AI based technologies, said Wayne Wicker, president
33:06
of Opal Capital. The market's concentration in big tech has
33:11
also given rise to concerns about what would be left if.
33:14
Speaker 2: An AI bubble were to burst.
33:17
Speaker 1: Those fears have been amplified in recent weeks as big
33:21
tech names suffered a modest sell off, with some analysts
33:24
raising concerns that the AI industry has overspent on infrastructure
33:29
at a time when the technology's actual profit generating potential
33:33
is still nascent. Advanced micro Devices, which manufactures a wide
33:39
range of data center electronics, lost sixteen percent in a
33:43
rough week of trading, trimming a rally that brought it
33:46
up nearly seventy percent for the year. Michael Burry, the
33:50
hedge fund manager who grew to prominence by betting against
33:54
the household market before its twenty eight collapse, has accused
33:59
leading AI companies of overstating the long term value of
34:02
certain assets. Burry and others have argued that an inordinate
34:07
amount of AI spending seems to come in the form
34:10
of different corporate entities spending on one another, while the
34:14
timing for a return on those investments is unclear. Tech
34:20
stocks have endured a series of rocky sell offs since
34:23
late October, with the tech heavy Nasdaq index falling around
34:27
seven percent from its October twenty ninth peak. Markets rebounded Friday,
34:33
with the index trimming some of its losses from earlier
34:35
in the week. Slock, the Apollo economist, said he is
34:40
particularly worried about the recent AI losses because so much
34:44
of the recent economic growth has been shored up by
34:46
free spending, wealthy households. A deep correction in AI stocks,
34:52
if it ever arrived, could threaten the wealth effect that
34:57
is doing so much to prop the economy Now, Slock warned,
35:03
the next story is they retired from government. Now they're
35:07
back protecting forests that Trump is abandoned. From Land to Wyoming,
35:14
Bill Lee slowed his truck by the spot where a
35:18
sign should have stood warning drivers on the mountain road
35:21
about the sharp curve ahead. He remembered erecting it five
35:25
years earlier, one morning out in the forest alongside del
35:29
Nelson would become his best friend during a half century
35:32
working together for the US Forest Service, even though they
35:36
disagreed on politics. Now that he and Dell were retired,
35:40
President Trump's cuts to government meant that there was no
35:43
one to cover their old jobs, and the sign lay
35:47
askew in the dirt. On that sunny Friday in late August,
35:51
Bill felt like the only one left in the two
35:54
and a half million acre Shoshone National Forest to stand.
35:57
The sign back up again. He still had his tools
36:01
tucked in the back of his truck. He gripped the
36:04
steering wheel and fought the impulse to get out. It
36:08
won't help, he told himself. Since the start of the year,
36:13
the Forest Service has lost nearly six thousand staffers through firings, resignations,
36:19
and retirements encouraged by the Trump administration. According to internal
36:23
figures obtained by the Washington Post, by summer, some of
36:28
the agency's regions were missing three quarters of their trail
36:31
and recreation staff, and some forests and districts had none
36:37
at all. From Wyoming, Bill watched it unfold with growing worry.
36:43
The firings, then the departures, then the slow degradation of
36:47
his forest. Things were breaking, but in ways others might
36:50
not notice until a child fell off a sagging dock
36:53
and drowned, or a teenager flipped an all terrain vehicle
36:57
on a rutted road and broke his neck. His woods,
37:01
Bill knew, were a sliver of America's nearly two hundred
37:05
million acres of Forest Service land, wild beautiful country where
37:10
people died all the time, where under Trump there were
37:13
fewer and fewer experienced.
37:15
Speaker 2: Staffers like him to keep watch.
37:18
Speaker 1: It was why Bill had cut short his few brief
37:21
months of real retirement. It was why, at seventy three,
37:26
he climbed into his truck at seven thirty am twice
37:29
a week and slowly drove down the mountain road, dreading
37:33
the side of anything broken and the internal struggle that followed.
37:38
If Bill made repairs, it might seem like the Forest
37:41
Service was getting along fine with a smaller staff, justifying
37:46
Trump's cuts to government. But if he didn't, people might
37:49
get hurt or even die. He would only fix problems
37:53
that were truly life threatening, he told himself, and the
37:57
sign didn't qualify. This was a curvy mountain road. People
38:02
could guess they needed to slow down. Bill forced himself
38:06
to keep driving toward Lewis Lake, juttering over the potholes
38:10
at you deeper than ever. He passed the bathrooms where
38:14
walls needed power cleaning. Looking toward the water, he spotted
38:18
a man finishing a fishing trip and shifted his truck
38:22
into park. Here, Bill told himself with another way to
38:27
save his forest. Bill walked over to the man, offering
38:31
to help pull his boat out from the water. Joe
38:34
Forschler sixty seven grunted in recognition. He knew Bill del too.
