The Duran Podcast - Energy wars, tariff wars w/ Alex at Reporterfy (Live)

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Energy wars, tariff wars w/ Alex at Reporterfy (Live)

Okay, we are live with Alexander Mercuris in London, and we are very happy to once again have on the Duran joining us, Alex from Reportify. Alex, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you very much for inviting me on tonight. It's great to have you with us. And I have all of the links where people can follow your channel and follow your work in the description box down below. I have your YouTube channels.

Is there anywhere else that people can follow you or any link that you would like to plug? I think that's good for now. Unless you're in China, you can watch me on satellite television, but that might be hard where you guys are. All right. And I will add those links as a pin comment when we finish the live stream. Hello to everyone that is watching us on Odyssey on Rock Finn, Rumble, YouTube. And a big shout out to the locals community, the Duran. dot locals.com.

Also a big thank you to our moderators, Zareel, Peter. Good to have you with us. And any other moderators that are going to be joining us. Thank you for everything that you do. Alexander, Alex, Alex, Alex, Alexander, three Alexes.

So you know it's going to be a good live stream. We got a lot of stuff to talk about. Energy, energy stuff, tariff stuff, China, China economics, Trump and economics Alexander. Alex, let's get into it. Absolutely, and whom better to discuss all of these things with than Alex of reportifying.

Can I just, just to make a point that there really is no one better. You actually reel back and watch our last program. I remember Alex telling us that he expected gas prices, global gas prices to increase. And lo and behold, they have. absolutely have done. If you live here in Britain, you are aware of this instantly. There's been a steady rise in gas prices ever since he said that. And now in Britain, we're talking about a real grass shortage, about cutouts of gas. And the reason there are gas shortages in Britain is because

we're told that the price of gas is too high. And British gas and the other big buyers of natural gas in Britain cannot for the moment apparently afford to buy the gas in the necessary quantities. So just to say, so come to the Duran, watch us when we talk to people like Alex of Reportify. You get all the news in advance, the news about what's going on in the world. Now, let's move on. Let's talk about things because we are at the end of one administration and we are at the beginning of a new one. And I'm going to say that I think that what's been going on in the United States has perhaps for the last time made the global economic weather.

We have had four years of constant reflation because that's what the Biden administration has been doing. They've been spending money to a degree that I think is incredible. We have an enormous budget deficit. we have problems right across the economy developing. This is my impression. We have a very, very bad situation in Europe, which we can see. Every single major economy in Europe is now experiencing serious problems. France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain.

They're all facing mounting problems. And, of course, we've made the situation much worse for ourselves. in the West at least, by engaging in economic wars because that's what they are. We've imposed sanctions on the Russians. We're now talking about tariffs on the Chinese. We've been imposing effectively sanctions on the Chinese. Also, we've been trying to choke the development of their chip industry. We're not succeeding, by the way.

We're creating all of these enormous structural problems in world trade. and the result is that superficially the US economy has grown over the last four years, but people in America haven't noticed it, and I think the good course. And I think that the new president, Donald Trump, perhaps he doesn't fully understand that, is coming into a very difficult inheritance. And, well, perhaps you can tell us what you think, Alex, how, whether you think my summary is right or wrong, and where do you think in general terms things are going and perhaps we can then go into some of the details

well thank you for giving me the time to explain you know i meet a lot of people that come up to me and they said you know i saw you on the show you know talking about the smp you're thinking that it's going to collapse or well let me clarify what i mean by the s&p here now the smp is a i will call it the window dressing for the U.S. economy. The S&P goes up. Everybody thinks the economy is healthy. You know, I hear it all the time. Alex, the stock markets up.

You said the economy was going to collapse. It didn't. Well, maybe if you're just watching the S&P, you might not feel that. But here's something to think about, a little bit more sobering, you know, how's life? How's your neighbor? How's your friends? How's everyone doing out there, right? And that's the question that we will then get, you know,

know, down to reality here. Let me just give you an example, Germany and the European automakers here. The six largest automakers, let's talk about BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, the combined market cap, these companies have been hit so bad that the combined market cap is less than half of Tesla's market cap. Okay, these are the big six. Now, this has a lot to do with strikes, layoffs, not investing in you know, new energy vehicles. And I'm, I'm not going to, you know, go in too deep on new energy vehicles here because, frankly, a lot of people don't actually believe me what's going on here. But there are seven million new energy vehicles that were sold last year.

The country has double, triple, quadruple down on this. It's not a push narrative, Greta Thunberg, you know, save the world. No, it's innovation. and people are saving money. Now, the losers in this are the guys that were making big money off of the Chinese consumers. And that's the big three in the United States, whether it's Chrysler, Ford. They were just dumping cars here, making their bottom lines look fantastic. Same with Starbucks.

A lot of these companies here, they come into China, they set up, there's no competition until the Chinese reverse engineer things. and they say, wait a moment. Okay. Hmm, this is interesting. Do we want to go back to the old compact disc days of making a car? Or do we want to go to the chip days and make a smart vehicle? And when you're talking about vehicles here, you're talking about youth buying cars. Got to remember, this is, you know, one and a half billion people.

The youth here, hundreds of millions, are not used to getting into sitting down into a petrol powered car anymore. They're in cars. looking for zero gravity chairs, mood lighting. Is it a 15 or 20 inch screen? Does the passenger have one? And is it autonomous driving? And can it see 500 meters into the fog? That's where we're at when it comes to vehicles.

And so that will show you where the American automotive industry is going. That will show you where the European automotive industry is going. And it is going to the wall, clearly. And it was interesting. I was watching the strike in Germany and when they were taking to the streets, just like they are in Romania, but more for the auto workers. They want to save their jobs. And they're actually blaming the companies for not investing in these technologies and saying,

you know, why did you guys just sit idly by? And well, that's what happens here in China. You know, the average North American people that are dumping their products here, first they chuckle and say, do these people not know anything? Why are they buying this? Oh, this is easy. Let's sell. Let's set up manufacturing.

Let's set up, you know, huge manufacturing investment, assembly lines. And then they just sit back and they just watch, you know, and sell a lot of automobiles or cars or whatever. And they don't reinvest. And it's caught up to them. And this is a very, very tricky country to do business with now. And unless you're part of the Belt and Road, the BRI, I don't know if your viewers have heard about what the BRI. R-I is, but the Belt Road Initiative, kind of like the old days where the old trading rounds used to happen through China and throughout Southeast Asia.

Well, this is a pretty much a logistical miracle, a financial miracle, and 154 countries that do not want to get bombed, do not want to get bullied, and do not want to get bankrupt by United States or a lot of these countries in Europe that have these IMF loans. they've seen Russia do it. And I think Mr. Christopher who was in Russia there last year and saw that, okay, if an economy is against the wall, the collective West is against you. Here comes China and here comes they can put their politics aside and bring you prosperity. I'll hand it over to you guys for a moment. Well, that's about China.

Does Mr. Trump understand this? Because, of course, his entire narrative at the moment is about. putting up tariffs against China. There's talk about 60% tariffs. Perhaps you can tell us what you think that's going to do for the United States and what it's going to do for China because the Chinese clearly have plans to deal with this. The one thing I've come to realize about the Chinese way of doing things is that they do plan and they plan very rapidly. They adjust to changes very fast and given the size of their economy, given the size of their society and their resources, they are able to do that. They're able to adjust very fast, just as the United States could once

upon a time, by the way, just saying. But what are the Chinese going to do and what effect is it going to have on the US? What do you think it's going to achieve with the US? If it happens, of course we're not sure that it will, but if Trump goes ahead and does this, will it solve American economic problems or will it make them worse? That is a million-dollar question or a billion or even a trillion-dollar question that's going to be facing the administration here in about six days. Do they bluff, which I think they are bluffing? Let's be clear here.

