Ericsson ($ERIC) podcast mentions

Timestamped Ericsson ($ERIC) mentions across our podcast corpus.

1. Marcus Ericsson will be driving the number 28 Honda in the historic Freedom 250 Grand Prix.

   Tonya J. Powers · The Fox News Rundown · From Washington: NIL in College Sports | Can Congress Fix the 'Free Agency' Crisis?’ · 2026-08-23

2. Marcus Ericsson will be driving the #28 Honda in the historic Freedom 250 Grand Prix.

   Tonya J. Powers · The Fox News Rundown · Evening Edition: Drivers and Fans Gearing Up for Washington D.C. Grand Prix · 2026-08-22

3. We've been speaking with IndyCar driver Marcus Ericsson. More after this.

   Tonya J. Powers · The Fox News Rundown · Evening Edition: Drivers and Fans Gearing Up for Washington D.C. Grand Prix · 2026-08-22

4. I hope you are ready for a lot of new fans because I think there's going to be a lot of people who are tuning in just to see this. It's such a novelty. It's so different from anything that we've done before in Washington, DC. The Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, DC this weekend. IndyCar driver Marcus Ericsson, thank you so much for joining the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition.

   Tonya J. Powers · The Fox News Rundown · Evening Edition: Drivers and Fans Gearing Up for Washington D.C. Grand Prix · 2026-08-22

5. Is that an accurate reading? Yeah, definitely. I think the most popular conception is that there's no such thing as talent. It takes 10,000 hours of so-called deliberate practice. This is effortful, cognitively engaged, error-correction-focused practice to become an expert in anything. This is based initially on the work, most prominently, of a man named Anders Ericsson. The original work was at a world-class music academy, and it studied 30 violinists. So a small study to start with, but the 10 best violinists, those who the instructors deemed capable of being international soloists, had spent on average 10,000 hours in deliberate practice by the age of 20. And the next 2 groups down, lesser. The first thing that raised my eyebrow about that paper was that there was no measure of variance included. So my question was, what was the range of this? Because I had read other expertise research, like in chess, where it took 11,053 hours on average for people to reach international master status, which is one down from grandmaster. But some people made it in 3,000 hours, and others were being tracked at 25,000, and they still hadn't made it. So you could have an 11,053 hours rule, but it didn't really tell you much about the reality of skill acquisition. And so that was the first thing that made me skeptical. And when I asked after that data, the responses I got were basically like, people were inconsistent on their retrospective accounts of how much practice they did, and we'll have better measures of variance when we have video diaries that people can keep. So the answer is that your data aren't very good. Like, lots of people face that problem, but they still have to include measures of variance. And then as I started to get into more research about skill acquisition, what I was realizing was that it was the rate of learning. So there was something underlying the 10,000 hours rule called the monotonic benefits assumption that basically meant that every person at the same level of skill should progress the exact same amount for the same hour of deliberate practice. And that turns out to be true essentially nowhere except in very simple perceptual motor skills.

   David Epstein · People I (Mostly) Admire · 35. David Epstein Knows Something About Almost Everything · 2026-08-15

6. Interesting point you mentioned is about, let's say, Europe lagging innovation. And, and it's true that if we just look at the stock markets, you know, if we— if you think about, let's say, the internet bubble, yeah, Europe was full of leaders, you know, uh, Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, British Telecom. It was full of, let's say, national champions, European champions. And this is not the case anymore. While we have ASML, we have STMicro, but for the rest, it's very disappointing. And here, if you dig a little bit into this, is that Europe has been very bad in terms of monetizing innovation, because actually many of the, let's say, the brightest ideas came from Europe. Many of the top researchers came from Europe, but then they were stolen by the US.

   Charles-Henri Monchau · Top Traders Unplugged · ALO37: Investing in the New World Order ft. Charles-Henry Monchau · 2026-08-12

7. It's like if development costs are zero, then people will do that. I mean, yeah, I don't know, do you guys remember like the early iPhone apps that hit, like the beer one or the fart app? If you imagine that in like, yeah, if you imagine that in '98 with, you know, with the Symbian mobile, you know, whatever, the OS from I think it was Ericsson or somebody, that would be impossible. You didn't need a team of like 50 people to develop develop a, like the, a beer thing for the BlackBerry. Right. So I think there's a similar type of thing that's happening. We're, you know, we really wanna be a part of that and we're gonna enable that. And if it like makes making, like, I think it'd still be a while before like making a robotaxi is like super, super easy. Yeah. But that'll happen.

