Latest / frontpage / frontpage: thu sep 17
Transcript
- 0:00Host 1: Imagine trying to steer a speeding car
- 0:02Host 1: by like only looking at the rearview mirror.
- 0:05Host 2: Yeah, that is not gonna end well.
- 0:07Host 1: Right. And meanwhile, someone else
- 0:09Host 1: is actively pouring rocket fuel straight into the engine block.
- 0:12Host 2: Just a total disaster waiting to happen.
- 0:15Host 1: Exactly. And else as Thursday, September 17th, 2026,
- 0:18Host 1: and looking at the front pages this morning,
- 0:20Host 1: that is exactly what the global economy feels like right now.
- 0:23Host 2: It really does. I mean the Federal Reserve
- 0:25Host 2: has just slammed their foot on the brakes,
- 0:28Host 2: but uh, they might not actually be the ones driving the car anymore.
- 0:31Host 1: No, they aren't. And it is honestly
- 0:33Host 1: a terrifying moment of realization for financial markets today.
- 0:36Host 2: Yeah. Because the biggest attempt to grab that steering wheel back
- 0:39Host 2: just happened.
- 0:40Host 1: Right. The Fed has officially raised interest rates
- 0:43Host 1: to a range of 3.75% to 4%.
- 0:45Host 2: Which is the first rate hike in three years.
- 0:47Host 1: Let's um let's unpack the reality of this
- 0:49Host 1: because the new Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh,
- 0:52Host 1: he didn't sugarcoat it at all.
- 0:54Host 2: No, he came out swinging.
- 0:56Host 1: Yeah. The vote was unanimous
- 0:58Host 1: and his tone was incredibly hawkish.
- 1:00Host 1: He flat out said, inflation is too high
- 1:03Host 1: and has been for too long.
- 1:05Host 2: And Wall Street took an immediate hit from that.
- 1:07Host 1: Yeah, the S&P and the Dow just slumped.
- 1:10Host 1: But the metric that really jumped out to me is the 10-year Treasury yield.
- 1:12Host 1: It settled above 5% for the first time since 2007.
- 1:16Host 2: Right, and for anyone listening on their morning commute,
- 1:18Host 2: that 5% figure might just sound like,
- 1:21Host 2: you know, abstract Wall Street math.
- 1:22Host 1: Yeah.
- 1:23Host 2: But it is actually the gravity of the financial world.
- 1:25Host 2: It's the benchmark that dictates everything else.
- 1:28Host 1: Wait, so how does it actually affect like regular people?
- 1:31Host 2: Well, when the 10-year yield hits 5%,
- 1:34Host 2: it means the cost of borrowing money to buy a house,
- 1:36Host 2: or to uh carry a balance on your credit card,
- 1:39Host 2: or even for a business to expand,
- 1:40Host 2: it all just got massively more expensive.
- 1:43Host 1: Wow.
- 1:44Host 2: It is this psychological and financial threshold
- 1:47Host 2: that literally changes consumer behavior overnight.
- 1:49Host 1: So they are pulling the one lever they have, right?
- 1:52Host 1: Making money more expensive to slow down demand.
- 1:54Host 2: Exactly. But as you look at the underlying data,
- 1:57Host 2: the Fed is fighting an enemy they can't actually control.
- 2:00Host 2: They're trying to cool down an engine,
- 2:02Host 2: but the fuel line is being manipulated by completely external forces.
- 2:05Host 1: Yeah, William Dudley, the former New York Fed President,
- 2:08Host 1: laid this mechanism out perfectly.
- 2:10Host 1: He said the Fed can crush domestic demand all they want,
- 2:13Host 1: but they can't, you know, print more fuel.
- 2:15Host 2: Right.
- 2:16Host 1: Dudley pointed out this massive disconnect.
- 2:19Host 1: Crude oil is sitting around $100 a barrel,
- 2:22Host 1: which is high, but theoretically manageable.
- 2:24Host 2: Okay.