Who should China be worried about in competition? The last time I saw a television made in the United States was probably in the 80s. they can't keep up with new energy vehicles. Boeing's in debt for $57 billion. Well, the Chinese bring out Comac, the C919, domestic, and soon to be international aircrafts to compete against Boeing. People aren't rallying strikes. They're getting to work here.

What are their competition? Does China have? That's the question. You're going to sanction your only supplier? Okay. So let's sanction supply. liars. And let's go after a company, which they are going after. It's called CATL. They're the largest battery manufacturer here in China. Massive company. Massive. Well, they supply Tesla with the batteries

for their car too. And they've just put them on the potential sanction list. And, you know, this is where it comes down to. Maybe when Trump came into power years ago, he had this, let's call it a Royal flush maybe or, you know, a big enough cash to hold on and sit in the game. But, you know, the Biden administration has wiped that out. And he's sitting there with a, you know, a two seven. And the Chinese are just saying, throwing your chips. Let's go. Let's, we're in for the long haul.

And this is going to really shake up the consumer in America. You might think, aha, let's go after the Chinese. But I'm going to be very clear with you guys here. I've been here now going on five years here. Every single person, whether it's a high school student, university student, a barista, they know everything about their economy and they know everything about their companies and they know everything about tariffs and they're just, they're ready. These guys are ready.

If you don't think they're ready, they'll be able to do it. I'll give you an example and how China works things. This is a little bit off the topic, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. And the viewers can actually verify this store. If they go look at the cocoa market, chocolate market for cocoa right now, it exploded in the last 90 days here. Companies in Switzerland are looking to try to get this product on the open market. Now, it's traded as a commodity. What would the Chinese have been doing for the last five years is through their belt and road.

They said, well, yeah, we can trade it on the open market, but forget it. Let's just go down there and help these nations, you know, whatever countries in Africa are using this product or growing this product. Let's invest in them and actually we'll supply ourselves. And they do that in every sector here. They are the largest producer in mining in the world of gold and very precious metals, rare earth. I don't think to be honest with you, Alexander, if they shut the doors on, if America shuts the doors on them, okay, no problem, move on.

I think one of the big problems is that as somebody who used to study the American economy, the history of it, I think that a lot of people in the U.S. who support this tariff program look back at what happened in the late 19th and early 20th century when the United States did have high tariffs and they did help an economy, an industrial economy, to develop. But of course, that was a very different economy

from the one that exists today. It was a manufacturing-based economy. It was on a huge upswing. It was working. within a basically a virtuous loop where there was the economy grew, that resulted in wages growing, that increased demand, and you wanted that demand to go to your own manufacturers. And because the economy was so large,

you had competition within it, which kept everything competitive. Now we have a very mature economy in the United States, very different from the one that existed. Oh, hello, you still there? I've lost. Yeah, I'm still here. I'm still here. Let me just check my camera.

Let me continue. Let me continue what to say, what I was saying. So you have a very mature economy, very different from the one that existed in the late 19th, early 20th century. And trying to reproduce economic policies from that era to the completely different conditions of today might not be so successful. Oh, hello. Looks like he's gone. Let's wait. Let's wait a bit.

Wait. We'll wait. Yeah. Trillion dollar trade surplus China achieved in 2024. Trillion dollars. Sanctions. That's almost as much money that has been given to Zelensky in Ukraine. Oh, of course.

Almost the same amount of money. All of the most the same amount. I mean, seriously, though. I mean, it shows the tariffs and the sanctions, the sanctions especially, we see how they're not working because they clearly are not. I mean, one way or the. other trade, trade goes on. That's the key thing to understand about trade. I'm not somebody with any kind of background in finance, but I do know a little bit about trade. And you see this in

the oil trade. You see this in the trade in goods. If there's a customer and there's a supplier, then the trade will continue and find its way through. So you sell and send your manufactured goods if you're China to Mexico. The Mexicans repackaged them. They said that they're Mexican. They might even really be Chinese. They go across the border. And ultimately, the money goes back to China.

That's a lot of what I suspect is happening. And if you shut down Mexico, you divert the trade to Vietnam or the Philippines or somewhere else. So a lot of that, I think, is going on. The same is going on with oil. Again, trying to interfere with the oil trade in the way that the Biden administration is now trying to do, is completely counterproductive.

Because again, it will always get through in some way, in some form, in some place. The ship will just change its name. It will change its flag. And that is, by the way, an incredibly easy thing to do. In theory, it might be very complicated. But if you know the right people, in the right places. Believe me, it is a very easy thing to do. Things come around.

So, Alex, you're back. Thank you. I was discussing, I was discussing how people in the United States who support tariffs, including, I must say Donald Trump, may not understand the extent to which the economic situation in the world has changed today, that whereas in the United States economy of the 19th century was a developing continental economy. Today, it is a mature continental economy. What it will do, what I think it could do, and this is a real danger, is that it could create technological and industrial stagnation. You talked about people shipping badly made old-fashioned cars to China. The trouble is, those bad old-fashioned cars will. stay in the United States and they will continue to be built there because there's no real

competition to them yet yet yet and I think it's coming I think that the Chinese are willing to say okay tariff 100% on $10,000 go ahead tariff it and they will sell these cars at cost they are coming no matter what we do They are on their way. Now, maybe they'll get to the United States last. They're making their way into Africa. They're all over Southeast Asia right now. They're in Russia.

They're in Belarus, number one selling car in Belarus, as well as in Norway, these, a lot of these scandinit countries. They're coming. So there's no stopping. Now, I don't want to kind of just, you know, beat on everything because of China, but I have to be clear, you know, of what I've seen with the advancements. here and, you know, my connections here in the media give me quite an advantage from the average person that just arrives to China, sees the beautiful buildings, and walks around. I am privy to a lot of

very important meetings. I had a media pass to the latest military show in Zhuhai. And, oh boy, that set me back seeing what China had in store. It will not be bullied. anymore. It has a huge company called Narinco. They have, it's a state-owned military hardware company that has a staff of 238,000 employees. These boys mean business. And they're not going to sit idly by here and let somebody try to wipe out their economy. They'll be patient, but they will proceed and as you said before you know they're going through their phase of expansion they're going through their phase of growth and for most part uh we can honestly say that they have not been arrogant on the battlefield in fact quite the opposite um tell us about what you think is going to

happen to europe because of course we live in europe in fact Alex and I live in Europe we are looking at a very difficult situation in Britain today. We have a major holds in the budget. The government is in serious trouble. There's problems for sterling on the bond market. And of course, what does our Chancellor do? She comes to China. Not quite clear what she's doing there and what her ideas are. But anyway, she's coming to China. It's not whether she's come with a begging bowl, or what exactly, but in China she is. So that's... That's of course Britain. Germany used to have a very good relationship, very good trading relationship with China. It's now apparently in jeopardy. They've destroyed their trading relationship

with Russia. We've had all kinds of plans in Europe, Mario Draghi, the Central Bank, ECB chair, former ECB chair, former Prime Minister of Italy, has come up with a great plan about how to transform Europe's economy. But we're still busy trying to sanction Chinese cars, stop EVs coming into China, into Europe. Same here in Britain, by the way. There's lots of talk about this. Where are we going in Europe?

