9/21/26: Houthis Bomb Saudi Capital, Yanis Varoufakis On Moscow Strikes And Petro Dollar Collapse

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Lisa, tell them about our new show. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie To Me. I'm Lexi Juanio, we're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa de Julio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions, and at this point in my food days, I've lived it all. Now in my 30s, being the founder of new shoes, good taste is my business. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator, and host of Scam Goddess Podcast. The True Crime Comedy Podcast, all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Each week I bring on an amazing guest. Ooh, I scammed them. What? I could talk to you for an hour. You're a generational yapper, like me. That's why I had to make yapping a job. And now you can catch full episodes of my show on YouTube. 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We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff. Give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. Have no easy show for everybody today, go to your personal. Did we do a lot going on with regards to the Iran War? The Houthis were able to strike the main international airport in Riyadh. Trump is apparently at a complete loss as to what to do about the situation we've got new inside details there. Yannis Fairfuck is going to join us this morning to talk both about the latest with regards to Ukraine. They launched a massive drone attack on Moscow. And we're also going to get them to break down the global bond sell off, which has been incredibly consequential here and around the world. The U.S. apparently almost started a war with China based on a faulty chat GPT AI report. 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If you're listening to podcast, please, please share this episode with a friend. But as Crystal said, so the Trump indecisiveness is really kind of one of the major headline stories. This morning, let's put this up here on the screen breaking early this morning from the New York Times. Basically, they say Trump gets caught in a dilemma over a Saudi plea for military help. So obviously, the major headline story of the last two weeks has been the extraordinary Houthi military campaign against these Saudi-backed forces in Yemen, where they were not only were able to seize strategic port of mocha, but they were also able to take control of the entire Bab al-Mandab straight. By taking control of the straight, they have effectively forced Saudi Arabia to no longer be able to move any oil via their port of Yanbu. And instead, they have to move it through the Suez Canal, which is incredibly costly and very inefficient. In addition to that, Iranian forces, apparently from Iraq, were able to dismantle at least partially parts of the Saudi East to West Pipeline. So they're putting significant pressure on Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia long has held the United States. It's made military backer, right? We'll remember that one of the main reasons we were even involved in the first place, in the first Gulf War, was to protect Kuwait and stop it from Iraqi invasion. But we also had all those U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. So it's a decades-long military relationship. An MBS has been lighting Trump up on the phone ever since this prolonged Houthi campaigns. Like you need to help me, you need to help me, you said you were going to help me. This is your whole thing, you're the empire. We've bought hundreds of billions of dollars of your military equipment, like where you're number one ally. You're supposed to preserve freedom of navigation. And apparently, Trump was in Camp David over the weekend for a major military deliberation over whether they should go in and strike Yemen. Now, why anyone thinks that it's even going to work this time? I don't even know, considering how many times we have tried to bomb Yemen, bomb the Houthis. They were under sustained bombardment for almost 12 years. The United States alone, I think it's like Operation Rising Lion or something like that back in 2025. Total disaster, Biden famously, we bombed the Houthis. Did it work? No. Are we going to still keep doing this? Yes. So this is multiple presidents now who continue to try the bomb strategy. And Trump was apparently convinced to do it. Trump had met with advisors on Saturday, told them he did not favor strikes. But after speaking with the Saudi Crown Prince, reversed himself and told the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against Houthis. Midday Sunday, the president appeared to have reversed himself again. There would be no U.S. airstrikes. Despite the fact that the bombs were literally being loaded on the planes. At the time, the strike packages and all of that had been drawn up. And just to show you how real this was, we'll put A3 on the screen. All of the signs were lining up yesterday for major escalation. The U.S. mission to the UAE in addition to multiple of the embassies across the region put out similar statements basically saying due to tensions in the Middle East. The security environment remained complex. Americans should exercise heightened vigilance and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures. And travel disruptions, this was UAE, this was Saudi Arabia, this was Kuwait, Bahrain, all of the entire Gulf. In addition, the U.S. virtual embassy in Tehran basically said all Americans need to leave. And it appears that Trump at the very last second decided to pull back. And this shows the vice that he is in. He can't protect America's allies. Saudi Arabia without risking Iranian and Houthi backlash to even further constrain the price of oil. All this man cares about at this point is the price of oil. And you and I know at the same time, he also cares about not admitting defeat. Admitting defeat would immediately lower the price of oil and immediately get things flowing throughout the region. But the Iranians are like, yeah, for that to happen, there's a whole list of conditions which is complete and total surrender. And in addition to that, we're in a worse strategic position than we are. So we either abandon Saudi. That's one option which is bad, of course, you know, just strategically for the empire. But then the