- 2:25Host 1: But the diesel market is behaving as if oil is at $200 a barrel.
- 2:28Host 2: Okay wait, let's pause and break that down.
- 2:31Host 2: How does that $100 disconnect actually happen?
- 2:34Host 2: Because crude oil gets turned into diesel,
- 2:36Host 2: so why is there such a massive gap in how they're priced?
- 2:40Host 1: It all comes down to the physical logistics of refining.
- 2:42Host 2: Okay.
- 2:43Host 1: You have crude oil, the raw material, right?
- 2:46Host 1: But you need the industrial capacity to process it
- 2:48Host 1: into the high-octane diesel that powers,
- 2:51Host 1: well, global shipping, trucking, supply chains.
- 2:54Host 2: All this stuff that moves our goods.
- 2:56Host 1: Exactly. And that capacity is being heavily constrained
- 2:58Host 1: by geopolitics right now.
- 3:00Host 1: You have the ongoing war in Iran,
- 3:02Host 1: severely disrupting the Middle East.
- 3:04Host 1: But crucially, you have these continuous Ukrainian strikes
- 3:06Host 1: on Russian energy infrastructure.
- 3:08Host 2: And they aren't just hitting the oil wells, are they?
- 3:10Host 1: No. They are hitting the refineries.
- 3:13Host 1: They are systematically taking the processing plants offline.
- 3:16Host 2: Oh wow.
- 3:17Host 1: So the crude is there in the ground,
- 3:20Host 1: but the ability to turn it into usable diesel is just choking.
- 3:23Host 2: And the Washington Post is reporting this morning
- 3:26Host 2: that it poised to get significantly worse.
- 3:28Host 1: Yeah.
- 3:29Host 2: They're saying gas and diesel prices are prepping for another massive leap
- 3:32Host 2: because of physical damage to Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline.
- 3:35Host 1: Right.
- 3:36Host 2: That's a 745-mile artery that was explicitly built
- 3:39Host 2: to be the safe alternative to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
- 3:42Host 1: The irony there is just staggering.
- 3:44Host 1: I mean, the Fed is trying to cool the economy,
- 3:47Host 1: but the literal fuel that runs the supply chain
- 3:50Host 1: is being bottlenecked by kinetic warfare.
- 3:52Host 2: Yeah.
- 3:53Host 1: And while Washington fights that macro battle,
- 3:55Host 1: the corporate world is just ruthlessly adapting to this high-friction environment.
- 3:58Host 2: Oh, totally. Like the Wall Street Journal notes
- 4:01Host 2: that ByteDance just reported a $120 billion revenue surge
- 4:04Host 2: for the first half of the year.
- 4:05Host 1: Wow. $120 billion.
- 4:07Host 2: Yeah. Companies that don't rely on physical shipping
- 4:09Host 2: are finding ways to just print money.
- 4:11Host 1: While the legacy financial institutions are out there
- 4:14Host 1: trying to build entirely new life rafts.
- 4:16Host 1: I mean, you've got BlackRock building these
- 4:18Host 1: highly customizable 401k funds
- 4:20Host 1: that mix traditional public stocks with private assets and annuities.
- 4:23Host 2: Right. Why are they doing that right now?
- 4:25Host 1: Well, because the traditional mix of stocks and bonds
- 4:28Host 1: is just too volatile when the Fed is hiking rates
- 4:30Host 1: and global supply chains are breaking down.
- 4:32Host 2: That makes sense.
- 4:33Host 1: Yeah, they're trying to offer everyday investors
- 4:36Host 1: the kind of hedging tools that billionaires use,
- 4:38Host 1: you know, blending in private assets
- 4:41Host 1: to buffer against this exact kind of inflation shock.
- 4:43Host 2: And speaking of corporate adaptation, look at ExxonMobil.
- 4:46Host 1: Oh yeah?
- 4:47Host 2: They, along with billionaire Harold Hamm, are nearing preliminary deals
- 4:50Host 2: to explore investments in Venezuelan oil fields.