And what is our future here? I mean, I chuckle when I say that, but I'm really concerned, actually, what's going to happen to the average European, I think higher taxes, higher energy bills coming your way, your items that you import will be much higher as well. Technology will stagnate. No one will really invest in these economies. Okay, the tourism market might be okay. I mean, France lost half its vineyards to Chinese investors. Maybe it's their turn. And maybe we have to come to terms. That if we can't beat them, we join them.

And we try to make a hell of a lot of money because these people, they wake up. And the first thing they say in their New Year's is, I want to be rich. And I'm serious about that. You might think it's a communist country, but there is more capitalism going on here than I have ever seen on this planet. And I know a lot of people don't believe me, but it happens. Let's look at some of the companies here. TikTok, okay, about. to be, I guess,

blacklisted in about five days. Well, there's intellectual property stolen in broad daylight, okay? But that affects seven million companies in the United States. So the next time you hear somebody say that, you know, China doesn't make anything.

Really? Okay. Well, they make that. They make 80,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. And, I mean, it's this consistent mocking of the country. I think people just have to get it on an airplane, come to shows like the Guangzhou Fair, which is a huge consumer electronic show. It kind of makes CES and Vegas look like a little holding booth. But there's 72,000 booths that are set up there, and you'll get a very clear indication of what's going on here.

How does Europe get saved? Stop spending money on useless wars. Stop supporting, you know, the comedian. because if not you're going to see more stuff going on like it's been going on in Romania. People have had enough. If you take them to the wall, they've had enough. They're not going to, they're not winning anymore. So, yeah.

Tell us what the mood is in China. And I ask this question, because every single day, literally every single day, I read in the media here in Britain, you find the same in the European media. You absolutely find the same in the United States. There's old newspapers that are dedicated to this topic telling us that China's economy is in trouble. That the growth rate isn't 5%, it's actually 2% or less, that there's enormous buildup of debt, that the government doesn't really understand what it's doing, and that China really, despite all appearances, is actually in deep trouble.

I mean, I read that every single day. It's difficult sometimes to find any actual statistics or information that supports these conclusions, I should say, but I do read that. And it is widely believed. I happen to know policymakers in London, people in the foreign ministry, the economics ministries here, they believe it because they read it every day. They're told it every day. What is the mood in China? What is the sentiment there? How do Chinese people actually feel about the situation in their country?

Well, still today, you know, this is a country that is now leading in patents. It's leading in prosperity. And it's trying to innovate as it moves forward. Yeah, it has challenges just like any other country in the world. But something is really dynamic and different here. And I think that we forget that this country is not, you know, following the U.S. model. It follows the model of the party. And there are over 110 million party members in China.

And of those party members, they have brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmothers and grandfathers. Everybody in this country has an invested interest. So if the economy goes down, everybody goes down with it. Do they fear it? Yeah, of course. Are they preparing for it? Absolutely.

You see, this is where China gets very innovative outside their borders. that belt and road means a lot to this country. And they have managed to convince Africa to pivot away from what it used to, you know, go along with the British or the French. And they have seen what Russia has done here. And that is huge for this country. I hear more Russian than I've ever heard in this country ever. At all the trade fairs, there's a lot of Russian companies coming up here, a lot of banks opening up from China in Russia. And, you know, once again to answer your question, the people understand that it's not just opportunities within their own borders, it's opportunities outside their borders.

And when you don't bomb bullying, bankrupt other nations, and you go in there with a pretty good reputation, you know, a lot of these people say, you know, let's give these guys a chance. The youth unemployment is high here, but students still, I would say, probably study 12 hours a day, still. still achieving what they are. But one thing that has really changed is this desire, and it used to be with a lot of the elite here in the country, it used to be a desire to be Western educated. Well, that has done a complete 360 here in the last two years, three years, where China is now going to the North American markets and say,

hey, our universities are open, and you probably will be able to afford coming here. and not having to take a quarter of a million dollars out to get a degree in the United States. So, yeah, they're building. As the husband of an academic, I can tell you the same is happening in Britain. There's been an absolute collapse in the number of Chinese students that are coming to study in British universities. And it's creating a major financial crisis in the British university sector.

So what you're describing to me, in today's China is the US economy of 1900 just just saying if you were again it's the economy that I actually that I actually reserved

but that was exactly what the sentiment was then I mean by the way the US economy of that period like the Chinese economy today was not without its problems it was not an economy that didn't occasionally have

periods of serious difficulty and recession. It went through a very serious recession, for example, in the 1880s, which, however, it managed to get through. But if you look at the entire period between, say, 1865, the end of the Civil War, right up until about 1960 a century, in other words, you would have found an attitude, a dynamism, and an energy in the way in which the American economy was developed. not that different from what you describing about China today.

So why do Americans who this is, you know, in some ways their own past, why do they find this so difficult to understand? Well, let me just rephrase, it wasn't a 360, it was a 180 guys. You guys are right. Thanks for correcting me in that. So it has something to do with, you know, You know, you had it. You have everything. And then you don't.

It's gone. And this happens when you have a political party that goes in there and just, you know, destroys everything and, you know, scorched earth. I mean, look at what the Biden administration is doing in the last couple of weeks in office. You know, they're setting it on fire. I mean, you know, it's terrible what's going on in California, too. I mean, these are, these, this is a country that can't even, you know, keep its people safe at the moment. And they're out there, you know, supporting a comedian. So we really have to take stock on what's happening.

The average person in United States is more worried about paying their, their mortgage, which is, you know, not, those rates are not going to go down anytime soon. And if they do, the average person say, well, okay, interest rates will drop. My mortgage rate will drop. Well, you know what? expenses continue to rise. And these, I would say, the best way I'm going to explain this is, is when you're looking at a market and you can afford a mortgage payment and people say, well, you know, if we're only having, you know, a 2% increase each year, we can manage that. The Fed will be able to manage that. But it's not.

It's more like 10 or 15% inflation there. rates here. You can go to the shops, you can go buy a car. I mean, what are some of these cars selling at $60, $70, $80,000 for? Who came up with these numbers? You know, the purchase to go to restaurants. We've seen restaurants go to the wall here in the last couple of years here. You know, dining used to be something that was more convenience. Now it's, I guess it's a one-off for a lot of people now. So it's, it's really difficult. And that's the big change here is where, you know, China, when I was here during the four years, during the pandemic, nothing went up. No prices. No, there was no shock to the system here. There wasn't like the, you know, the vegetables were doubling and tripling the price.