other part is that we continue on this course. The factlessness and we go forward trying some stupid Houthi bombing campaign and still diminish the amount of emissions. And now there's remember the United States currently in a ceasefire from 2025 onward with the Houthis. And if that were to light up again, now the United States Navy, which is trying to do some convoy system, through the straight of Hormuz, oops, now we got a whole other straight that we got to start worrying about and protect shipping. We just don't have the munitions for it. Yeah, that's exactly right. And that's apparently what Trump ultimately decided is that we are not in any position to open up an entirely new front of this war because we already are failing on the front that we have opened. So right now, these are attacking, obviously, they're trying to, you know, take all of Yemen, they're attacking Saudi Arabia. And put a one up on the screen. I mean, this is pretty extraordinary to see. This is the main international airport in Riyadh that was successfully struck by the Houthis. You can see the black smoke rising there. You can see the fire. I can't even imagine. Like, can you imagine if they hit DCA right here? I mean, or even, you know, Dallas, that would be such a shock to the system. And so these Gulf nations have felt very insulated from any sort of regional instability. That's a whole basis of their economies, both in terms of tourism and as destination for global capital. All of that has been completely rocked. And so look, the Saudis also were foolish in, according to the reporting, encouraging us at the beginning to get into this war with Iran. Oh, we've got your back. We want you to go ahead because they see Iran, of course, as a regional rival. They wanted Iran to be put in check. And so this is sort of, you know, them having to deal with the fruits of their own decision making and pushing Trump in this direction as well. But it's a wild situation. You know, right now the Houthis are not attacking American ships. We have had this ceasefire that has taken hold after we basically had to admit defeat. Okay, we're not going to defeat you even though we've been bombing you for years at this point. This is not taking you out. So we're going to have to come to some sort of accommodation. So Trump was persuaded for a moment to undermine that deal and blow that up and open up this new front and that at the very last second. And after all of these warnings, he is like, oh my God, we just, we just can't do this. So there is no strategy like any concept that there's some 40 chest going and we're going to squeeze them and we're going to wait them out and this was what's going to happen. No, he's flying by the sea to his pants because after day two of this war when the entire Iranian regime did not collapse, he has been out of ideas and desperately scrambling to try to figure something out on the fly ever since then. Yeah, he's used to a situation where we could do this and there'd be relatively little costs. But when you control the Bob Almondevs straight, you said shoot at U.S. forces. I mean, at that point, that's actually a secondary concern. We could probably shoot all those down. What if they just shoot at every single ship that's moving through Bob Almondev, oil will probably go to $200 barrel, like it's over at that point. And that's the nightmare scenario. There's exactly why he continues to be stuck in this. Remember too though, there are secondary consequences. At some point in the future, or in the past, Saudi Arabia had denied the United States use of its airspace and of its bases to be able to launch a preemptive attack on Iran without getting some of the requisite protection that they want. Well, are they going to do that now? Because they're screwed. I mean, they're in a situation where they are genuinely under attack from their oil infrastructure, their ram coca facility, east-west pipeline. I mean, the entire deal in Saudi Arabia, because Saudi is not the UAE. It is not Qatar. The tiny population, much of slave Indians and Pakistanis doing all their work for them. They have tens of millions of people. Like there actually is like a Saudi middle class, I guess, if you want. And for the entire deal is a kingdom, they get to do whatever they want. Like the house of sound, they get the monaco and the yachts and all of that in exchange. We all get to have a normal, like, pretty stable lifestyle. And we also, you know, we're hyper-religious freaks, the wahabis they get paid. It's a deal that we all make in society. Well, if the security breakdown of that goes apart and you start to live in a world where the kingdom, the house of sound, you know, all of their deals and their hated deals with the enemy and the West and all of that. If that starts, it's not paying dividends in your airport. I mean, your airport being on fire is insane. The fuel depot, like you said, here at Washington, Reagan airport, if the fuel depot there is getting lit up by drones, it's a tenelarm fire. Like it's, that is, that breaks. It's kind of like what's happening in Moscow. I mean, that's completely changes the strategic position of the, like the whole situation. So let's go to A2 now on Iran. This is Trump spoke with the tray, tray angst over at Fox News, while a lot of this was all in the air about a potential attack. And he's just right back to, he's like, oh, maybe I'll just blow up the entire country. Let's take a listen. >> Yeah, hey guys, good morning. I just spoke with President Trump about the situation with Iran. He tells Fox News, he's in a deciding mode and that very big things are going to be happening in the not so distant future. The president described the current choices on the table as wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal. He added, my question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up, they better behave. Now I asked the president about the UN General Assembly this week. Iranian president Masood Pzezhkin is going to be there. And I asked if he'd be open to meeting with the Iranian leader and he said he'd probably be open to it. But describe this weekend as no different from any other weekend, despite these alerts that went out to US citizens. >> Right, and that was in the middle of the war planes, literally having the bombs loaded onto them. This is like, and this