38:41
Both men had assisted him years before, Joe said, once
38:45
providing water bottles when he ran out on a wood
38:47
cutting trip. And Joe was glad, he said, to see
38:49
them still working. Bill corrected him, we don't have our
38:53
jobs anymore. He handed Joe card he'd printed bearing phone
38:58
numbers from members of Congress. Call. He urged, say, Hey,
39:02
we're having a bad experience, and how come you don't
39:05
have these people working anymore? With enough calls, Bill said,
39:09
the message might even reach Trump. You have to hire
39:13
more staff. Joe tilted his head back. Oh, he don't care.
39:20
It's all about money, Bill said, Sure it is. Joe said,
39:24
this whole world's money. Bill looked from the road to
39:28
the lake. The day, which had begun cloudy, was starting
39:32
to clear. Shafts of sunlight slid across the water, striking
39:36
the pine trees. One ray burned a golden path through
39:40
the cluster of branches, where Bill knew a family of
39:43
bald eagles like to perch and fish.
39:46
Speaker 2: I know, he said, But.
39:48
Speaker 1: There's a resource that's above money, that we have to protect.
39:54
Bill drove away six woodscrews, rattle in his center console,
40:00
clinked and jumped whenever his car bumped down a ditch
40:02
or over a hole.
40:04
Speaker 2: Bill carries the screws just.
40:06
Speaker 1: In case, because these days, almost every turn in the
40:10
mountain road revealed something that needed repair, another broken sign,
40:15
or weedy campsite, or a listing cattle gate. Anytime Bill
40:20
saw something wrong, he wrote it down with a blue
40:23
pen and a small white notebook, which he kept tucked
40:26
in his cargo pants pocket cable repair, Lewis lake doc fence,
40:32
south pass, picnic worthing, broken table, graffiti, road patching. Reading
40:39
the list felt like a series of precise, tiny punches
40:42
in his chest. For as long as he'd been with
40:45
the Forest Service, he had volunteered on search and rescue teams.
40:50
Over four decades. He'd fished dead bodies out of rivers,
40:55
found torsos crumpled on rocks, collected campers whose heart couldn't
41:00
handle the altitude and the exertion. The risk was what
41:05
Bill loved most about the forest. It forced you to
41:09
live on Mother Nature's terms, to accept her power and
41:13
your human insignificance. Beauty and death with the work of
41:18
random movements, a sunrise, a hungry bear, a rainbow, a
41:24
rock slide. There were so many ways to die in
41:27
the wilderness, and how fewer staffers to stand guard. The
41:32
Forest Service is responsible for one hundred and ninety three
41:36
million acres of forest and grasslands visited each year by
41:40
one hundred and sixty million people who cut timber, fish, grays, cattle,
41:48
conduct research, hike and hunt almost anything you can do outdoors.
41:54
In July, a private Forest Service report concluded that the
41:59
agency's nine regions were missing twenty five to eighty percent
42:02
of their trail and recreation workers nationwide. Forest Service staff
42:07
were prioritizing more visible tasks like keeping bathrooms clean, which
42:13
meant other chores were not getting done, such as clearing
42:16
down to trees, were establishing trail tread or replacing trail signs,
42:21
according to the document obtained by the Post. In response
42:25
to questions from the Post, the Forest Service wrote in
42:29
a statement that volunteers are integral to how the agency
42:33
accomplishes its work, particularly in trails and recreation programs. The statement,
42:40
which was unsigned, noted that the Agricultural Secretary, Brooke Rollins,
42:45
is committed to preserving essential positions so critical services remain uninterrupted,
42:51
and that she will make it a priority to allocate
42:54
personnel resources as needed going forward. White oakeswoman Anna Kelly
43:01
likewise wrote in a statement that volunteers play a significant
43:05
role in forest management. Kelly wrote that Trump's changes to
43:09
government are keeping our nation's landscape safe and beautiful for
43:13
all to enjoy. Now, as he approached a bridge, Bill
43:17
slowed his truck. Four posts marked the bridge's corners, striped
43:22
with black and yellow reflective metal, a vital's heads up
43:26
for anyone driving the mountain at night. But one marker
43:30
leaned drunkenly, almost toppling into the river that he's decided
43:35
could kill someone. He was affixing the metal marker to
43:39
a fresh wooden post when a great truck rumbled over
43:42
a bridge. Wait a minute, Bill called through the driver's
43:46
seat window. You show up when the work's almost done. Dell, grinning,
43:52
swung his truck around the park, pulling on creased leather
43:56
work gloves. Bill steadied the post as Bill drilled in
44:00
the screws, then held a refashioned marker upright as Bill
44:05
checked with a level That good looking, pretty good, Bill,
44:11
Bill looked from the sign to Dell, wondering how many
44:15
thousands of repair jobs they must have done together. They'd
44:19
raised families, seen their children have children. Dell divorced one
44:24
wife and buried a second. Bill made farewell to seven dogs.