Just give you your viewers an example. I'm in a 165 meter apartment here. And the average monthly the electricity bill is about 40 pounds. So that will give you a clear idea of, you know, prices just, they, they are moderated. They are inspected and it's a government, whether your people, you know, understand the communist government here. It's a country that's quite safe. We see a lot. We see a lot more people coming here and actually, you know, really destroying the narrative that the North American market has. But, you know, they are concerned as well. What's going on with Russia. They want that, they want that war to end like yesterday. So I have a feeling that that war could

band, but depends on who Mr. Trump picks for his administration. Those drums will be meeting again here. And China did not hold back at their latest military air show. I could not believe this guys. They allowed the public to go in to two huge hangars at the Zhuhai airport. And they called them weaponry hangers, full access for people to see what kind of hardware the Chinese have. And I was speaking to a lot of the Chinese,

and I said, you know, this is very interesting. A lot of drone technology, a lot of anti-drone technology as well to blow up drones that are hovering overhead. And the people says, well, we're not looking for an offensive. We're looking for a defensive here. This is how we feel. So we feel that the country's got our back. Well, I should say there was an article in one of the British newspapers about that air show,

which said that one of those stealth fighters that was shown doesn't actually exist. It's just a mirage, apparently. I kid you not, they actually did do that. The Russians, the foreign ministry there must be listening to you because they actually published a statement saying that the incoming president will inherit. a scorched earth policy both figuratively and literally, and of course, literally is they're referring to the California fires, just saying, but that this is the inheritance that Trump is coming into from the current administration. I don't think that's wrong, by the way. And just to make

a point, I mean, you talk about stable and steady prices for energy and other things. Well, that is, of course, the exact opposite of what we're doing in Europe. And by the way, in the United States, we have the president of the United States. He's still the president of the United States, saying quite straightforwardly that he's just done something, imposed sanctions on the Russian oil industry. Then he's going to increase the price of gas at the gas station by three to five cents. I mean, it's a very odd thing it seems to be for a president to brag about. But that's just, What he's done, it does look as if China works in a rather different way. I think they seem to be mostly focused on their own economy and actually keeping that stable and growing, which you might say was a wise thing to do.

You know, when you're in a country of a billion and a half people, you've got to be very careful. And I wouldn't want that job ever. of keeping that many people happy. So it's step by step. They move in the right direction. They may stumble at first on any sector that they've got into, but eventually they master that. Right now, their focus is the media sector.

They know they're not very good at defending themselves on the international media. They know that. Give them 10 years. It's going to be a different story here. And you can see that. the policies, they are opening up the borders more for travelers to come in. It used to be, you know, 72 hour no visa. Then it went to 144 hours, no visa, then it went to 240 hours no visa.

Then it went to two weeks. You can come in from this nation. Oh, you do trade with us. You can come in for four months. Oh, you can come in without a visa. So they understand business. And the average person gets at. And, you know, this isn't about me saying, you know, how great this country of China is, trust me. I mean, I have a lot of family in Canada that I'm deeply concerned about. You know, when you see youth in Canada, the first thing they do is when they're done high school, they ring up 100K in debt, maybe even more for student loans. They come out. They're greeted by Visa MasterCard that's sitting there at about 30% interest per year. Once they manage to pay for their furniture and after they pay for their taxes, they're buying a house, which is they're paying

for property taxes and they're going to have to pay two or three times over before they're even 60 to 65 years old. Now, if that's the life that these people want to live, then I'm going to tell you, these governments are under some serious threat. And, you know, I was watching Alex Christopheru's videos here lately, the one on Romania. Just look at the history of what the Romanians do when they take the streets. these people are seriously pissed off and they are not going to tolerate this

and I think this could really spread if it's not contained. They're trying to contain it but yeah, it could get out of the hand here real quick. I absolutely agree with that by the way. I think that Romania might very well be the place where the fire starts, the political fire starts.

There is very, very bad mood in many, many places. in Europe. And I'm going to say something about Romania briefly, which is that what was done there was so egregiously wrong. I mean, so blatantly wrong that it was an insult to the intelligence of an extremely proud people. Do you know anything about Romanians? You will know what a very, very proud people they are. So, I mean, to do it there was an utterly bizarre thing to do. And it does again reflect these, you know, the kind of political class that we have in Europe and to a great extent, by the way, also in the United States and how completely out of

touch they have now become. But what I wanted to ask is something, is something slightly different, which is this. What about the view? And I have heard it said. It was actually argued to me very persuasively by someone I know who is, by the way, something of a true. Something of a China expert, a serious one. That Trump's objectives for the United States in some ways are worthy ones. He does generally want to raise living standards

for people there. He does want to stabilize the economy. He does understand many of the problems that people are going through. But that China is his blind spot and is the blind spot of many of the people around him. And that instead of seeing China, not just

as a rival, which in some respects it is, but also as an adversary, he is making more problems for himself that he needs to do. And that what the US needs to do is what other countries are in effect doing, which is harness its Chinese economic power to make it serve American interests. And that could be by attracting Chinese investment into the United States. We've up to now had US investment into China, but we're now close to the point where you've got to get a reverse flow of that. That would provide jobs in the United States. That would result in people getting skills in the United States. That would set up industries in the United States. Trying to do that is something the Chinese would be interested in and something which would work ultimately to the

American benefit. So have Chinese cars made in Detroit, for example, get the Chinese to link up with Chrysler or perhaps even take over Chrysler in some form, maybe not completely, but in some form. What do you make of that argument? By the way, something very like that happened in Germany at one time. The Americans came in and they revitalized the German economy to an extraordinary degree after the Second World War. Good point. So, you know, there was. was a table discussion when Trump was, his administration was in power a few years back, that they were interested in bringing Chinese companies to the East Coast of the United States and forming a special economic zone, just like they have in Xinjiang here in China.

And these zones usually come with benefits, tax-free benefits, you know, no corporation tax and to get that market going. But a lot of people don't want to take that financial risk or don't have that financial risk. or don't have that financial risk. So we're looking at a lot of the bigger companies that are making the decisions, and he's trying to keep people happy. We might joke and think this TikTok

is just kind of like a funny application. This is serious business guys. This is, you know, a lot of people are attached to this. It's not just about, you know, scrolling through, seeing people dancing around. Seven million Americans make money on this application. 107 million people use it active users every month. in the United States here.

This is technology. This is driving these economies, and this is what drives the economy here. So when the Trump administration is coming in, they need to tread lightly on what they're going to do and how they're going to harness China here and say, okay, you know, let's tear a few guys into an oblivion. It's going to come with a price, and are the Americans and the Europeans willing to, suffer another blow here. They've just had, you know, three years of the clown show in the Ukraine footing the bill for, you know, a vacuum that's been sucking dollars out of the economy

forever. But I'm going to use, for an example, something going to happen during the Trump administration. In 2018, on February 5th, there was a, I would say it was about a five-minute mark where there was massive trading imbalance, a massive flood in the market. with currency and the volatility index wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars within that time frame. Still to this day, the Trump administration has not given an explanation for that. You can see the spikes in the market. I have to say again, as someone who invests in the market and trades in the market, the funny things are going to be happening here.

And it's going to get volatile. and this is how he likes it. He goes in there and he winds up this market. So for all those market investors or players out there, the volatility in six days is about to go haywire. And I don't know if this guy is going to what he's going to do. But saying things, 50% state of Canada, Greenland. And I mean, it's, I'm not sure what these boys are up to.