is the point, dude, where you can't even keep any of this stuff secret because they tried launching the secret attack as we'll all recall and what happened. Like a million Americans were stranded in the Middle East, unable to get out, so they have to put out the alerts. And the Iranians themselves remain very much on high alert. Let's put A5 on the screen, this is from their own broadcasting. They said the general staff, according to intelligence received, the United States has once again decided with the green light from certain regional countries to resume actions against Iran during a joint meeting in a European nation. We don't even know exactly what that is alluded to, but it's very likely that there at least had been some briefing or something about the potential attack on Yemen, considering its consequences to the global economy. And we're about to talk about Ukraine with the situation with Yannis, but the constraint on the diesel market at this point, it's just not going anywhere. And you know, this is the problem when you break apart the entire US energy or the entire global energy infrastructure, even if things were to end, like when I say gas would go down, it would go down to $3.84 a gallon. Like it's the diesel price, it's not coming back down to, I don't even know what it was before the war. See, before the war launched $369 a gallon, a year ago, so it was manageable. Obviously, the spread between that and gasoline, gasoline at that time is only $3.18. And so the spread right now, remaining where it at, the refinery capacity, the amount of refineries in Russia that have all gone offline. And the general price increases that we're seeing, you know, the $1 million a day, it is so insane. And we're going to talk about that later with diesel, but it's mentioned just right now, it is literally costing these, it's literally costing $26 a barrel. It just to charter the ships to get these things from the United States to Asia. And that's just because of the constraints from Bob Almondev to the straight of Hormuz and the general risk premium in demand. It's just craziness. Yeah. And we'll talk more later in the show, but a big piece of this is refinery capacity. You know, the US has not been building new refineries. A lot of that capacity shifted to the Middle East and also to Russia. And that's not working out well for us. But Saga is forgotten. We do have some secret weapons in this war that were just unveiled to the public. This is A6. Let's take a look. We just got the pleasure and the privilege of getting a tour of the Pentagon. And what a cool experience. We see all the men and women here who are serving this great nation. I don't think there is any greater commitment to sacrificing those who are willing to live, die and fight for their country. So I think it's you guys who etched your names in history as you fight for and allow us in this country to have that freedom where we can prosper and be happy and be the great nation that we are. So a deep personal thank you from myself, my brother and all of our fellow Americans. Each one of you matter. Take this moment and be proud of yourselves for what you do. This is the greatest country in the world truly. We are blessed to be born here, come here and we should never take that for granted. That's what God created us for is to lift each other up in the hard moments, to be there for each other in the hard moments and to come together as a collective and fight for good. That's why this country was formed. We should never forget that. True. That's firing. No, yeah, the Department of War, Hyperio with Jake and Logan Paul there. I mean, what can you say at this point, like we're a joke of a nation. We should just let the AI overlords take us over except they're about to get us a nuclear war with China. Yeah, I'll look into that later, yeah, that's true, which is just let the Chinese take us over. It was just like, so you could not make this up, like you really genuinely couldn't script it for a movie. It would be too preposterous. A friend of mine has a great take on this. He says, this is acts, there's a lot of talk on the right about third worldism. And then he says, this is actual third worldism, by the way, Trump is our first third world president. Pugelistic fights on the lawn of the national palace, appointing family to do diplomacy, self enriching bias scams from elected office, losing an unpopular war, but making time for celebrity ceremony. And by the way, when we say celebrity, we mean like the D minus tier, where most people in polite society are like humiliated, these people are filthy rich and apparently represent the general taste of our population, and we would all be better off if it didn't exist. So yeah, I mean, that's, that is the reality of this situation. I'd also note from my friends in the Pentagon press court, that is the press room where that happened where they have not held a briefing in like, I don't even know, 50 days or something like that. It also comes at a time. This didn't even rate make the show just to show you where things are. In the old days, we would have been able to ask the Pentagon press about this. The Washington Post had a blockbuster report that more Americans have died in the Iran more than they're letting on. This would obviously be a crazy revelation because, I mean, I've even said this on the show, it seems very difficult to assume that actual deaths could be covered up. And the reason why is that we have a system in the United States where like within 24 hours of death, the family has to get notified and once the family gets notified, you know, people post on Facebook, they have to have, we're not Russia, like you can't cover up whole funerals and all this stuff and take things down at least not yet. And so for that, you know, that report, I was honestly stunned. And then, you know, to have this situation happen like in the Pentagon press briefing room where it's like some hype reel that they're putting out, it's just humiliating. There's just no way around it. Like these antics, look, if you're doing it while you're beating somebody's ass, fine. But there's so many instances like this where they're trying to pull out the ton of 2024 greatest hits. They have Pat McAfee who literally dominates all of our airwaves and he's like, oh, when you hear, like during a flyover, McAfee