   Kassar Younis · The a16z Show · Why Physical AI Is the Next Frontier | Applied Intuition · 2026-07-21

8. Hi, Steve Eisman here. On my weekly wrap, I try to both teach and convey information as objectively as possible. But in today's media, on any important story, if I read about it in a newspaper with a leftist slant, I'll get one depiction of the story. But if I read about it from a more conservative publication, I'll get a very different take. What's the news and what's opinion is increasingly hard to differentiate. That's why when I look into news events, I first go to Ground News. Ground News is my solution for getting to the facts of important stories, but also to see how left, right, and center are seeking to convey the same exact story. Take, for example, the headline Trump Treasury Secretary calls for single stock trading ban in Congress. To understand the story, I went to groundnews.com and clicked on that particular story headline. There I immediately saw 4 tabs: left, center, right, and bias comparison. When I clicked on the center tab, a series of headlines appeared, all from center-leaning sources. I could then click on any of those headlines and read the story at the source. The same happened when I clicked on the left tab and on the right tab. The bias comparison tab showed Ground News' own analysis of how all three political leanings conveyed the same exact story. I find the Ground News system enormously helpful because it allows me to easily separate the facts from opinions. I use Ground News and I recommend you try it out. Go to groundnews.com/reel to get 40% off their unlimited access Vantage subscription. That's groundnews.com/reel. Real, groundnews.com/real. And if you don't mind, use this link to get the discount so they know I sent you. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini in Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration blog, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini in Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, setup required, compatibility and availability varies, 18+. The banks kicked off earnings season. I'm going to share some thoughts on a bunch of the large banks that reported because they provide great insight into the state of the current credit cycle. IBM was down 25% on this news on Tuesday, its worst day ever, and it took the entire software sector down with it. Netflix reported. Netflix has lost its mojo. In the past, I have said, as the banks go, so goes the economy. Probably not this time. I'm starting to think that the entire future of the US economy hinges on the success or failure of AI. The potential issues in AI and in private credit will determine whether and when there will be a recession. Hi, this is Steve Eisman and this is another episode of The Weekly Wrap. This is for the week ending Friday, July 17th, 2026, but recorded Thursday night, July 16th, 2026. Before we get to the wrap, I would like to remind everyone about our move to Substack and explain the value add. Substack is an exciting community of like-minded investors and creators, and the conversations are incredibly dynamic. The Substack ecosystem is well established with a large variety of podcasters that I interact with regularly. As a free Substack subscriber, you will receive emails sent directly to you every time we release a new premium episode and a sneak peek preview of both the video and newsletter. You'll also have access to our notes and restacks. The link to join for free is in the description. Let me quickly flag what is on our premium Substack subscription. On Wednesday, July 15th, we released an interview with Boris Peeker, the biotechnology analyst at Jones Trading. We had an incredibly extensive discussion about the entire biotech landscape and future drug innovation. I think the biggest impact AI could do is reduce the probability of failure of a clinical study, particularly large clinical study. That would be extremely helpful, right? It was an amazing tour de force where we explored the vast world of biotech. I learned a ton. Next week on Wednesday, July 22nd, we will release an interview with recurring guest Ken Sahowski, the payments analyst at Autonomous. We discussed how AI and agentic AI are changing the entire payments landscape. The link for premium is in the description. And now for the wrap. On this week's wrap, we will have one, the war in Iran, of course, some more news about Circle and stablecoins. PayPal might be for sale. IBM reported a disastrous quarter. It actually pre-announced with terrible implications for the software sector. Elevance, UnitedHealthcare, GE Aerospace, and Netflix also reported. Banks reported giving a broad view of the economy and one mailbag. And here we go. In war news, the situation is escalating. The US and Iran are trading strikes and there is a dispute as to whether the strait is open. But it's pretty clear now that the strait is not open. Oil prices climbed above $80 and the 10-year climbed to almost 4.6%. Last week there were two major pieces of news with respect to Circle. As a reminder, Circle is the stablecoin company that went public in June of 2025. Circle creates stablecoins, a financial product that is trying to make inroads into the traditional payment systems. Circle is the second largest creator of stablecoins. Tether is the largest. On Tuesday, June 30th, there was some very negative news. Circle was down 17.5% that day because a consortium of companies including Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, and BlackRock unveiled their own stablecoin and stablecoin ecosystem. The second piece of news came out last Friday. 3 days later, Circle announced that it had received regulatory approval to become a trust bank. And on this news, the stock was up 5%. To understand its importance, you need to understand how Circle makes money. A Circle customer buys $1 worth of Circle stablecoin. Called USDC. Circle gives the customer a stablecoin, a USDC worth $1 that the customer can then use to pay for stuff. To preserve the value of the stablecoin, Circle takes the dollar and buys short-term US Treasuries, a security whose value does not, I repeat, does not fluctuate. Circle earns the interest on the Treasuries, and that is Circle's sole source of revenue today. One caveat: Circle doesn't actually physically buy the Treasuries. It puts it in a money market fund run by BlackRock, and BlackRock manages the money market fund and charges Circle 18 basis points. So Circle makes the interest on the Treasuries less the 18 basis points. The bank charter means that Circle can run its own money market fund and save the 18 basis points. Now, don't get me wrong. The bank charter is certainly a positive for Circle, but between the two pieces of news, the competition from the