Maybe they're just winding people up, but they got to stop this war here. It's got to come to an end quickly. And hopefully there will not be any aggression. But let's be honest, guys, there's no way that he's going to be able to fill his roles in his administration without there being a handful of China Hawks in there. There's always China Hawks. And they're always going to make problems. I agree. No, my last question for me, because I completely agree with you about the war in Ukraine. I think Trump gets that, by the way. I think he fully understands that this is a massive problem, a black hole in which you throw more and more money and more machines and achieve nothing. What do you think about risk of conflict with China? Because we've talked about this before when we've had you on our programs. And my own senses that for the moment

this is now the risk of this is retreating I was listening to Trump at his press conference he doesn't seem at all keen on getting into any wars at all they tried to bait him on Taiwan or so it seemed to me

and he didn't really seem to go for the bait he didn't say we're going to fight the Chinese and defend Taiwan or do anything of that kind I get the sense that he gets it just as he gets about NATO for Russia, that, you know, the NATO, Ukraine and NATO is something

that the Russians can't accept. He says he gets it. I think he sort of gets it about China and Taiwan as well, that Taiwan is just a red line for China, and you just cannot cross that. And he doesn't want to walk with China. You get the same sense as me, that we're going to have a lot of,

tensions in the economic space or the volatility that you were talking about. But actually, below the surface, this administration is coming administration is going to be easier for China to deal with because it is not going to press the Chinese in places like Taiwan that they're most sensitive about. It's not going to lecture them on human rights in the way that the Blinken team did. it's not going to lie to them either, which the Chinese were very, very angry about. I mean, Xi Jinping even complained straight to Biden himself about this, that you're just lying to me. So that whatever ructions and problems that might be the economic relationship, the political one could actually be rather more stable.

What do you think about this? This is my last question, by the moment. Yeah, the Taiwan issue, you know, China's Taiwan. Yeah, that's a non-starter. There's no talk about that whatsoever. I think this is not going to be a military conflict. I hope not. But for sure, get ready. This is going to be a hell of an economic showdown. And it's going to be for all the marbles. And they're going for it. The Americans are definitely going for it. When you are going to shut the lights out on one of its pride and joy, and I know the, I know the viewers are going to say, Alex, what the hell are you talking about? It's TikTok. These companies here that innovate, they saw what America did to Huawei.

They seen it with their own eyes. They saw that the Canadians, Justin Trudeau and the boys, through the CEO, CFO Meng Wangzhou, in jail under house arrest for a few years on an extradition that, frankly, had nothing to do with Canada. They've seen it.

And, you know, look at Huawei. Huawei is nothing in the United States anymore. Here, it's still a darling company. But they are not going to tolerate this anymore. They're not going to accept it. We hear jokes about, I think, TikTok selling to Elon Musk. That's the latest rumor with the U.S. government. I'm not sure about that, but it could be interesting.

But no, for sure, you're going to see an economic war. The first thing they're going to go is they're going to go after tariffs, and then the Chinese are going to say, okay, for all those canola and beef sellers in Canada and the United States, turn those ships around now. We're not interested. So buckle up because when your economies get hit and everybody's wallets get hit, they take the streets. And then you've got internal issues. And I think that's what, you know, the Americans have to deal with.

It's like I said, guys, you know, he was at the poker table years ago with, you know, maybe a royal flush or whatever. He could be a great negotiator. But the Chinese know he's coming over here with a broken economy that's been, you know, sucking billions out of people to take the clown show on. They know he's at his weakest moment. So, yeah, they're not going to tolerate anything to hit their economy here. Alex, thank you very much for your answers to my questions. And it's always a pleasure, by the way, talking to you. Now, I'm going to hand over to the other Alex, to Alex,

and he's no doubt plenty of questions from all viewers to put to you, and we can take on mop up all the ones that are left. Yeah, you have 10 minutes, Alex, to answer some questions. Awesome, let's go. You're loving it. Life of Brian says, was the spectacle of Trudeau's downfall worth the wait? Yes, yes, but that that SOB is not gone yet. He's not gone yet.

He's still there. And who knows, but yes, he's got to go. All right. Carol says, how will China react to the planned confiscation of the Russian sovereign funds in Euroclear? Are there not Chinese funds in Europe as well? And will the EU financial system collapse? That's a great question. I would say the Chinese have helped Russia rebuild their banking system here in the last couple of years, for sure.

Will they get that money back? I don't think the Europeans are going to give it up so easy, but the Chinese will have ways to get it back somewhere. Yeah, they'll counter it somewhere. Commander Crossfire says, good day, all from Canada, maple syrup for all. Thank you for that. Sir Mugge's game says, where is Christine Lagarde? Jens, where's Christine Lagarde, witness protection program, got her tongue, busy fornicating with Belzeeub to save the Euro, asking for a friend? That's actually a good question.

Where is Christine Lagarde? Where is indeed Christine Lagarde? I mean, she's gone, A-Walt. Aren't you happy? Just saying, I mean, isn't she always the angel of death wherever she appears? I mean, angel disaster at least. So, I mean, if she's gone, are so much the better as far as I'm concerned. Just saying.

Neurosurgery Highland says, what is the importance of Singapore for Chinese businesses? Singapore is part of the Belt and Road. Singapore has a huge port. Singapore has a very stable economy as well as Singapore has a lot of Chinese there as well. And this is interesting. I bet you a lot of people don't understand that, you know, China has some special administration regions. and SEZs, but you can gamble in China. You can go to Macau.

You can gamble there. You can run offshore companies in Hong Kong. Yeah, you can do that. So, you know, this is a country that's, you know, wide open for people. And Singapore is actually idolized by a lot of Chinese and a lot of business going on there right now. Big push, especially this city where I'm living in, in Chongqing here, 36 million people. A huge push for Singapore. Huge push.

Sparky says, Alex, isn't canola oil part of an elaborate and ongoing Canadian conspiracy to slowly poison Americans with seed oil? Interesting that, you know, the reason why I mentioned canola oil is when Trudeau nabbed Hmong,

they shut the canola oil off for farmers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where some of my family are. And they didn't open it back up until about a year ago. So, yeah. Canola oil is special. But yeah, enough for the Chinese to block the sales.

Sparky says, are you insinuating that deindustrialization was a bad idea? Who would have thought that? Next. Next. From Elsa, since 2022, the mainstream media has been telling us that a high oil price boost Russia's war, how does sanctions on oil that push the oil price help the U.S. to get a better position in negotiations? You know, I would always say oil trading is very murky here. No pun intended on that,

because there's a lot of barrel oil being stockpiled here in this country. Has it been traded on the open market? Has it been traded with U.S. currency? We have to to really look who the trading partners are now and how they are trading these, you know, this type of product, it wouldn't surprise me that the Russians do have, and I have no proof of this, it's just speculation, but they probably have an agreed sale for an agreed price per barrel when, especially the Russians can pull it out of the ground for, you know, one of the cheapest nations of the world besides the Saudis. These barrels of oil are being probably circumvented and not being hit by the tariffs.

So I don't think tariffs really mean anything. Let's do a couple more questions from Elsa on TikTok about TikTok. Globalist heads will explode if Musk gets TikTok. Your thoughts? You know, guys, I know it's a funny app. And we all kind of take jabs at it. The EU thinks it destabilizes countries. Maybe it does. I don't know.

But I think that you just got to see what happened immediately this morning. A new app called Red Note became the number one downloading app in North America. These are huge social media platforms. And the reason why a lot of the Western media platforms aren't here is they were very concerned about what was happening on those platforms. in regards to terrorism, in regards to, you know, destabilization of countries. And I have to say, they were right. You just got to listen to Mr. Zuckerberg lately, have his moment in the church where he says, yeah, we believe in free speech again.

Sorry, guys. He had his awakening. So these apps here, it's just part of the innovation. It's part of the communication. And it's a part of the life here. I don't know if this is happening in Europe, but inside the TikTok applications here, they have a full e-commerce platform where if you're standing outside selling goods and you're streaming it, the person can buy it directly while the live stream is happening and pay for the purchase within those apps.