had this take where he's like, we're during when the NFL, maybe a college football game, you hear that sound running, you're asked better, he's like, you hear that sound, you're asked better be running. And it was like, dude, it ate 2002, like the Iranians heard that sound and they shot the plane down. Yeah. You know, and we had to go rescue Mr. Bravo, apparently, like that, it's not, we're not the big bad military anymore, like we're getting our asses kicked literally right now. And so that's why, you know, if anything, this is a, this is it. is actually a good emblem, I think, for, also just remember, how many times we freak out about all these leftoid, ridiculous influencers in the Biden press room and their stupid little SNL skits and whatever, they're trans topless and it's like, okay, well, this is just as humiliating, okay? So sorry. >> Hyper online, presidency, obsessed with influencers. Remember all those videos of kid rock and RFK juniors? I mean, Shuman Duffy, who's the head of the Department of Transportation, filmed an entire reality show while he was supposed to be doing his job. I mean, it's just completely bonkers. And then meanwhile, Hegseth, who is literally just like a Fox News weekend TV host, is out there talking in the troops and pumping them up with a bunch of religious rhetoric framing this as some sort of freaking holy war. Like, it's so ridiculous and absurd, you have to laugh, but it's also just deeply disturbing the way that they approach all of this. And this, it goes back to what Trump told Tucker reportedly, when Tucker was expressing all this, it's like, I don't think this is going to go well, you should do this and here's the risk, etc. Trump's like, don't worry, it's going to work out. Tucker's like, well, why? Because it always does. That was the rationale. That was the entire rationale. That is how unserious these people are, how little they think about the consequences for anyone in this country around the world, etc. So anyway, perfect emblem of exactly their approach to global affairs, I guess. Yep, that's right. All right, let's get to Ukraine. Lisa, we should tell them about our new show. Oh my god, Lexi, we have a new podcast. I'm Lexi, you want to wear two bus friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. And at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all. I'm not going to get any worse than fighting. That is wild. I learned that about you today. And I've always got something to say. If men were just honest about this, there would be so much more peace in the world. We're going to talk about dating, relationships, beauty, getting older, and a little wiser. We're best friends, but we don't always agree. Because you told us how accommodating you are. Obviously, I would do what I think I could do to fight the fight, but there's only so much fight I can fight. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Lie. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I don't really care. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman, Angel Jaretana. Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonnell. And we're the hosts of the artist on artist on artist on artist podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast, we're each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is faux journal. I don't know, if you guys heard of faux journaling. Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So you're so we don't like to use that word anymore. Okay. A panel of New Yorker cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No. I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm I'm seeing a a reading of Sadako in the thousand paper cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland bookstore. 14. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of zero doc 30. No way. I have to come to the last bookstore though. Kim Catrol is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. He winked on Halloween. I hear you'll get the elbows here. You've never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the I heard radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lacey Mosley author actor standup comedian creator and host of scam goddess podcast. The true crime comedy podcast all about robbery fraud and those who practice it. Each week I bring on incredible guests like Conan O'Brien, Iowa Debris, Lamor and Morris and Nicole Buyer. Ooh I scammed them. What? I could talk to you for hour. You're a generational yapper like me. And the scams run the gamut. I'm talking about scams from the 1800s all the way up to today. I also warn you and keep you safe against scammers. Call your grandparents. Tell your parents to stop clicking on links. Please. If there's a scam, I'm here to protect you. And I'm also here to laugh with you. So if you like fun, if you like comedy and you like learning and protecting yourself from criminals, start listening to scam goddess on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Joining us now is our great friend Yannis Burr, Focus. He is the economist politician. And as he said, a self-described bullshit artist, although we do not think that is true at all. Thank you very much sir for joining us. Well, thank you so much for being so forthcoming. All right, we're going to go ahead and start here with the situation in Ukraine. I know that you've been tracking so much of this situation closely and it has major economic impacts for all of us to start here with the first, which is a huge Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, which included targeted strikes towards oil infrastructure and specifically diesel refineries. We have some breaking news this morning of President Trump reacting to this where he apparently spoke with President Zelensky and begged him to stop these strikes. Yannis, what do you make of Ukraine's now ability to project? Strikes, drone strikes, including cruise missile strikes, deep not only into Russia, into the capital, to strike so much of their backbone of their economy with diesel. What does this heighten the stakes to and potentially lead us to some sort of troubling situation? Well, almost four years since the beginning of this all-out war, we ended up in an aerial stalemate. In the same way that in the First World War, in the Great War, there was a stalemate of trench warfare. Two sides had stopped and