44:30
Dell's hair turned white and Bill's gray. Their work for
44:34
the Forest Service aged. Two roads they helped carve into
44:38
the mountain collapsed inward from years of rain storms and
44:42
snow mills. Grass took over tire treads they'd put down
44:46
to show visitors where to drive. Weeds reclaimed picnic areas
44:50
that they had cleared. The men first signed up with
44:54
the Forest Service in the nineteen seventies. They were both
44:57
school teachers, looking to earn a buck and spend time
45:00
outdoors in the summers. Neither could remember how, but they
45:05
soon became a duo. Their names a mantra around the office.
45:09
Bill and Dell will fix this most jobs they did together.
45:14
It never mattered that Bill was liberal and Dell conservative.
45:18
Their only fights were about how to fix things, and
45:20
those never lasted long. They had grown old with their
45:24
forest and felt ready to retire, but now it seemed
45:29
like they were the only ones left to care. Remaining
45:32
Forest Service staff wanted to help. Bill knew, but after
45:36
Trump's cuts, they had no time or workers to spare.
45:40
I saw another sign down, Dale told Bill, wiping his
45:44
forehead with one gloved hand. Back by Fiddler, Bill bit
45:48
his lip. We can't just fix everything, he said, Otherwise
45:53
they'll never hire back for our jobs. It was long
45:59
after lunchtime when Bill finished the last repair. He couldn't
46:02
resist rehanging the sagging middle Fork Popo Aggy River sign
46:08
and drove off the mountain toward downtown Lander. He pulled
46:12
into the circular driveway of a squat brown building with
46:15
a large American flag out front. The Forest Service office Barb,
46:21
Bill said, walking inside and waving to the bespectacled, gray
46:25
haired woman behind the desk, the only person in the
46:28
Lander who knew more about the forest than he and
46:30
Dell did. Bill, she said, nodding back. Barb Gustin wasn't
46:36
supposed to be working either. She had spent nearly two
46:39
decades with the Forest Service sitting at this exact desk,
46:43
doling out wood cutting permits, park passes, and answers to
46:47
probably millions of questions. She retired in October of last
46:52
year at sixty eight, ready to spend lazy morning sitting
46:57
in her backyard staring up at the wind River Mountains
47:00
with her corgy Jazzy. Then on Valentine's Day, the Trump
47:05
administration fired all probationary workers, leaving no one to cover
47:09
for Bob's old job. The first time she drove past
47:13
and saw the sign saying closed until further notice, she
47:18
pulled the car over, walked into the office, and up
47:22
to her old boss. She asked if she could come
47:25
back as a volunteer like Bill and Dell. Now it
47:29
was mid August, the height of the summer season, and
47:32
Bob was working twelve thirty to four thirty pm Monday
47:36
through Friday unpaid. Bill disappeared into the back office and
47:42
Bob looked out the window. Two men with long beards,
47:46
ripped clothing and leathery skins were walking up bent beneath
47:51
backpacks CDT, she muttered to herself, and sure enough they
47:56
were hikers traversing the roughly three thousand mile Continental Divide trail.
48:01
She told the men where they could refill their water
48:04
and stash the recycling. The phone rang. Bob explained to
48:08
the woman that on the line that campgrounds were first come,
48:11
first serve, She suggested a less popular sight, and as
48:15
she put down the phone, a man drove up in
48:18
a large camper. As far as any type of gold prospecting,
48:23
he asked in a low voice. Barb directed him to
48:26
South Past City in old mining town. But I haven't
48:29
heard of anybody hitting it big down there, she said,
48:32
Or if they have, they haven't come here to tell
48:35
me about it. Barb figured she must have faced every possible.
48:40
Speaker 2: Query over the years. She had her favorites.