- 4:52Host 1: Going into Venezuela? Wait, yeah, going into Venezuela.
- 4:54Host 1: The US has maintained massive sanctions there for years.
- 4:57Host 2: Exactly. That shows you just how desperate
- 4:59Host 2: the search for energy supply has become.
- 5:01Host 2: They are looking to cross geopolitical red lines
- 5:03Host 2: just to find untapped reserves.
- 5:05Host 1: They absolutely are. Which brings me back to the question,
- 5:07Host 1: how much control does the Fed actually have
- 5:09Host 1: when energy shocks and this massive tech boom
- 5:12Host 1: are just brute forcing their way through the economy?
- 5:15Host 2: The broader front-page reporting suggests...
- 5:17Host 2: Yeah. They have far less control than they want.
- 5:19Host 1: Yeah.
- 5:20Host 2: Because this energy shock isn't isolated to just economics.
- 5:22Host 2: It is physically reshaping global trade and alliances,
- 5:25Host 2: and it's being supercharged by technology.
- 5:27Host 1: Right. Look at how Iran is handling its borders.
- 5:29Host 1: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Tehran's attempt
- 5:32Host 1: to skirt the US economic blockade by pushing overland trade
- 5:34Host 1: is just completely backfiring.
- 5:36Host 2: Yeah, they have hundreds of commercial trucks just stranded
- 5:39Host 2: at their land borders with Pakistan, Turkey, and Afghanistan.
- 5:41Host 1: Hundreds of them.
- 5:43Host 2: And the crazy part is it's not because of,
- 5:45Host 2: like, a foreign military intervention,
- 5:47Host 2: it's entirely self-inflicted bureaucratic hurdles.
- 5:50Host 1: Okay.
- 5:51Host 2: They built an economic release valve to bypass sanctions
- 5:53Host 2: and then choked it off with their own red tape.
- 5:55Host 1: But while a traditional state like Iran is failing
- 5:58Host 1: at basic customs logistics...
- 5:59Host 2: Mm-hmm.
- 6:01Host 1: Non-state actors are leveling up in ways
- 6:03Host 1: that are genuinely terrifying national security experts.
- 6:05Host 2: Yeah, the New York Times piece today.
- 6:07Host 1: Right, they highlighted a new report from Anthropic
- 6:10Host 1: regarding the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
- 6:12Host 1: Historically, we thought of the Houthis as uh insurgents
- 6:14Host 1: in pickup trucks with AK-47s, right?
- 6:16Host 2: Right, entirely reliant on Tehran for their hardware
- 6:19Host 2: and their strategy.
- 6:20Host 1: Exactly. But the Anthropic report outlines
- 6:23Host 1: this massive technological leap.
- 6:25Host 1: The Houthis are now using artificial intelligence
- 6:27Host 1: to design and build their own advanced weapon systems.
- 6:30Host 2: Wait, so they're effectively severing that reliance on Iran?
- 6:32Host 1: Exactly. They don't need Tehran to ship them missiles anymore
- 6:34Host 1: if they can just use AI to optimize
- 6:37Host 1: their own domestic manufacturing.
- 6:39Host 2: Wow.
- 6:40Host 1: It is making them the most lethal non-state actor
- 6:42Host 1: in the Middle East right now.
- 6:44Host 1: It is the definition of asymmetrical warfare becoming symmetrical.
- 6:47Host 2: And we are seeing the collateral damage of this tech adoption in real time.
- 6:49Host 2: Amazon Web Services recently reported actual data loss
- 6:52Host 2: from some of their Persian Gulf data centers
- 6:55Host 2: because of an Iranian drone strike.
- 6:57Host 1: Yeah, we're seeing physical kinetic weapons
- 6:59Host 1: destroying cloud data infrastructure.
- 7:01Host 2: That represents such a fundamental shift in global power dynamics.
- 7:04Host 2: You have a rebel group harnessing cutting edge AI
- 7:06Host 2: while traditional nation states seem completely bogged down.