they were just throwing bombs and mortars at one another. Now we have an aerial version of that. You mentioned this barrage of missiles and particularly drones fired by Ukraine against Russia, but if you read the newspapers two days ago, it was the opposite. It was the jet-powered drones coming from Russia that was devastating Ukraine. So I think this is pretty symmetrical. What is not symmetrical is what's happening on the ground. In the Donbass in particular, which is the number one priority of Vladimir Putin. They are very painfully with huge human costs. The Russian army is steadily making encroachments. It's only a sliver of the Donbass that Vladimir Putin has not gotten. There's no doubt he won't stop before he gets all of the Donbass at least. One hopes and prays that the Europeans and the Americans and the Canadians are going to start having the conversation that we have refused to have so far. Because let's face it, NATO. In particular, Europe has no plan for peace in Ukraine. If you ask them what kind of peace they envisage, they only talk about the defeat of Russia, which is not going to happen. And they have no plan for war. Because getting the Ukrainians to keep hoping that they will take back Crimea when there is no chance in hell of that, or in heaven, it doesn't matter. So we have neither a plan for peace nor a plan for war. Meanwhile, the people are dying on both sides. Infrastructure is being destroyed. Donald Trump is right to worry that in addition to his folly in Iran, this war is pushing up. He is restricting the supply of diesel, the supply of petrol, of gas as you call it in the United States. And that has the tremendous effects on his mega base in the Midwest. So this is where we are. This is what happens when you start the war without a plan, and you don't have a plan for war, and you don't have a plan for peace. Let's go and put B3 up on the screen. You mentioned some of the Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Those are the financial times. Right up, they say, Russia's new air campaign seeks to destroy the Ukrainian economy. They talk in particular about successful strikes on the steel industry. They have a quote here as of today, Ukraine does not have a steel industry, anymore. That's according to the head of the CEO's office at Metinvest, a steel mining company that owned two of the three plants that were targeted in the recent attacks. What is the reality of the war economy in Ukraine? How able are they to sustain their current efforts? There's no doubt that there's an asymmetry. The Russian economy, and this is the great paradox. The Russian economy over the last few years is strengthened as a result of militarianism, of the war economy. The war economy allowed Vladimir Putin in his government, a lot more control of the macro economy than he had before the war. This is tragic but true. In sharp contrast, the Ukrainian economy has gone backwards, as a result of this war. It's an asymmetrical war. There's no doubt about it. Russia is far more powerful and can inflict a lot more damage, has inflicted a lot of damage, has taken 20% of Ukraine in territory. And it's actually the greatest problem that Ukraine is facing, is not just the steady bombardment of its infrastructure, it's lack of labor, lack of human resources, both in the military sector and in the civilian sector. But I don't think that either side is going to throw its collective hands up in the air to surrender because of the economic damage that is being done, or the damage to its infrastructure, or the damage to its oil industry. Sadly, fortunately, unfortunately, depending on your own ethical and political disposition, this work can go on for a very long time. What I think is going to settle it is the usual thing, these boots on the ground. So for instance, I can envisage a situation where once he gets the hall of Dombas, steeped in blood, of course, put in declaring a unilateral ceasefire, I can envisage that. I cannot see what the Ukrainians could do as a government with its own agency. Just wait for the Russians to declare a unilateral ceasefire. The blame for this continued attrition, which has repercussions for all of us, also the global south. Look at fertiliser prices, the price of food, the price of energy, and so on everywhere, from Bangladesh to Ethiopia. The blame, I think, goes primarily upon Europeans, who are gungho about this Ukrainian war. They keep egging Zelensky and his government on. Back in April of 2022, a few months, a couple of months after Putin unleashed his invasion of Ukraine, the two sides had approached a deal. It was almost a dumb thing, and it was particularly the British of the Europeans, who told Zelensky to unsign this. You have to win this war. But we Europeans, we are European governments, not the people of Europe. We've been absolutely irresponsible, because we're egging Ukraine to go on and on, but we're not prepared to put boots on the ground to support them, and we're not prepared even to give them the money that they need. And the reason for that is, of course, that the European Union is bankrupt. If you look at the European Union budget, the budget of the European Commission, it's under severe strain, and you've got countries like France facing a general election and a presidential election, and you can see that it is impossible to imagine the French government in six, eight months, agreeing to pay more to the European Union budget, so that Ukraine gets more support. So it's an old-run disaster. Yana, this is what's so difficult. Here in the United States, everything you're laying out is well within the bounds of our discussion. You can correct me if I'm wrong. From what I see, this is non-starter, even talking this way, in much of the higher echelons of the European Union. In fact, I believe we had, let's put B5 up here on the screen, where Emanuel Macron is now calling an emergency G7 meeting, or energy prices spike, Russian hybrid attacks mount, or at least what they're claiming, are Russian hybrid attacks on these German-like power plants. We also had some reports out of Estonia, for example, put B4, please on the screen, where it appears that the Russian or the FSB has put some sort of travel restriction and curfew on Russia's border with Estonia. Again, very difficult to suss out the reality of much of this, but how exactly