48:43
Speaker 1: A man who arrived with a ball of yarn, asking
48:47
if it was really the best defense against mountain lions,
48:50
as his sister said, Barb decided his sister must not
48:55
like him very much. The hiker who showed up irate
48:59
that she couldn't find the dots on the ground. It
49:03
turned out she mistaken to believe the map legends for
49:06
campgrounds would appear as large yellow circles in the dirt.
49:10
Half a dozen Forest Service firefighters wandered in. They wanted
49:15
to use the laminator to print fire danger warning, but
49:18
didn't know how pressed the button that looks like a snowflake.
49:24
Speaker 2: Barb said.
49:26
Speaker 1: She explained to a woman with a service dog that
49:29
she could look at the maps and woodcutting permits on display,
49:32
but not actually buy one. As a volunteer, Barb wasn't
49:37
allowed to sell things. She pushed a piece of paper
49:42
with a QR code across the counter and told the
49:45
woman to place her order through the Forest Service website
49:49
until they get somebody permanently hired here. Then everything's got
49:52
to be done online. Barb said, I'm volunteering until the
49:56
end of this month, and then it was the the
50:00
one question she felt unable to answer, because when she
50:04
retired a second time in September, Barb.
50:07
Speaker 2: Wouldn't be coming back.
50:10
Speaker 1: She wondered if they'd find someone to take over her
50:13
job and keep the office open, but she knew they
50:16
could never replace Bill and Dell, who would have to
50:19
stop volunteering eventually too. Nobody Barb was sure, would ever
50:26
know the forest like those two. Dell's legs still ached
50:30
from a hunting accident ten years before, so he moved
50:33
slowly as he began his six am walk around Lewis Lake,
50:37
trailed by his Yorkshire Terrier Raspberry. The moment he felt
50:42
the rising sun touch his Skindale, stopped and closed his eyes.
50:48
Thank you God, letting me be alive, He prayed silently,
50:53
Thank you God for letting me be up here in
50:56
the mountains. Thank you God for the birds. Hours later,
51:01
he pulled on blue plastic gloves and started cleaning the
51:05
first of five bathrooms. This summer marked Dell's fiftieth living
51:11
in a forest service cabin by Lewis Lake, tracking campers,
51:15
collecting their fees and cleaning their messes. For the first
51:20
forty nine years, he'd been a salaried federal employee, earning
51:24
about eleven thousand dollars over three months. This summer, he
51:28
would collect fifty dollars a day, five days a week,
51:32
double the usual rate for volunteer campground hosts. Because he
51:36
had to clean extra bathrooms, Dell propped the door and
51:40
swept out the ladies restroom, then the men's. Grabbed a
51:44
bottle of Power Green and tore one rectangle from a
51:47
paper towel roll. He used one side of the sheet
51:50
to wipe down the women's toilet and the reverse side
51:54
to swab the men's. Trump had frozen most federal spending,
51:59
so money for the like cleaning supplies was short best.
52:03
Dell figured to make things last as long as possible.
52:07
Still Dell felt sure the president, whom he supported, had
52:11
a master plan. All of these cuts would ultimately make
52:14
government better. Plus this morning, at least the bathrooms weren't bad,
52:20
Dal thought as he drove around the lake to the
52:22
second outhouse, and there was no tell tailed splatter from squatters,
52:27
people who, for reasons Dell fully couldn't fathom, liked to
52:31
perch on the toilet rim while doing their business. As
52:35
he drove between his third and fourth sets of toilets,
52:38
Dal saw the familiar mountain skyline rise in his rearview
52:42
mirror had a tender thirty five million years. These peaks
52:45
were pretty young. They replaced a far older mountain range
52:50
which eroded away eons ago. Eventually, Dale liked to tell
52:55
himself the mountains he was looking at would disappear too.
52:59
He made him feel small but cared for, like a
53:02
tiny part of God's vast plan. Casting his gaze to
53:07
Earth again, he noticed several vehicles he didn't remember seeing
53:11
the day before. Gripping his clipboard and a pen, he
53:15
walked over. Hello, kids having fun, He asked a family
53:19
from Evanston, Illinois, before recording their license plate number and
53:24
asking whether they'd paid the fifteen dollars nightly fee. He
53:28
approached a couple from Ohio who brought their dog. She's friendly,
53:32
he said, pointing to Raspberry. So am I I promise.
53:37
Two other men were accompanied by a young girl who
53:40
was alternately petting and trying to ride the two massive
53:42
Belgian shepherds. You can't have a fire there, he warned him.
53:47
The shorter man, wearing a white buckeroo hat, nodded and
53:49
said he understood. I worked for the Forest Service for
53:53
seventeen years, said the man, who introduced himself as Jeffrey
53:57
Evans of larry Me, wyomingond man came forward too, introducing
54:02
himself with Scott Bruce from Casper. Yeah, I've done this job.