Visa Mastercard consortium is more important. The importance of having Visa and Mastercard as part of the consortium cannot be overstated. Creating a stablecoin is just not that complicated. Breaking into the payment system is complicated, and having Visa and Mastercard as part of the consortium is crucial. Circle went public on June 5th, 2025 at $31 per share. With a peak just below $2.70 on June 23rd, 2025. It's only about 2 weeks later. Circle is now trading around $0.63. The payment space remains a very difficult space. My view now about Circle is that the big companies like Visa and Mastercard are paying attention to the stablecoin space. Circle is just too small to compete with these giants. It has a nice franchise but needs to team up with bigger players. If I was running Circle, I'd be looking to sell the company. And speaking of selling the company, PayPal may have finally put its shareholders out of their misery. The stock reached a peak of $300 in the late summer of 2021. Tuesday night, the stock was $47.37. Wednesday morning, there were unconfirmed reports— still unconfirmed— that PayPal was selling to Stripe and Advent for $60.50., which would put the stock at roughly where it was at the end of last year. At $60.50, PayPal is being valued at 11 times the 2026 EP estimate. I think other payment companies need to follow. The space has become too difficult as companies keep entering each other's space. For a deeper dive on the payments space, take a look at our episode on January 26th, 2026 with Ken Sahowski, the payments re-analyst at Autonomous Research. Now, before we get to the banks, we got a whole bunch of companies to cover. I want to first focus on IBM, which pre-announced, pre-announced a terrible quarter on Tuesday. Now, until now, investors have been worried about the long-term and negative implications of AI on the software sector, the so-called SaaS-pocalypse. I love saying that. IBM's results show that there are now short-term implications as well. IBM pre-announced EPS of $2.93 versus $2.80 last year, but a miss versus expectations of $3.01. Worse, revenue of $17.2 billion missed expectations of $17.9 billion. So quite a miss. It is, I must emphasize, unusual for a company of IBM's size to miss both EPS and revenue guidance only one quarter out. Things must have changed rapidly this quarter. And what were those changes? Two of IBM's major businesses are its software and infrastructure businesses. The infrastructure business provides hardware, software, and services to critical enterprise workloads. So it too is partially a software business. So why the miss? The problem is the dramatic increase in prices for chips and other tech equipment because of AI demand. IBM management stated, and I quote, In the last few weeks of June, we saw clients shift their quarterly CapEx spend towards servers, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of expected price increases, unquote. So now there is a long-term SaaS-pocalypse and a short-term SaaS-pocalypse. I like saying that sentence. IBM was down 25% on this news on Tuesday, its worst day ever., and it took the entire software sector down with it. Another side to the same coin was the results at Ericsson, which develops network equipment and software. The stock was down double digits on Tuesday on its earnings report. Ericsson reported a 7% decline in earnings and revenue fell 6%, and it provided weak guidance because of component cost inflation. So Ericsson is suffering from higher semiconductor and tech equipment costs. And still another side to the same coin were the positive results at ASML, which produces semiconductor equipment, specifically machines for the production of chips through lithography. ASML is clearly a beneficiary of the AI boom. It reported a strong quarter. It beat on EPS and revenue and it raised guidance and the stock was up. In health insurance, Elevance and UnitedHealth reported. The group has done very well this year as companies have been able to raise prices enough to finally overcome higher healthcare costs. However, it's still a tough environment. Elevance reported on Wednesday EPS of $7.45, down 16% versus last year, but higher than the $6.18 estimate. The stock was down on the print for two reasons. The company raised guidance, but by less than the second quarter beat. And perhaps more importantly, total membership dropped by 1% as the increase in prices negatively impact membership. On the other hand, the very next day, UnitedHealthcare reported and the market really liked the results. Company beat expectations and raised guidance. It's all in the pricing. Revenue is flat, but UNH and the industry in the process of raising prices, and that is improving margins. Moving on, GE Aerospace is riding a positive cycle in aerospace, and it also reported. While the results were great, the stock was down on the print. Why? First, the results. The company reported earnings per share of $2.02 versus $1.66 last year and versus the estimate of $1.86. Revenue was $12.63 billion, up a nice 24% and almost $1 billion higher than the estimate. So far, so good. Company raised guidance to $765 to $785 versus prior guidance of $710 to $740 and versus expectations of $756. That sounds good too, but the stock was down around 4% because investors clearly wanted the company to raise guidance by more. On such stuff stocks move. And finally, before we get to the banks, Netflix reported Thursday night. Netflix reported EPS and revenue in line with expectations. EPS was up 11%, which is nice, but not like the go-go days. Moreover, in the press release, the company said it would cut back on the frequency of its What We Watched reports, which provide a picture of engagement. In the future, Netflix said that it will publish this report only annually in the first quarter of each year. The market did not like the fact that the results only met expectations, and it also did not like the virtual elimination of the What We Watched report. And the stock was down 8% after hours and is down 20% this year. Netflix has lost its mojo. And now for the banks. Steve Eisman here. If you eat well, stay active, and still wake up exhausted every morning, the missing piece isn't your effort. It could be your sleep quality. Sleep sets the stage for the rest of your day. It's the time when your body quietly goes to work to to heal your mind and body, steady your mood, and generally restore your energy so you can show up at work, home, and throughout life rested and ready. When sleep feels like a struggle, it affects everything. Your focus, patience, productivity, they all depend on getting high-quality sleep. If you've noticed changes in your sleep patterns or experienced symptoms like snoring or excessive daytime tiredness, Sleep Doctor can help you find your way back to great sleep. Sleep Doctor moves past the guesswork to help you understand what's happening while you're asleep so you can stop powering through the day and start living in it. Sleep Doctor offers guidance and a clear path for all your sleep problems. 