- 7:09Host 1: Yeah, and that paralysis is really spooking
- 7:11Host 1: the established global financial system.
- 7:13Host 2: Seriously. The Times is running this fascinating piece
- 7:15Host 2: about foreign governments quietly hauling
- 7:17Host 2: their physical gold reserves out of US vaults.
- 7:20Host 1: And the mechanism there is completely tied to trust.
- 7:22Host 1: Foreign governments are looking at a $40 trillion US national debt.
- 7:25Host 2: $40 trillion. Wow.
- 7:27Host 1: Yeah, combined with the aggressive way the US
- 7:30Host 1: has weaponized the dollar through financial sanctions in recent years.
- 7:32Host 2: Right. If you're a foreign nation, you start to realize
- 7:35Host 2: that keeping your gold in New York means Washington
- 7:37Host 2: can freeze your economy with the stroke of a pen.
- 7:39Host 1: So they're looking at the American basket
- 7:41Host 1: and deciding it's just too risky to keep all their eggs in it.
- 7:44Host 2: Exactly. We are seeing traditional allies seek out
- 7:46Host 2: new independent bonds.
- 7:48Host 2: Over in Strasbourg, Ursula von der Leyen,
- 7:50Host 2: the head of the EU Commission,
- 7:52Host 2: just offered Canada associate member status.
- 7:54Host 1: Which is wild.
- 7:56Host 2: Right. The explicit goal is to help Canada
- 7:58Host 2: counter US tariff threats.
- 8:00Host 2: And Mark Carney was there and actually received
- 8:02Host 2: a standing ovation for it.
- 8:04Host 2: The idea of Canada economically integrating with the European Union
- 8:06Host 2: to buffer against US policy is just... wild.
- 8:08Host 1: It really is. Are traditional nation states losing their grip?
- 8:11Host 1: Because while the EU and Canada try to form new defensive blocs,
- 8:14Host 1: you have tech billionaires operating on an entirely different playing field.
- 8:17Host 2: Absolutely. Like Elon Musk is essentially acting
- 8:19Host 2: as a shadow diplomat on X.
- 8:21Host 2: He's obsessively posting to Royal UK politicians,
- 8:23Host 2: directly attacking the Mayor of Belfast,
- 8:25Host 2: and boosting far-right politicians like Rupert Lowe.
- 8:28Host 1: When a single CEO has the platform to destabilize
- 8:30Host 1: a foreign government's domestic politics,
- 8:33Host 1: the concept of sovereignty gets very blurry.
- 8:35Host 1: The power of AI and digital platforms in the hands
- 8:38Host 1: of private citizens or non-state actors...
- 8:40Host 1: it's promising massive economic booms,
- 8:42Host 1: but it is also delivering existential threats.
- 8:44Host 2: Right. And that specific tension is currently tearing
- 8:47Host 2: the White House apart behind closed doors.
- 8:49Host 1: Yeah, the Wall Street Journal published a really detailed deep dive
- 8:52Host 1: into the internal dynamics of the administration today.
- 8:54Host 2: Yeah, they did.
- 8:56Host 1: And we are just reporting what's in the journal here,
- 8:58Host 1: but the reporting details a massive, quiet freak-out
- 9:01Host 1: happening in the West Wing.
- 9:02Host 2: A total freak-out.
- 9:04Host 1: It centers around David Sacks, who is acting as an AI advisor.
- 9:06Host 1: He apparently managed to convince President Trump
- 9:09Host 1: to scrap a planned executive order that would have mandated
- 9:11Host 1: strict safety reviews for AI models.
- 9:14Host 2: Right. Sacks pushed hard for deregulation.
- 9:16Host 2: He argued that the US needs to win the AI arms race
- 9:18Host 2: without being hobbled by red tape.
- 9:20Host 1: Okay.