can Europe and the EU begin to grapple with this reality? If the reality has not been ever present now for almost four years, I mean, almost since the outbreak of the war, it was very obvious. This is where things were going to go. And despite kind of the escalation and the rationing up, it appears that they're even more gung-ho to support Zelensky despite the fact that they can celebrate a strike on, you know, Russian oil refineries. They need to grapple with, in fact, the Ukraine just has no steel industry now. At all. That last part doesn't seem to like register whatsoever in any of the capitals or in Brussels. You see, the tragedy is that our great and good leaders, Manuel Macron, in France and the Burnham and Britain, fit of murder in Germany and so on, when they talk about the war in Ukraine, when they prognosticate the eruption of a war on the soil of EU member states or NATO member states, when, you know, Macron called various politicians to the Elize, to the palace, to the presidential palace and gave them a briefing that put the fear of hell into the people who attended. When they do all that and when they speak those words, sadly and tragically, they're not thinking about the Ukrainians. They are not thinking about the people who are actually suffering on the ground. They have their own agendas. Let's take them one by one, shall we? Manuel Macron is a lame duck president. He's very keen to do whatever it takes to stop the Marguillaume from succeeding in the Elize. He has a huge problem with the budget, the national budget, which is now exploding. It's about five and a half percent of GDP in terms of the deficit, when the rules of the EU stipulate a maximum of three percent. His own centrist minions, who should be positioning themselves now to run in the election against the Le Pen, are nowhere to be seen in the opinion polls. So to him, it is functional. It is in his interests, to create a lot of noise, ruckus. In order to hide his political and economic, how shall I put it, the failures? Now, similarly in Germany, Volkswagen can also sell cars. And they can't sell cars because they haven't invested in modern technologies, in batteries, and so on over the last 15, 16 years. So what are they doing? They are shifting production lines so to Ryan Medal to produce tanks, leopard tanks that the Ukrainians don't even want because they are death traps. It is functional to the interest of the German government to warmonger, to scare people to death, so that they accept increased expenditure on Ryan Medal to build tanks that nobody wants, because this is the only way they can maintain some industrial jobs to decelerate the pace of the industrialization. I can tell you a similar story about Andy Burnham. So in the end, these people are going into a world-mongering frenzy, for reasons that have nothing to do with Ukraine. Let's go and put B6 up on the screen. So Zelensky says he's meeting with Trump at the UN General Assembly this week. He says that they are going to talk about a peace plan. The peace track, he says, is our number one priority. Their ideas for de-escalation steps for addressing fundamental security issues were working together with the American team and are ready to take really serious steps. He also applauds Trump for signing the Lindsey Graham Russian sanctions bill into law. He says we all concur. There must be peace. If we were actually serious, if Trump was actually serious about doing what he promised would be done before even day one of his presidency and bringing this war to a conclusion, what is the sort of deal that could be struck at this point? What is in the realm of realistic possibility? What sort of things would have to be given up on the Ukrainian side of the ledger in particular? Well, given that Donald Trump is not particularly interested in Europe or in Ukraine. He's far more interested in China. He's far more interested in the Middle East. He's interested mostly in his ballroom, Janice, to be honest with you. Yes, all of that. Ventures and all that. The key is Europeans. The Europeans should open up channels of communication with Vladimir Putin. However, while he might be, since you don't have a plan to defeat him, you've got to have a plan to find some kind of peace deal with him that will leave everybody dissatisfied. But it will be far better than the never-ending war in Ukraine. The United States, I think, would have gone along with that. My advice to the Trump administration, of course, they're not going to listen to my advice, of course. That's not such a bad thing. Because if they did, then I would have an existentialist crisis. Setting that aside, my advice could be, I talked to the Germans, the French and the British, and told them to stop just pushing the envelope further and further into the future. There has to be a comprehensive agreement between NATO and Russia, on a common peace and security agenda for Eurasia. I think that Vladimir Putin would respond positively to this. It would give him a way out. He would be able to tell his own oligarchs, his own colonists. Look what I've done. I've invaded Ukraine and And now what Russia has been calling for is the early 1990s. A comprehensive peace and agenda security agreement has been sort of railroaded. What would that include? Well, it should include, on the one hand, some deal regarding the Donbass, which is the 80s ground zero of this war. This is the main battlefield. I think that some constructive ambiguity should be included in this in the sense that official sovereignty should not be handed over to Russia. But at the same time, there should be an agreement that there is freedom of movement. But the area is controlled by Russia. Look, we've done this before. Think of a good Friday agreement that ended the troubles in Northern Ireland. It was emissity with effectively joint sovereignty over Northern Ireland between London and Dublin. Northern Ireland stays formally within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But Dublin has a say. And the two communities that were at logheads who were killing each other and blowing each other up now share local government, as well as regional government, on a 50/50 basis. So imagine such a deal for the Donbass. As for Crimea and other areas, well, that could be kicked into the long grass. It could be given to a committee of the