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Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality, not brand markup. Recently, I bought a gorgeous blue linen shirt and a super comfortable terry cloth sweatshirt, and I'm wearing that right now, and I love them both. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com/icebend for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com/icebend. Q-U-I-N-C-E.com/icebend for free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com/icebend. The banks kicked off earnings season. I'm going to share some thoughts on a bunch of the large banks that reported and then show you how to think about valuation given the results. Before I do that, I want to focus on how the large bank results are of particular importance because they provide great insight into the state of the current credit cycle. The four large banks— JPMorgan, Citi, Wells, and Bank of America— have large and broad-based lending businesses. On the consumer side, they provide credit cards, auto loans, and several other types of consumer loans. On the commercial side, they make commercial real estate and corporate loans and other types of commercial loans as well. They don't do everything, but they are big enough and broad enough to provide a real window into the health of the US economy. By analyzing the credit results of these 4 banks, we can get a closer understanding of whether the problems in the private credit sector are broadening into a large credit cycle for the overall economy. Now, there is growing fear that credit losses will start to mount for the first time since the Great Financial Crisis. And we've had 17 years of amazingly benign credit quality, and investors are wondering if the good times are going to be over. Yes, private credit is exposed to software and software is getting hit by AI. But are there signs of broad credit problems emerging in the actual data? When the major banks report, they provide reams of data. JPMorgan's quarterly earnings release supplement is 29 pages long and is filled with information on every page. That is typical of how the banks report. To see trends in credit quality, the best place to look is to examine consumer and commercial non-accruing loans. A non-accruing loan is a loan that is seriously delinquent, usually 90+ days. A bank no longer reports interest income from these loans and reserves for future losses. I am putting on the screen consumer and commercial non-accruing loan data for JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America for 2Q25, 1Q26, and 2Q26. These 4 banks combined provide a large window into credit quality trends. If there was a serious trend of deteriorating credit, we would see increases in non-accruing consumer or commercial loans or both on a year-over-year basis and a quarterly sequential basis. We certainly saw large increases in consumer non-accrual loans leading up to the GFC. We are not seeing that now at all. I want to emphasize that at all. The credit data is benign in both consumer and commercial. For those of you who are just audio listeners, I'll just focus on JPMorgan and Bank of America. For JPMorgan, total non-accruing loans were $9.4 billion in 2Q26. They were down 5% year over year and down 2% versus 1Q26. The numbers at Bank of America were also very benign. 2Q26 total non-accruals were $5.8 billion, down 4% year over year and flat with 1Q26. Conclusion. The credit trends reported by the large banks are very benign. Maybe a credit cycle will emerge, but we are not seeing it in the banks. That is an important data point. The banks have the broadest credit exposures, so their results are a concurrent indicator. And this brings me to my conclusion about the state of the US economy. Since the GFC, many commentators have tried to predict the next crisis. This is it, they say. That it isn't. Perhaps the most important story of the past 17 years is how powerful and resilient the US economy has become. Yes, there are problems in private credit with respect to overexposure to software, and perhaps these software issues are harbingers of an approaching credit cycle. Yet the banks have shown once again that credit quality in the US is okay. Until that changes, the US economy will be fine. Fine, yes, but we do have a K-shaped economy, so it's not fine for everyone. I just don't see a recession though on the horizon as long as bank credit quality is benign. The problems that may emerge in the US economy rest not with the banks. They rest elsewhere. Whether AI will succeed or fail, whether private credit will show more problems, that is where problems could occur. In my view, the banks this time are not leading indicators. In the past, I have said, as the banks go, so goes the economy. Probably not this time. The banks are extremely well-capitalized and their credit quality is benign. The potential issues in AI and in private credit will determine whether and when there will be a recession. It would be much easier to predict the future if the banks were the leading indicator because the data the banks produce are voluminous and transparent, while private credit is much more opaque, making future economic weakness much trickier to see. Frankly, I'm starting to think that the entire future of the US economy hinges on the success or failure of AI. That's why I talk about it so much. As for the financial results of the banks this quarter, they once again posted powerful results, largely because of extremely strong investment banking and trading. The banks are partial beneficiaries of the AI boom, as companies with AI financing needs are going to Wall Street for help. These results produce record levels of returns. Here's a brief synopsis. JPMorgan, EPS was $6.14 versus $4.96, 24% growth. Revenue was also a big beat and was up 15% versus last year. The return on tangible common equity was a very strong 23%. Bank of America also reported a great quarter of $1.21 versus $0.89, 36% growth, and versus the consensus of $1.12. Revenue was up 15% on better trading, investment banking, and it had nice operating leverage. Return on Tangible Common Equity was a strong 16.5%. Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo has a history of occasionally disappointing, like last quarter, but not this time. Wells results beat. EPS was $2 versus $1.60, 25% growth. Again, the strong results were largely from trading and investment banking. Wells' Return on Tangible Common Equity has been stuck at 14 to 15% for many quarters. This quarter elevated the ROTCE to 17.7%. Impressive. Citi also had a good quarter for similar reasons. The company reported EPS of $3.15 versus $2.12, 48% growth. Company posted strong results in services, trading, and investment banking, and the return on tangible common equity was 13%, the same as the first quarter of this year and versus 8% in the second quarter of last year. Right now we are in a golden age for investment banking. Trading volumes are high. AI is creating massive financing needs. The IPO market isn't bad and M&A is very strong. That's why the most powerful results this quarter came from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Goldman Sachs reported a great quarter. It reported EPS of $20.98 versus $10.91, 92% growth. Wow. Again, the results were supported by powerful trading and investment banking, and the return on tangible common equity was a powerful 25.5%. Like Goldman, Morgan Stanley produced powerful numbers too. Revenue was at record levels and up 27% versus last year. EPS was up 62%, and the return on tangible common equity was a best-in-class 26.6%. As to how to value the banks, the easiest and most consistent way is to look at the return on tangible common equity. The higher that percentage, the higher the price to tangible common equity. That's why Goldman, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are valued at 3 to 4 times tangible book, their return on tangible common equities exceed 20%. At the same time, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citi are at 1.3 to 2.1 times tangible book as their ROTCEs are 13 to 18%. Our one mailbag is a follow-up from last week. Last week I answered a premium subscriber's question as to what I read. I provided a list of books, mostly history books, but I also mentioned that I read graphic novels and comic books partially because I find them somewhat oddly prescient, and they also tell great stories. I did not provide any titles, so of course several viewers asked for titles of graphic novels. This could be an endless discussion. My digital comic book collection exceeds 11,000 comics. If I listed every comic I like, we'd be here all day and all night. So I'll just name my top 21. Number 1: Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Maybe the greatest comic book ever written. The Netflix series was pretty good too. It's about the God of Dreams. 2. Lucifer by Mike Carey, a Sandman spinoff. And yes, that Lucifer. Lucifer quits being the devil and ends up living in Los Angeles. This comic is one of the deepest theological stories I have ever encountered. Number 3, Fables by Bill Willingham. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Prince Charming have been living in Greenwich Village for hundreds of years. A great story. Number 4, Hellblazer. Varied authors. Some authors were better than others, but the character Constantine is complex and amazing. Number 5, Swamp Thing. One of the most underrated comics ever, but one of my favorites. Alan Moore changed the entire story. Number 6, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, published in 1986. This story changed comics forever. It made comics darker and much more serious. Number 7, Batman: Year One by Frank Miller. And number 8, Daredevil: Born Again, also by Frank Miller. Number 9, Watchmen by Alan Moore, an iconic comic. Number 10, Lazarus by Greg Rucka. This comic is ongoing and has been going on for more than a decade, but it's the best dystopian story in comics. The entire world is ruled by a few rich families. 11, Nemesis by Mark Millar, just a great story. Wolverine: Old Man Logan, an alternative history comic. 13, Welcome to Tranquility by Gail Simone, superheroes living in suburbia. This is an amusing story. Number 14, Flashpoint by Geoff Johns. What happens when the Flash changes history? The results are not good. 15, The Boys by Garth Ennis, the original story of a world where superheroes are bad. Up is down and down is up. 16, Starman by James Robinson. Robinson takes a B-level superhero and elevates him. 17, The Golden Age by James Robinson. What if Hitler had survived? 18, Avengers Disassembled by Brian Michael Bendis. What happens when a superhero goes completely insane? 19, House of M, also by Brian Michael Bendis, the sequel to Avengers Disassembled. 20, Powers by Brian Michael Bendis. What happens when a superhero loses his powers and becomes a cop? And finally, 21, Alias by Brian Michael Bendis. This comic introduces the character Jessica Jones to the Marvel Universe. It's a story of an emotionally damaged superhero who becomes a private detective. And in honor of the new movie The Odyssey coming out this Friday, I have a book recommendation. There are many novels that explore aspects of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and I've read several. For me, the best one is a trilogy written by David Gemmell. The first book is called Lord of the Silver Bow. It's a complete reimagining of the Trojan War story, and it's fantastic. This last Monday, July 13th, we released on our free service an interview with Torsten Slok, chief economist of Apollo, and we discussed a broad range of topics but focused a lot on the impact of AI on the overall US economy. So check it out. And this coming Monday, July 20th, we will release an interview with Ben Callow, the sustainable energy and mobility analyst at Baird. We discuss how the buildout of AI data centers has upended the entire sustainable energy landscape Creating a hypergrowth story. The best way to support the Realize and Playbook is to subscribe to Substack and to YouTube. Subscriptions are free and we appreciate your support. And that's the wrap. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. The hosts and guests may hold positions in stocks discussed. Opinions expressed are their own and not recommendations. Please do your own due Do your due diligence and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions. I'm Glen Washington from Snap Judgment, the storytelling podcast from KQED. Imagine an iconic piece of paradise overrun by one of the most horrific fires in recent memory. Everyone flees. Everyone except one person who decides to fight the flames alone. The moment when nature, institutions, and technology fail at the exact same time. That's All Systems Down, a new Snap Judgment miniseries from KQED. Tap to listen now. Imagine if having your cake and eating it too was about banking, not baking. Silicon Valley Bank and First Citizens Bank have created a recipe that blends decades of innovation economy experience with more than a century of stability. Now you don't have to choose between deep sector expertise and lasting financial security. Instead, you can enjoy them both. Silicon Valley Bank and First Citizens Bank. It's the best of bank worlds.