And it can be delivered by GPS coordinates rather than addresses. So that's how far they're taking it. It's quite serious. All right. One more question for Alex from Nicholas Walker. China and Russia seem to plan for the next 10 to 20 years. The West seems to plan for Friday at 5 p.m. Will the EU, UK, pay reparations to Russia for the war to end?

I don't know when this war is going to end. I don't know how it's going to end. I don't know who is going to be footing the bill for this at the conclusion for it. But I'll tell you one thing. Somebody is about to make a lot of money here in the next few years here as they wind that down. That is a nation, unfortunately, with so many people that have lost lives that Patrick Lancaster has been reporting on for years. I will be going to Ukraine at the end of, pardon me, I will be going to the Dombas area in the end of February. to meet Patrick.

But my understanding is, is when this is all set and done, that area will never be the same again. The people that had lives there, homes there, businesses there, it's done. It's over. And it's in the hands of BlackRock for sure. Kev Jones, thank you for that amazing super sticker. Thank you, Alex from Reportify. Thank you so much. I have Alex's links in the description box down.

below, I will add them as a pinned comment as well when the live stream is done. Alex, thank you for joining us. Yeah. Can I say one thing before I go? Absolutely. I just want a big thanks to you guys for the years and dedication that you've been putting into your audience. I have to tell you, getting this, you know, the Duran University for free is awesome.

But also I think it's great for people that support your channel, because what you guys are doing is amazing and it's really helping a lot of people. So thanks again from my network. I'll be showing you guys on our channel as well. So I suggest everybody subscribe to your channel as well for my audience. Thank you very much. Thank you for those very generous words, Alex. And subscribe to Alex's channels as well.

Great channels, great information. Thank you, Alex, so much for joining us. Thank you. Take care. All right. Great conversation, great guest, Alex. Well, absolutely, absolutely. Very consequential times.

Yeah, we've got some great questions as well. So let's knock out the questions from our viewers. And we will start with Nikos, our friend. How are you doing? Column incoming, be ready, Alexander. I talk a lot. Are you ready, Alexander? Absolutely.

Because of questions. All right. Yes. there's a good three, four, five parts, all right? So I'll start. Okay, well, whatever. All right, last time I raised concerns. Some people don't want to hear, but I did it because I understand Russia and I care about its people unlike Lex Friedman.

Lex is the same Soya Boy who did a gotcha interview with Tucker, so I won't talk about him. The comments on that interview, though, were pure cancer. In the last, I lost. the questions. It's always easy. It was easy. Yeah. Yeah, it always cuts me off when one second. In the last, okay, in the last two months, I've been watching videos from Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Armenia. And all I see is the hate for Russia and Russians. This comes from the younger generation in particular. Even here in Greece, my own brother mocks Russia and Russians because he watches Pierce Morgan. The younger

generation is primed to hate Russia and be used to eventually invade them. Today we had another strike and many were laughing about it. I also see the cracks in Russian society. The inflation is so high, it doesn't allow them to buy an apartment and they blame the military investment. Judge Napoleano has asked this. I raised the question on Levant's channel. My question is Duran. How can there be peace when there is so much hate? well there's a lot an awful lot of things there

first of all this there is inflation in Russia and I'm going to make a prediction it's going to start falling next year the central bank has taken the very necessary steps to bring it down and we're going to see a fall in inflation and we're going to see a stabilisation

of the situation of the economy house building remains very very intense in Russia I don't think that this is the problems that you are talking about are significant, because despite the high inflation, we continue to see a significant increase in real wages. So living standards in Russia continue to grow.

Now, there certainly has been a lot of propaganda campaigns against Russia, an awful lot of young people, no doubt, in all sorts of places Armenia, the Baltic states, Belarus, even Russia itself. have been affected by it. But I don't think in any of these places, that comes to anything close to a majority. I have to say that.

I mean, I think that on the contrary, when you actually see proper statistical surveys done of opinions amongst young people, especially in Russia, you find that if anything, they tend to be more nationalistic at patriotic than some of their elders are. So just to say that.

And by the way, that was my own experience. Now, that was some years ago, but I remember going to University of Perm, for example, I had to give a lecture there to students. They asked me all sorts of questions of international affairs. There wasn't a single liberal amongst them. Just to say this. And Perm has a reputation for being a liberal city.

Now, in other places, Armenia, Moldova, those places, it's different. But even in Moldova, look at the last election, the one which Sando won. She only won with the votes of people outside Moldova. If it had just been people in Moldova, she would have lost. And again, they had to manipulate the votes, even of people outside Moldova, by excluding Moldovans in Russia. So you can't say that a majority of people in any one of these countries, be Belarus, be it Moldova, or even I suspect Armenia,

which my brother visits very often, are anti-Russian or hate-filled towards Russia or any one of those things. Armenia is in very serious trouble. Azerbaijan, the president of Azerbaijan, has given a very belligerent interview. he seems to be preparing for another war against Armenia. Armenia has a government, a prime minister, who has indeed redirected Armenia away from its traditional alliances with Russia towards the West. It is bringing disaster to Armenia.

They've already lost Nagorno-Karabakh. Quite plausibly, they will lose still more. There is economic growth in Armenia at the moment, which is based upon increased trade with Russia. None of this makes any sense at all. Moldova is in deep problems. Again, most people in Moldova understand who is actually causing these problems very, very well. I get to make a general prediction.

Certainly there's going to be hate in all of these places. But most of this is going to be directed at us, us in the West. who have brought these disasters one upon the other down upon them. You even see this in Ukraine too. I confirm all of this, that everything that you said, Alexander, Russia, a lot of patriots, especially the younger Russians and Armenia have been there four or five times recently. Yeah, I confirm everything that you said. And the money, the money that is pouring into Armenia is coming from Russia, from Russians.

Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Sparky says, great to see Alex times three. Thank you, Sparky. Sparky says GDP isn't a good measure of an economy, especially if it doesn't produce tangible goods or commodities, service and finance aren't a good base. Absolutely. I was thinking of exactly this point when Alex was describing the plight of a young person in Canada, taking out a $100,000 loan to go to university, than a mortgage then taking out credit card. doing all of those things. The thing to understand about every one of those credit transactions is that they add to the GDP. They may be making the life of this young man or woman more difficult, but actually the GDP grows because debt actually at increasing debt levels can actually add to GDP. GDP is a useful statistic. It's a useful tool to look at an economy. But as the person, the economist, the statistician who created it, apparently repeated it repeatedly pointed out. It was never intended to be used in the way that it is today as the whole story about an

economy. And it was certainly never intended to be used as a way to deal out school cards and to say this economy is going to hire GDP if this is a lesser GDP and that means the one economy is better than the other. That was never its purpose. Nikos says off topic, I think the situation in Syria won't unfold as Libya. I think it's more similar to Sudan, 2003, when the general became the new dictator. Well, you may very well be right. I mean, I'm hearing dark things about Syria every day. And I'm increasingly coming round to the view that the Turkish and Israeli positions are indeed irreconcilable and that we might indeed see a clash,

though I doubt that either Erdogan or Netanyahu wants it. Double down says mutual assured dependence is the new world order. Nico says something I realized if they don't want Black Rock Mertz to rule Germany, then why don't Aevde and Sada Wagenek just make a coalition? They might very well do, but not at the moment. I mean, at the moment, they maximise their support by standing against each other. Because if you are right wing inclined, but you have similar views, then you vote for the IFDA.