54:07
This is my fiftieth year, Dale said, explaining why he
54:10
retired now and returned as a volunteer. Scott smiled at Dell.
54:17
I think they're doing a better job with campground maintenance
54:19
than they did thirty years ago, Jeffrey interrupted, shaking his head.
54:25
The improvements to campgrounds, he said, came from money the
54:27
Biden administration gave to the Forest Service. But all the
54:31
staff's getting laid off now, he said. You're only going
54:34
to be able to offset that for so long with volunteers.
54:38
He looked at Dell. How much longer are you willing
54:40
to do this? I don't know, Dell said, I'm eighty
54:44
one right now. Scott said he hated to see people
54:48
out of work, but guess there was probably.
54:49
Speaker 2: Room to trim the Forest Service.
54:52
Speaker 1: He'd been a federal contractor. He said, it's seen a
54:55
lot of wasteful spending across the government. They've got to
54:58
cut enough to figure out where it hurt, Scott said,
55:00
and then they can rehire. Jeffrey was shaking his head again.
55:05
I do not think there was a bloat in the
55:08
Forest Service, he said. Dell was nodding. They gotta find
55:13
out a way to cut the waste. He said, there's
55:15
got to be a better way. Waving goodbye to the men,
55:19
Dal headed to the bathroom number five. The sun was
55:23
just starting to drop when Bill joined Dell on his
55:26
cabin porch. The two old friends looked out at Lewis Lake,
55:30
its surface still displaying a crystal reflection of the surrounding
55:33
tree lined mountains. The only sounds were the chure of
55:37
insects and distant splashing from a string of canoes. Bill
55:42
asked del if he remembered the summer of nineteen eighty one,
55:46
or was it nineteen eighty three? Sure, we had three
55:49
people in my possession. Bill was laughing as Raspberry leaped
55:53
into his lap. There was even a woman. Her job
55:57
was just she drove down the road and picked up trash. Remember,
56:01
so much had changed. All trained vehicles had taken over.
56:06
Tangle of environmental laws had come along. Politicians in Washington
56:10
had overloaded the Forest Service, with administrators giving far too
56:15
much power to DC bureaucrats who never set foot in
56:18
the forests when it comes to deciding on what to
56:22
do with the forest. Now they've got to go it
56:24
up the line. Dale said. Sometimes it take years for
56:27
things to get done. Bill nodded. There's way too many
56:31
people above, not enough people on the ground. They need
56:34
more worker bees and less queens. Raspberry stretched and White
56:39
switched laps, scratching under her chin. Dell pursed his lips
56:44
on our level of stashing staffing has never been this low,
56:47
he said.
56:49
Speaker 2: Bill paused.
56:50
Speaker 1: As an unspoken rule, the newe never talked politics, but
56:53
Bill Newdale was well enough to guess he liked the president.
56:58
His truck radio was always turned the country music Glenn Beck,
57:01
one of three Fox News talk stations. Still, Bill also
57:06
knew the decline of the forest must be causing Dal pain.
57:09
Maybe he thought it was time to talk about Trump.
57:12
He asked Dell to imagine firing half the staff at
57:15
mar A Lago, then demanding that waiters, cleaners, and concierge
57:19
provide the same.
57:19
Speaker 2: High quality service.
57:21
Speaker 1: That ain't gonna happen, Bill said, noting this was exactly
57:25
what Trump had done to the Forest Service and the
57:27
government rent at large. Deal leaned back in his chair.
57:32
I'm more patient looking beyond, he said, I think that
57:35
maybe this is gonna work. The administration was figuring out
57:38
what absolutely needs to be funded, Dale said, and once
57:42
they did, he said, the money and the staffers would
57:45
come back to the forest people to fill his and
57:48
Bill's jobs too. Bill looked at him, trying to understand
57:52
his certainty. I don't think it's gonna get better right
57:54
away there, Dal said. We agree it would take time
57:59
to which just right hand to his heart, and then
58:01
swept out, tracing an invisible line through the sky, the lake,
58:04
and the mountains. Both men's eyes followed, traveling over the forest.
58:08
What they'll ask gonna happen to this. And this concludes
58:13
the reading of the Washington Post for today, Monday, November
58:16
twenty fourth. Your reader today has been Rod Brotherton. If
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you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning the program,
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please feel free to call us at eight five nine
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four to two two sixty three ninety. Thank you as
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always for listening, and now please stay tuned for continued
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programming right here on Radio I