   Steve Eisman · The Real Eisman Playbook · Bank Earnings Just Gave the Market a Much Needed Confidence Boost | The Weekly Wrap · 2026-07-17

9. Hi, Steve Eisman here. On my weekly wrap, I try to both teach and convey information as objectively as possible. But in today's media, on any important story, if I read about it in a newspaper with a leftist slant, I'll get one depiction of the story. But if I read about it from a more conservative publication, I'll get a very different take. What's the news and what's opinion is increasingly hard to differentiate. That's why when I look into news events, I first go to Ground News. Ground News is my solution for getting to the facts of important stories, but also to see how left, right, and center are seeking to convey the same exact story. Take, for example, the headline Trump Treasury Secretary calls for single stock trading ban in Congress. To understand the story, I went to groundnews.com and clicked on that particular story headline. There I immediately saw 4 tabs: left, center, right, and bias comparison. When I clicked on the center tab, a series of headlines appeared, all from center-leaning sources. I could then click on any of those headlines and read the story at the source. The same happened when I clicked on the left tab and on the right tab. The bias comparison tab showed Ground News' own analysis of how all three political leanings conveyed the same exact story. I find the Ground News system enormously helpful because it allows me to easily separate the facts from opinions. I use Ground News and I recommend you try it out. Go to groundnews.com/reel to get 40% off their unlimited access Vantage subscription. That's groundnews.com/reel. Real groundnews.com/real. And if you don't mind, use this link to get the discount so they know I sent you. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at accenture.com/spotify. The banks kicked off earnings season. I'm going to share some thoughts on a bunch of the large banks that reported because they provide great insight into the state of the current credit cycle. IBM was down 25% on this news on Tuesday, its worst day ever, and it took the entire software sector down with it. Netflix reported. Netflix has lost its mojo. In the past, I have said, as the banks go, so goes the economy. Probably not this time. I'm starting to think that the entire future of the US economy hinges on the success or failure of AI. The potential issues in AI and in private credit will determine whether and when there will be a recession. Hi, this is Steve Eisman and this is another episode of The Weekly Wrap. This is for the week ending Friday, July 17th, 2026, but recorded Thursday night, July 16th, 2026. Before we get to the wrap, I would like to remind everyone about our move to Substack and explain the value add. Substack is an exciting community of like-minded investors and creators, and the conversations are incredibly dynamic. The Substack ecosystem is well-established with a large variety of podcasters that I interact with regularly. As a free Substack subscriber, you will receive emails sent directly to you every time we release a new premium episode and a sneak peek preview of both the video and newsletter. You'll also have access to our notes and restacks. The link to join for free is in the description. Let me quickly flag what is on our premium Substack subscription. On Wednesday, July 15th, we released an interview with Boris Peeker, the biotechnology analyst at Jones Trading. We had an incredibly extensive discussion about the entire entire biotech landscape and future drug innovation. I think the biggest impact AI could do is reduce the probability of failure of a clinical study, particularly large clinical study. That would be extremely helpful, right? It was an amazing tour de force where we explored the vast world of biotech. I learned a ton. Next week on Wednesday, July 22nd, we will release an interview with recurring guest Ken Sahowski, the payments analyst at Autonomous. We discussed how AI and agentic AI are changing the entire payments landscape. The link for premium is in the description. And now for the wrap. On this week's wrap, we will have one, the war in Iran, of course, some more news about Circle and stablecoins. PayPal might be for sale. IBM reported a disastrous quarter. It actually pre-announced with terrible implications for the software sector. Elevance, UnitedHealthcare, GE Aerospace, and Netflix also reported. Banks reported giving a broad view of the economy and one mailbag. And here we go. In war news, the situation is escalating. The US and Iran are trading strikes and there is a dispute as to whether the strait is open. But it's pretty clear now that the strait is not open. Oil prices climbed above $80 and the 10-year climbed to almost 4.6%. Last week there were two major pieces of news with respect to Circle. As a reminder, Circle is the stablecoin company that went public in June of 2025. Circle creates stablecoins, a financial product that is trying to make inroads into the traditional payment systems. Circle is the second largest creator of stablecoins. Tether is the largest. On Tuesday, June 30th, there was some very negative news. Circle was down 17.5% that day because a consortium of companies including Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, and BlackRock unveiled their own stablecoin and stablecoin ecosystem. The second piece of news came out last Friday. 3 days later, Circle announced that it had received regulatory approval to become a trust bank. And on this news, the stock was up 5%. To understand its importance, you need to understand how Circle makes money. A Circle customer buys $1 worth of Circle stablecoin. Called USDC. Circle gives the customer a stablecoin, a USDC worth $1 that the customer can then use to pay for stuff. To preserve the value of the stablecoin, Circle takes the dollar and buys short-term US Treasuries, a security whose value does not, I repeat, does not fluctuate. Circle earns the interest on the Treasuries, and that is Circle's sole source of revenue today. One caveat: Circle doesn't actually physically buy the Treasuries. It puts it in a money market fund run by BlackRock, and BlackRock manages the money market fund and charges Circle 18 basis points. So Circle makes the interest on the Treasuries less the 18 basis points. The bank charter means that Circle can run its own money market fund and save the 18 basis points. Now, don't get me wrong. The bank charter is certainly a positive for Circle, but between the two pieces of news, the competition from the Visa Mastercard consortium is more important. The importance of having Visa and Mastercard as part of the consortium cannot be overstated. Creating a stablecoin is just not that