- 9:21Host 2: But that decision to scrap the safety order
- 9:24Host 2: completely blindsided White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
- 9:26Host 2: and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
- 9:28Host 1: Wait, why is the Treasury Secretary getting involved in AI regulation?
- 9:31Host 1: That seems outside his wheelhouse.
- 9:33Host 2: Because Bessent is looking at the systemic financial risks.
- 9:35Host 1: Oh, okay.
- 9:37Host 2: He is reportedly terrified that without federal guardrails,
- 9:39Host 2: an AI-led cyber attack could hit the US banking system.
- 9:42Host 1: Wow.
- 9:43Host 1: Imagine an autonomous program exploiting vulnerabilities
- 9:46Host 1: in the banking sector at a speed humans can't even monitor.
- 9:48Host 1: It could wreak absolute havoc on the economy.
- 9:50Host 2: So the President scrapped the safety order,
- 9:53Host 2: but his own Chief of Staff and Treasury Secretary
- 9:55Host 2: are so worried that they are holding urgent
- 9:57Host 2: daily meetings with tech executives to try and build
- 10:00Host 2: informal, voluntary guardrails.
- 10:02Host 1: Exactly. They are bringing in companies like OpenAI,
- 10:04Host 1: who by the way, just reported a recent increase in safety incidents.
- 10:07Host 2: Right.
- 10:08Host 1: But on the other side of the table, they're talking to Anthropic,
- 10:11Host 1: who are collaborating with Novo Nordisk on AI-driven drug research.
- 10:14Host 2: Which is huge.
- 10:15Host 1: And that drug research is producing incredible breakthroughs.
- 10:17Host 1: This perfectly captures the dilemma, doesn't it?
- 10:20Host 1: If you are sitting in the Oval Office,
- 10:22Host 1: you are desperate for the economic boom that AI promises,
- 10:25Host 1: you know, revolutionizing healthcare and drug discovery,
- 10:27Host 1: but the people tasked with maintaining national stability
- 10:30Host 1: know the systemic vulnerabilities are massive.
- 10:32Host 2: Exactly. You want the engine to run faster,
- 10:34Host 2: but you are acutely aware the brakes have just been disconnected.
- 10:37Host 1: And that profound push and pull between heavy-handed intervention
- 10:40Host 1: and sweeping deregulation is defining
- 10:42Host 1: the entire domestic policy landscape right now.
- 10:44Host 2: Yeah, we see it playing out across multiple agencies in the US today
- 10:47Host 2: in the Washington Post this morning.
- 10:49Host 1: Starting with the push for deregulation,
- 10:51Host 1: the EPA is officially repealing the Biden-era emissions limits
- 10:54Host 1: on coal and gas-fired power plants.
- 10:56Host 2: Okay.
- 10:57Host 1: The administration estimates this rollback
- 10:59Host 1: will save the energy sector $310 billion,
- 11:01Host 1: fulfilling a pledge they made at the G20
- 11:04Host 1: to prioritize energy independence and unlock raw economic growth.
- 11:07Host 2: But the public health sector is showing the real-time consequences
- 11:09Host 2: of aggressively dismantling oversight.
- 11:11Host 2: I mean, we are currently facing the worst measles crisis
- 11:14Host 2: in the United States since 1989.
- 11:16Host 2: There have already been four deaths in Pennsylvania.
- 11:18Host 1: Yeah, and Republican Senator Bill Cassidy,
- 11:21Host 1: who is a physician and chairs the Health Committee,
- 11:23Host 1: he is publicly calling this surge a terrible legacy
- 11:25Host 1: for the administration.
- 11:27Host 2: Wow.
- 11:28Host 1: He traces the outbreak directly back to Trump's executive order
- 11:30Host 1: that forced the combined MMR vaccine
- 11:32Host 1: to be broken up into three separate doses.
- 11:35Host 2: And this is where policy hits logistics, right?
- 11:37Host 2: When you mandate that a childhood vaccine be split
- 11:39Host 2: into three separate appointments,
- 11:42Host 2: you physically disrupt the immunization schedule.