If you're left weak inclined, you vote for the BSW. If you combine them together, then you will lose some of that support. So that's the calculation. What will happen eventually? I don't know. But I'm going to say something. Alice Vidal, as far as I'm concerned, is making the weather in the German election. people are much more interested in what she's saying and what she's doing

than they are interested in what Friedrich Mertz is saying, which is most interesting and unexpected. Now, I don't think that's going to be enough to enable the IF data with the election, whatever that means in a country like Germany. I mean, even if it came first, it still wouldn't be able to form the government because the CDU, the SPD, the Free Democrats, the Greens, they'd still all combine against it. But nonetheless, I do think that we're starting to see the political shape of Germany start to move.

And that is remarkable. And she's achieving that. And I think we need to respect her courage for doing what she's done. If you know what Germany is like and how the German political system works, you understand the saying the things that she's saying. in the way that she's doing absolutely requires courage. Sparky says US actively pushed their industry to China in the 1990s. Now the US complains about it to the point of pushing war.

What I said, I mean, you know, getting investment from China into the US, I think it could be done if it was approached in the right way. It would be worth a try, I would have thought. It's not my idea, by the way. As I said, it was a friend of mine who was an academic, by the way. who studies join. Sparky says the few products still manufactured in the US contain many parts and sub-assemblies made in China.

This includes military equipment. Absolutely true. Now, I mean, the United States, to be clear, remains a major manufacturing power. I mean, you know, one shouldn't pretend that there's no manufacturing going on in the United States. There's still a lot, not as much proportionately, in terms of the proportion of the economy,

that it used to do. But you're absolutely right. You find Chinese products in all the supply chains. Bill Wyman, thank you for that super sticker. Zareel says China is first place now. See the J36, for example. Sparky says, wasn't there a time after World War II in the UK when people destined for university were required to learn a trade

to fall back on if they're outer? Mongolian interpretive dance degree didn't get them a job. You know, I don't know about this. I have heard it said, but I've never actually learned about this. What I will say is this, if you're talking about the period after the Second World War, the first 20 years or so, well, the first 15 years after the Second World War, because what Britain did have at that time for men was conscription. People had to join the military.

And as part of joining the military, you did learn a trade. That was very much a part of that. So I wonder whether that is what people are thinking about when they say that there was, you know, this need to learn a trade before you went to university. Because going to the military, learning how to be a skilled mechanic and that kind of thing did provide you with on-the-spot training that you could then take back into civilian life. I can't hear you. Sparky says, whatever happened to that if it existed, you just answered. I think so. Alexander, yeah.

Zaryel says, yes, Alexander, they did a top gun on the West. Sir Bugsgame says the Russians have customers, the Chinese have customers, the Anglo-Americans have custom hostages, nice little racket that's ending. Yeah, actually. I don't think that I think I don't think that's wrong. I think that's right, actually. Sparky says, Alex, shouldn't Trump replace his soros CIA Treasury Secretary Pick Bessent with Brown University's Mark Blight? Blight knows how to recover an economy without subjecting, without subjecting people to crippling austerity. I have to be honest. I don't know enough about these people to make a judgment call about either of them.

What I will say is this. his first term, the part of his administration that he seemed to me worked best, was the part that was connected to the economy. Trump, of course, has a background in this because he's been a businessman and he's worked inside the economy. So I think he has a better understanding, a better feel of what to do there than maybe he does in some other matters, you know, some of the more intricate foreign policy issues. So I'm not going to make a judgment call between these two people.

But I will be very interested to see what Trump does. And I think, you know, on a day-to-day level, he probably will do things quite, probably certainly better than Biden would, not that that's a hard standard. It's the strategy, the long-term strategy, where I have my questions. Sparky says, fun fact, both Ukraine and Israel have taxpayer-funded, health care, American taxpayers. Matthew says Alex. Very, very well put, by the way.

Matthew says, Alex, off topic, what do you see are the chances of Europe intervening militarily? Is there absence of any industry, military, the foot on the brakes? I discussed this in my program on my channel yesterday. There is no chance, realistically. I mean, the idea that the Europeans can go, can send an expeditionary force to Ukraine to fight the Russian army is ludic. ridiculous. Anybody who knows anything about the realities in Europe, both the political realities in terms of the sentiments of the people and the state of the armed forces in all the European countries knows what an absurd idea that is. There's an article, by the way, by Samuel Charrup

today in the financial time. Charlie Charrup is in the Council of Foreign Relations. He's been a critic of the Ukraine war. He's managed to get an article in the financial times. He says, he basically says don't do this thing. If you send European troops to Ukraine and they end up fighting the Russians, what that means is that the United States is going to be involved in war with Russia, which is exactly what we don't want, because it's a trap for the United States. It's an interesting article and it's worth reading. Sparky says, free Canada from the Castro regime. Red Z says Tiffany Trump may have. saved the planet who knew sparky says free greenland from danish tyranny and brutal oppression bring

them freedom and democracy well i don't know i mean there was an opinion poll i don't know how reliable it was that seemed to suggest that most people in greenland would be quite happy apparently to join the u s i'm not i don't know the polling agency and i don't know how reliable the poll is but there is it jeff bickford thank you for that super sticker stan litman says China adopted American system economics, Clay. Well, I think there's some truth to this. You go to China, which I did back in 2017, by way, so I haven't been there for a while. But what did strike me was how strong American economic influence in China was in some respects. I mean, the road system, for example,

resembled that in the US more than it did in Europe, just one, you know, just one, you know, just one example, the moment. There are obviously radical differences, very, very big differences. But certainly the Chinese at that time were very much looking at what the US was doing. Carol says, do you have any idea why military fighting age Chinese are flooding the US border? How will the sanctions on Russian shipping affecting Chinese imports? Well, about the first, I have absolutely no idea why these people are coming into the United States, but I'm guessing that they're basically looking for, you know, the very agreeable life you can still find in the United States. And I suspect that's what they're mostly doing.

Whether there is something more sinister going on, I just don't know. I would like to see a lot more research on this than we're getting. And the reason we haven't had that research is because the current administration doesn't want us to have a complete picture of what has been going on in the border. So without that information, an awful lot of theories and concerns understandably rise. I'm not sure, as I said, what exactly is going on. But about the shipping and about the oil, I'll go back to what Alex was saying during the program, about oil being a murky business. Having actually been on the far marginal periphery of all of this,

having some experience of shipping, I can tell you straight away that these sanctions that were imposed on the other day by the Biden administration on the so-called shadow fleet are absolutely not going to work. Please understand this. You can sanction a ship. that doesn't stop that ship from sailing. All it means is it can't get certain services

from Western financial institutions and it might have some difficulty unloading or loading cargo in ports, Western ports, or ports in countries that are aligned with the West. Well, most of this trade doesn't go through those. doesn't go by those routes. Ships on the high seas, which you tend to lose track of anyway, because it's very difficult keeping track of what goes on in the high seas. Ships on the high seas will just go on sailing with their cargoes, no matter who sanctioned them.