United Nations to discuss some of the next 50 years. Like United Nations is continuing to discuss a solution for the problem in Cyprus, closer to my home. Well, none of us are happy with this. Here in Greece or in Turkey or in Cyprus. But at least people are not dying every day. So that could be the beginning of a comprehensive treaty between NATO, the West and Russia. That will include checks and balances when it comes to AI enhanced technologies for killing people, rolling back the nuclear threat, which the United States successive governments allowed to become a cleaner present danger with the ending of the anti-balistic missile treaty and so on. So for me, that is what you do, even if the only thing you want to do is to reduce inflation. Because having the Fed increasing interest rates is not going to do anything to lessen the inflation burden on Europe people when the price of oil is growing up, because the fine is there being blown up in Russia or in the Ukraine. So end the war with Iran and the war in the Ukraine. And we start looking after the vast majority of people out there, whether they are in the United States or in Russia or in the Ukraine for that matter. I'm Lexi, you want to? We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Di Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. That is wild. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Lier. Listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I don't really care. Each week, I bring on incredible guests like Conan O'Brien, Iowa Deppery, Lamor and Morris, and Nicole Buyer. Ooh, I scammed them. What? I'm talking about scams from the 1800s, all the way up to today. Tell your parents to stop clicking on links, please. So if you like fun, if you like comedy, and you like learning and protecting yourself from criminals, start listening to Scam Goddess on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Scam Goddess! Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists podcast. The Improvized Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. What I try to do is foe journal. I don't know, I think I sort of foe journaling. Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So you're-- so we don't like to use that word anymore. OK. No! I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako in the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audrement Donald at the Wonderland Book Store, 14. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland Book Store yesterday, and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way. We'll have to come to the last bookstore, though. Kim Katrol is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. He winks on Halloween. The eyelashes hit each other. Listen to artists on artists on artists. On the I heard radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's also-- while we have you talk about the bond situation, you can put your economist background to use for us. We've had tremendous amount of trouble deciphering it. Wall Street Journal actually helpfully wrote this. They say, why it's so hard to work out with the bond market is telling us that we figured we would ask you. What we can generally say is it seems like it's a chaotic situation. Doesn't seem to be good for the United States. Appears to be a pretty big failure on behalf of the Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, who's been single-handedly trying to push these yields down. But overall, Jonas, what do you see by within the US bond market and what it tells us about both the conflict and the state of the global economy? Well, let me preface my general view on the bond market or the Treasury's market by saying that I'm astonished by the incompetence of Scott Besant. I actually, I never liked the guy, but I thought he was competent until very recently. This notion, the very notion that he's going to bring bond yields down by getting the impicune use Treasury, his Treasury, which is running a huge deficit, to purchase long-dated bonds. I mean, you need to be an 80-year-old to know that that can't work. If a Fed were to buy treasuries, it could work. It would work. It has worked before. It would work again. But if I have huge debt to you, I cannot solve my debt problems by trying to borrow more to buy my debt from you. That, for me, is simply a no-brainer. And I really don't understand why he effectively shot himself in the foot doing this. Now, more generally, this is just my view about the bond market. Firstly, it's not the crisis. Come on, folks. Look, I was looking today this morning. I was looking at the equivalent data from this period in 2001, more or less the same yields. We had more or less the same inflation. We had more or less the same overnight Fed rate. OK, you had the dot-com bubble bursting soon after that. But it's nothing unprecedented. All this talk that the United States federal government is going to go bankrupt. Now, you have to be utterly unschooled in basic public finance to think that. Because your country, not only do you enjoy the exorbitant privilege that is, you know, when I'm here in Athens, when I put gas in my car, I create demand for the US dollar, even if no American companies involved in the gas that goes into my car, right? So you still have the exorbitant privilege. And you are printing the currency in which you and the rest of the world are boring. You can't go bankrupt. What can happen is you can have an inflation power, right, which may lead to a precipitous decline in the dollar. Well, to begin with, this is an optimization that supposedly wants to reduce the value of the dollar. So that wouldn't be a catastrophe on its own. Inflation would be a problem. But when you got cost-push inflation, because of the idiotic group. war in Iran. Price of oil goes up. That's cost-push inflation. Now, how is this going to be ameliorated by increasing interest rates? I just want. The only thing you can do to push inflation down through monetary policy is destroy businesses by increasing interest rates. And then you're going to have another problem. You will have destroyed output capacity, your capacity to manufacture stuff. So, your supply will come down, and your aggregate supply will come down. And then, of course, that will make it much more difficult to constrain the rise in prices. So, you know, if this administration wanted