- 11:44Host 1: Absolutely. Parents miss appointments, compliance drops,
- 11:46Host 1: and suddenly a highly contagious, previously eradicated disease
- 11:49Host 1: finds a foothold again.
- 11:51Host 2: Right. Add to that the logistical nightmare that states currently
- 11:53Host 2: cannot get COVID shots from the CDC
- 11:55Host 2: for federal distribution programs.
- 11:58Host 2: It feels like an aggressive move to deregulate invisible threats,
- 12:00Host 2: whether it's power plant emissions or viral vectors.
- 12:03Host 2: But simultaneously, the administration is incredibly focused
- 12:05Host 2: on highly visible, physical legacy projects.
- 12:07Host 1: Oh, the monuments.
- 12:09Host 2: Right. Trump is threatening to let the Kennedy Center
- 12:12Host 2: for the Performing Arts literally be ripped down
- 12:14Host 2: unless his administration gets naming rights
- 12:16Host 2: in exchange for a $250 million bailout.
- 12:19Host 1: It's just wild. And we are seeing a similar fight
- 12:21Host 1: over in Memorial Circle.
- 12:22Host 2: Yeah.
- 12:24Host 2: The National Park Service formally conceded
- 12:26Host 2: that Trump's planned 330-foot Triumphal Arch
- 12:29Host 2: will unavoidably harm the historic sightlines
- 12:31Host 2: of both Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.
- 12:34Host 1: It's massive.
- 12:35Host 2: The sheer physical scale of it disrupts the geography of the capital,
- 12:38Host 2: but the Park Service says the project is moving forward anyway.
- 12:40Host 1: It's a jarring juxtaposition of priorities.
- 12:43Host 1: Building massive physical monuments while stripping away
- 12:45Host 1: the invisible safety nets.
- 12:47Host 2: Right. And we are seeing similar whiplash in immigration policy.
- 12:50Host 2: The LA Times highlights the case of Luis Galeano,
- 12:52Host 2: he's a Nicaraguan dissident and journalist
- 12:55Host 2: who fled the Ortega regime back in 2018.
- 12:57Host 1: Yeah, he was originally welcomed by the US, granted protection,
- 12:59Host 1: and spent years documenting human rights abuses.
- 13:02Host 2: But under the administration's newly widened deportation dragnet,
- 13:05Host 2: he was just arrested in Florida and now faces deportation
- 13:07Host 2: back to Nicaragua.
- 13:09Host 2: The system is sweeping up the very dissidents it previously offered asylum to.
- 13:11Host 1: If you try to make sense of this political environment,
- 13:14Host 1: it's just chaotic.
- 13:15Host 2: Yeah.
- 13:16Host 1: Demanding names on physical monuments,
- 13:19Host 1: dismantling the systems managing invisible threats,
- 13:21Host 1: and reversing course on asylum seekers.
- 13:23Host 2: Yeah.
- 13:25Host 2: How does the political class even message this to voters?
- 13:27Host 1: Well, the data shows they are really struggling to do so.
- 13:30Host 1: The Washington Post analyzed over a million social media posts
- 13:32Host 1: from the midterm campaigns.
- 13:34Host 2: Okay.
- 13:35Host 1: And during the convention, Trump told GOP candidates
- 13:38Host 1: their winning strategy was to act like he was on the ballot
- 13:41Host 1: and promise a $5,000 payout to every citizen.
- 13:43Host 2: But the candidates are completely ignoring the advice.
- 13:45Host 1: Completely. The data proves that GOP politicians
- 13:48Host 1: have halved their mentions of Trump or the MAGA movement
- 13:50Host 1: since the start of the year.
- 13:52Host 2: Wow.
- 13:53Host 1: And they are walking away from that $5,000 promise entirely.
- 13:56Host 2: Meanwhile, Congress is trying to assert its own relevance
- 13:59Host 2: in increasingly strange ways.
- 14:00Host 1: Oh yeah.