You can change flags around very quickly. As I said, people don't understand how quickly this can be done. In theory, it can be complicated. In practice, it can be done very fast. There's plenty of people who will ensure you today. All kinds of things can be. be done. This is not going to have the effect that the Biden people imagine. It will cause some supply disruptions, mostly after March. It will create structural problems in the oil markets. It will increase the number of middlemen and the number of payoffs. It will mean higher prices in Europe and the West and the United States, but it's not going to choke off Russia's exports. Commander Crossfire says, I think the strength of the bricks has been greatly overestimated and the

strength of the US and the West has been greatly underestimated. Rest and peace, Syria. Well, there it is. I mean, that's Syria. I think that the more we see about the situation in Syria every day, the more clear it's becoming that this was hardly a victory at all, but more another inherited problem. The bricks never committed themselves to protecting Syria. Syria apparently was offered a place in the Belt and Road. It turned it down. Syria, was invited to the Kazan-Brick summit, he didn't go. He preferred apparently to deal with Egypt and the UAE. That's where he thought he would get friends.

He was assured by the Egyptians and the Emirates that if you work with them, they would manage to persuade the West to lift the sanctions. And of course, it never happened. So I don't agree with your view. Yeah, he turned down bricks. It's not turned down bricks. He turned down bricks. Bottom line.

Paul Dorofeyev says Putin said in an interview that nobody can stop digital money such as Bitcoin. How serious is Trump about the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve? Will he do an executive order this year? I think he's very serious about it. I think he's extremely serious. Absolutely. Yeah, I don't know about a reserve, but he's serious about it. Yeah.

Boa Omega says, Connecticut tax rate Fed and provincial 60% carbon tax $400% increase tax on gas tax on the gas tax Kevin O'Leary wants to buy TikTok by the way No different in Britain by the way A lot of taxes in Britain Commandor Crossfire says I question longevity of Venezuela Cuba after Syria

I think these are profoundly different countries I mean, they're very different from Syria and they're very, very different from each other. I mean, Cuba is much smaller than Venezuela is in some respects. It doesn't have the natural resources that Venezuela has. The political system in Cuba has existed for very, very much longer than the one in Venezuela had done.

I wouldn't make direct comparisons. I think Cuba is in a stronger position overall than Venezuela is. I think it's got perhaps one or two years when things are going to be still difficult. If it can get through them, I think it'd be in a much stronger position. Venezuela is a completely different matter.

Sir Mug's game says, Hey, Israeli PM, when Saras come, they come not as single spies, Assad, but come in the form of battalions, Erdogan, Claudius Hamlet. That's true enough. Thank you for that. Lana Zankovar Garcia, thank you for that super sticker. Paul Dorofeyev, thank you for that super chat.

Basil Beshkov says, is USA Ukraine war really against Russia or a Trojan against a Trojan horse against the EU? Well, this is something that a lot of people have discussed and talked about. I think there's a certain element of both in this, but make absolutely no mistake about it. The neocons in Washington, they absolutely hate. They absolutely hate Russia. They absolutely hate Putin. And of course, they're still working from the old Zhizinski book, you know, the Grand Chestboard, break up Russia, isolate China.

And that way, world hegemony is perpetually achieved. I think that was really what was driving it or driving it all along. Elza says, Euroactive. Europeans risk getting only a folding share at the table in any future Ukraine peace talks. But once they, more than, likely be on the menu, like Borel once said, and where will Ukraine be? I think I think you're absolutely right. I mean, I've got no comment to make on that, other than to say that you're making some very, very good points there. Double down says six-gen aircrafts are they game changers? Well, I wouldn't know. This is absolutely not my field. I am not a military strategist or

engineer. Zaryl. Zaryl can comment. How Zariel can comment? Gariel, if you can comment. You can tell us more. If you hear that question, just maybe put something down in the comments because Zaryl will know if they're game changers. I believe they are.

I probably are. I'm sure they are. But as I said, I'm not an expert on this. Sparky says, Tiffany's mom, Maria Maple's first cousin worked for me 20 years ago. He was brilliant. Marla, sorry, Marla Maples, his first cousin, worked for me 20 years ago.

He was brilliant and said Marla was even more brilliant. maybe Tiffany inherited brilliance. Absolutely. Nico says, I was going to ask you about Paschignan, not doing anti-Russian moves since Russia included CSTO in their nuclear shield, but then he asked to join the European Union. Well, exactly. I mean, you know, he's in a situation where he's in a confrontation with Azerbaijan,

and he's still got a very difficult relationship with Turkey, and we all know what a dangerous man, Erdogan is. and he's sawing the branch on which Armenia rests. He's choosing the wrong allies, and he's doing this obsessively. This is proof, if you're like. A perfect case study of the Kissinger principle that to be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be its ally is fatal.

For Armenia, this risks becoming fatal. Sparky says, will Erdogan betray Israel by saturating Syria with Turkish army peacekeepers? With Erdogan's betrayal, not a flaw, it's a feature, not ideal, but it may bring a semblance of stability to Syria. Well, I think what it's more likely to do, I'm afraid, is that it's going to result in the chaos and instability in Syria spreading to Turkey. I think that's the first thing I would say about that. But about a clash between Turkey and Israel, it's looking. increasingly likely because it looks increasingly as if the Turks and the Israelis cannot agree on how to divide Syria between them.

I'm sorry to put it as bluntly as that, but that seems to me the position. Denis Cervantes, thank you for that super sticker. Thank you very much. And the final super chat from Florina Plavetti says the UAE and Saudi Arabia are cooperating with Russia and China themselves as BRICS members. would they try to persuade Assad to get out of its cooperation with Russia and Iran? Well, they basically wanted to bring Syria back into the Arab fold. And they basically told Assad, look, we are we are friends, we're still friends of the West, listen to what we're saying.

We're the people who can persuade you to reintegrate with the West. And the way that you do it, is by listening to our advice, not to the Iranians. Now, I don't mean to suggest, by the way, that Egypt, and it was Egypt, not Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE were acting with bad faith. It's just that their advice wasn't that good. All right, Alexander. Wait, one more question from John Woods. Based on the eventful last few months for the Ukraine war,

where do you now think the post-war Russian-Ukraine border will most likely be? west of Kiev. That's all I'm going to say. Sparky says, build a better world with bricks. And Sanchez-Ralaxo says Trudeau is still PM. Mark Carney is being installed. I've heard. I agree.

Bad things about Mark Carney. I don't know. Well, we know him very well in Britain because he was formerly head of the bank of England, by the way, despite being Canadian. So, I mean, he's absolutely part of the same progressive, globalist, Democrat, Labour,

world that you can imagine Trudeau himself belonging to. He's perhaps not as obnoxious. That's all I will say. Matthew says, deploying EU troops is the trap that they want to set. Will the USA let it happen? No, I don't think they will.

I think the Trump and his people understand that very well. I mean, Samuel Charris, basically, who is, you know, the Council of Foreign Relations is telling them absolutely don't let this happen. I mean, it would be an absolute disaster if it did happen. It is exactly a trap laid for the US. Of course, the Russians were saying, anyway, if you do that, if you're thinking of that,

then there is no peace because we, under no circumstances, will agree to European troops in Ukraine. All right. Fantastic questions. Fantastic guests. Thank you very much for everyone who joined us. on this live stream. Thank you to everyone that watched us on Odyssey, on Rockfin, on Rumble,

on YouTube, the durand.com, as well. Big shout out to our locals community. And thank you to our moderators. Thank you for everything that you're doing. Alexander Podachev says, why is Putin allowing foreign heads of state to visit the green shirt?

Well, good question, actually. Good question. Why not? Why not? As I said, what harm? does he do? The more interaction with Olensky, the more the Olensky curse gets passed around. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, we will, we will add the live stream there. That's it. Follow Alex's channel. Links are in the description box down below. I'll let them as a pinned comment.