to reduce inflation, and inflation is the only serious problem that your country is facing, not your country, but your financial smarts are facing. Then, end the war in Iran, end the war in Ukraine, find the models we've ended with China. Stop the idiotic spat, whether it's between the two big techs or tariffs or whatever, and move on. So, you referenced the position of the dollars, the world's reserve currency, the so-called exorbitant privilege, which is partly undergirded by the petro-dollar, so-called petro-dollar, which also reference when you're talking about filling, putting gas in your car here, sort of undergirding that financial system. Is there any risk that the dynamics of the Iran war serve to undercut the stability or the longevity of the petro-dollar system? Well, the petro-dollar is dying, and it will die. And it will die because of electrification. As we speak, 85% of Pakistani families are no longer connected to the electricity grid, because they all have Chinese solar panels and invertebrates and Chinese batteries. Same in Ethiopia. It's going to happen in your country, too. We are going to electrify and turn to solar and turn to renewables, whatever Donald Trump says. And therefore, the petro-dollar aspect of the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar is almost gone. We'll in the next 10-15 years ago were gone completely. However, that doesn't mean that the reserve currency status of the dollar, the exorbitant privilege, as I called it before, is going to go. Because if you are, as we speak, if you are a German manufacturer or a Japanese manufacturer or a Korean manufacturer, and you're exporting, you're exporting to the United States primarily, and you're importing dollars. What do you do in your dollars in Korea, or in Germany, or in Japan, or for that matter in China, they still have four and a half trillion dollars worth of savings. Well, you have to take it to Wall Street, in order to buy federal debt, treasuries, or to buy real estate, or whatever, or some equities if you're allowed to. So that is what recycles the exorbitant power of the dollar. It's not so much the petro-aspect anymore. That was in the case of the case in the 1970s and 1980s, but that has been waning. There is another source of strength for the dollar that the Trump administration have been very keen to enhance, through the Genius Act, stablecoins. Every dime somebody buys tether effectively, they use money to buy US dollars, even though they're privately minted, and that is very dangerous for financial stability, but that's another matter. Then tether takes those that money and buys US treasures. So that's another way of recycling other people's money into the dollar system, and therefore maintaining American hegemony. Now, even the Chinese don't want to undermine the hegemony of the American dollar. The greatest supporter of the US dollar is China, because they have four and a half trillion dollars of savings. Now, if you have all your savings in, let's say, Swiss bank account, would you want to undermine the Swiss banking system? I don't think so. They're very smart the way they're doing it. What they're doing is they're creating in parallel, because they don't trust American politicians to know what's good for them and for American. What they're doing is they're creating their own financial network, their own financial system. It's like building a super highway, you know, eight lanes on each side, which is not much used. You know, if you look at Cambridge, the blockchain-based international payment system, it's magnificent compared to Swift. Swift is a terrible road full of potholes. It's a dollar road. The Chinese have a multi-lane highway, but nobody's using it. They don't want to use it themselves. They just have it there if needs be. If the United States try to squeeze them, if they try to, let's say, impose sanctions on them for buying Iranian oil as this administration claim they will be doing, but I don't think they will dare do it. Then they will start using the super highway that they've built, but they're reluctant. Also, as they're reluctant, the reserve currency status of the dollar is going to be present. My last question for you, Yannis, is President Xi is coming to our country September 23rd, 25th. There's a lot on the table. Some of it is AI. A lot of it will be about tariffs, and particularly, like you said, some sort of datant style policy. What are you looking for in that meeting? What do you think that the most interesting results could come from it and what's realistic also to expect? Well, I think it's a very simple game of chicken between the two sides. What the United States has, the cards, the strong cards, the aces of the United States, of the administration, is their capacity to reduce aggregate demand in China by blocking their exports to the United States, but also indirectly to Europe. Through tariffs, through various other means. And what the strong cards of the Chinese side are, of course, is rare metals and other products which are essential for the AI boom in the United States, for the military, procurement process and so on and so forth. So, you know, they are entering a room, each one of them carrying a big stick, a different big stick. And if they're smart, they're going to set the big sticks on the floor and find mutually advantageous agreement. That could be the ideal outcome for all of us. Yama Sparifakis, author, journalist, politician, and co-host of the Econoclast podcast, which I highly recommend, and which is so aptly named because you always bring a different perspective to things. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Pleasure. I'm Lexi Iwanyu, we're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Di Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions, and at this point in my foot, is I've lived it all. Hi, this is Kylie breakman, Angel Jaretana, Jeremy Colhane Cash McDonald, and we're the hosts of the artists on artists on artists on artists podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast were each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants and we do a little Halloween sometimes. You can, I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ooh, I scam them. What? Start listening to scam goddess on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Guaranteed Human.