complicated. Breaking into the payment system is complicated, and having Visa and Mastercard as part of the consortium is crucial. Circle went public on June 5th, 2025 at $31 per share. With a peak just below $2.70 on June 23rd, 2025. It's only about 2 weeks later. Circle is now trading around $0.63. The payment space remains a very difficult space. My view now about Circle is that the big companies like Visa and Mastercard are paying attention to the stablecoin space. Circle is just too small to compete with these giants. It has a nice franchise but needs to team up with bigger players. If I was running Circle,, I'd be looking to sell the company. And speaking of selling the company, PayPal may have finally put its shareholders out of their misery. The stock reached a peak of $300 in the late summer of 2021. Tuesday night, the stock was $47.37. Wednesday morning, there were unconfirmed reports— still unconfirmed— that PayPal was selling to Stripe and Advent for $60.50, which would put the stock at roughly where it was at the end of last year. At 60/50, PayPal is being valued at 11 times the 2026 EP estimate. I think other payment companies need to follow. The space has become too difficult as companies keep entering each other's space. For a deeper dive on the payment space, take a look at our episode on January 26th, 2026 with Ken Sahowski, the payments reanalyst at Autonomous Research. Now, before we get to the banks, we got a whole bunch of companies to cover. I want to first focus on IBM,, which pre-announced, pre-announced a terrible quarter on Tuesday. Now, until now, investors have been worried about the long-term and negative implications of AI on the software sector, the so-called SaaS-pocalypse. I love saying that. IBM's results show that there are now short-term implications as well. IBM pre-announced EPS of $2.93 versus $2.80 last year, but a miss versus expectations of $3. And a penny. Worse, revenue of $17.2 billion missed expectations of $17.9 billion. So quite a miss. It is, I must emphasize, unusual for a company of IBM's size to miss both EPS and revenue guidance only one quarter out. Things must have changed rapidly this quarter. And what were those changes? Two of IBM's major businesses are its software and infrastructure businesses. The infrastructure business provides hardware, software, and services to critical enterprise workloads. So it too is partially a software business. So why the miss? The problem is the dramatic increase in prices for chips and other tech equipment because of AI demand. IBM management stated, and I quote, in the last few weeks of June, we saw clients shift their quarterly CapEx spend towards servers, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of expected price increases, unquote. So now there is a long-term SaaS-pocalypse and a short-term SaaS-pocalypse. I like saying that sentence. IBM was down 25% on this news on Tuesday, its worst day ever, and it took the entire software sector down with it. Another side to the same coin was the results at Ericsson, which develops network equipment and software. The stock was down double digits on Tuesday on its earnings report. Ericsson reported a 7% decline in earnings and revenue fell 6%, and it provided weak guidance because of component cost inflation. So Ericsson is suffering from higher semiconductor and tech equipment costs. And still another side to the same coin were the positive results at ASML, which produces semiconductor equipment, specifically machines for the production of chips. Through lithography. ASML is clearly a beneficiary of the AI boom. It reported a strong quarter. It beat on EPS and revenue and it raised guidance and the stock was up. In health insurance, Elevance and UnitedHealth reported. The group has done very well this year as companies have been able to raise prices enough to finally overcome higher healthcare costs. However, it's still a tough environment. Elevance reported on Wednesday EPS of $7.45, down 16% versus last year. But higher than the $618 estimate. The stock was down on the print for two reasons. The company raised guidance, but by less than the second quarter beat. And perhaps more importantly, total membership dropped by 1% as the increase in prices negatively impact membership. On the other hand, the very next day, UnitedHealthcare reported and the market really liked the results. Company beat expectations and raised guidance. It's all in the pricing. Revenue is flat, but UNH and the industry in the process of raising prices, and that is improving margins. Moving on, GE Aerospace is riding a positive cycle in aerospace, and it also reported. While the results were great, the stock was down on the print. Why? First, the results. The company reported earnings per share of $2.02 versus $1.66 last year and versus the estimate of $1.86. Revenue was $12.63 billion, up a nice 24% and almost $1 billion higher than the estimate. So far, so good. Company raised guidance to $765 to $785 versus prior guidance of $710 to $740 and versus expectations of $756. That sounds good too, but the stock was down around 4% because investors clearly wanted the company to raise guidance by more. On such stuff, stocks move. And finally, before we get to the banks, Netflix reported Thursday night. Netflix reported EPS and revenue in line with expectations. EPS was up 11%, which is nice, but not like the go-go days. Moreover, in the press release, the company said it would cut back on the frequency of its What We Watched reports, which provide a picture of engagement. In the future, Netflix said that it will publish this report only annually in the first quarter of each year. The market did not like the fact that the results only met expectations, and it also did not like the virtual elimination of the What We Watched report., and the stock was down 8% after hours and is down 20% this year. Netflix has lost its mojo. And now for the banks. Steve Eisman here. If you eat well, stay active, and still wake up exhausted every morning, the missing piece isn't your effort. It could be your sleep quality. Sleep sets the stage for the rest of your day. It's the time when your body quietly goes to work to heal your mind and body, steady your mood, and generally restore your energy so you can show up at work, home, and throughout life rested and ready. When sleep feels like a struggle, it affects everything. Your focus, patience, productivity, they all depend on getting high-quality sleep. If you've noticed changes in your sleep patterns or experienced symptoms like snoring or excessive daytime tiredness, Sleep Doctor can help you find your way back to great sleep. Sleep Doctor moves past the guesswork to help you understand what's happening while you're asleep so you can stop powering through the day and start living in it. Sleep Doctor offers guidance and a clear path for all your sleep problems. By starting with a clinical-grade home sleep study, you'll get the insights you need to uncover the root of your fatigue. The test is a simple alternative to a sleep lab that can be completed in your own bed over one night. No more guessing, just clear answers and practical steps back to the rest you deserve. If you've been overlooking your sleep while optimizing everything else, this may be the missing piece. Visit sleepdoctor.com to take the first step to waking up rested and ready. Now accepting most insurance. Hi, Steve Eiseman here. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I want pieces that feel lighter and more breathable. Things that are easy but still put together. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Think breathable linen and soft organic cotton. Well-made basics but without the luxury markup. It's that rare balance where everything feels elevated but still effortless. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for quality, not brand markup. Recently I bought a gorgeous blue linen shirt and a super comfortable terrycloth sweatshirt, and I'm wearing that right now, and I love them both. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com/iceben for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com/iceben, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash iceben, for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/eisman. The banks kicked off earnings season. I'm going to share some thoughts on a bunch of the large banks that reported and then show you how to think about valuation given the results. Before I do that, I want to focus on how the large bank results are of particular importance because they provide great insight into the state of the current credit cycle. The four large banks— JPMorgan, Citi, Wells, and Bank of America— have large and broad-based lending businesses. On the consumer side, they provide credit cards, auto loans, and several other types consumer loans. On the commercial side, they make commercial real estate and corporate loans and other types of commercial loans as well. They don't do everything, but they are big enough and broad enough to provide a real window into the health of the US economy. By analyzing the credit results of these 4 banks, we can get a closer understanding of whether the problems in the private credit sector are broadening into a large credit cycle for the overall economy. Now, there is growing fear that credit losses will start to mount for the first time since the Great Financial Crisis.. And we've had 17 years of amazingly benign credit quality, and investors are wondering if the good times are going to be over. Yes, private credit is exposed to software and software is getting hit by AI. But are there signs of broad credit problems emerging in the actual data? When the major banks report, they provide reams of data. JPMorgan's quarterly earnings release supplement is 29 pages long and is filled with information on every page. That is typical of how the banks report. To see trends in credit quality, the best place to look is to examine consumer and commercial non-accruing loans. A non-accruing loan is a loan that is seriously delinquent, usually 90+ days. A bank no longer reports interest income from these loans and reserves for future losses. I am putting on the screen consumer and commercial non-accruing loan data for JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America. For 2Q25, 1Q26, and 2Q26. These 4 banks combined provide a large window into credit quality trends. If there was a serious trend of deteriorating credit, we would see increases in non-accruing consumer or commercial loans or both on a year-over-year basis and a quarterly sequential basis. We certainly saw large increases in consumer non-accrual loans leading up to the GFC. We are not seeing that now. At all. I want to emphasize that at all. The credit data is benign in both consumer and commercial. For those of you who are just audio listeners, I'll just focus on JPMorgan and Bank of America. For JPMorgan, total non-accruing loans were $9.4 billion in 2Q26. They were down 5% year over year and down 2% versus 1Q26. The numbers at Bank of America were also very benign. 2Q26 total non-accruals were $5.8 billion, down 4% year over year and flat with 1Q26. Conclusion: the credit trends reported by the large banks are very benign. Maybe a credit cycle will emerge, but we are not seeing it in the banks. That is an important data point. The banks have the broadest credit exposures, so their results are a concurrent indicator. And this brings me to my conclusion about the state of the US economy. Since the GFC, many commentators have tried to predict the next crisis. This is it, they say, and then it isn't. Perhaps the most important story of the past 17 years is how powerful and resilient the US economy has become. Yes, there are problems in private credit with respect to overexposure to software, and perhaps these software issues are harbingers of an approaching credit cycle. Yet the banks have shown once again that credit quality in the US is okay. Until that changes, the US economy will be fine. Fine, yes, but we do have a K-shaped economy, so it's not fine for everyone. I just don't see a recession, though, on the horizon as long as bank credit quality is benign. The problems that may emerge in the US economy rest not with the banks. They rest elsewhere. Whether AI will succeed or fail, whether private credit will show more problems— that is where problems could occur. In my view, The banks this time are not leading indicators. In the past, I have said, as the banks go, so goes the economy. Probably not this time. The banks are extremely well-capitalized and their credit quality is benign. The potential issues in AI and in private credit will determine whether and when there will be a recession. It would be much easier to predict the future if the banks were the leading indicator, because the data the banks produce are voluminous and transparent. While private credit is much more opaque, making future economic weakness much trickier to see. Frankly, I'm starting to think that the entire future of the US economy hinges on the success or failure of AI. That's why I talk about it so much. As for the financial results of the banks this quarter, they once again posted powerful results, largely because of extremely strong investment banking and trading. The banks are partial beneficiaries of the AI boom as companies with AI financing needs are going to Wall Street for help. These results produce record levels of returns. Here's a brief synopsis. JPMorgan, EPS was $6.14 versus $4.96, 24% growth. Revenue was also a big beat and was up 15% versus last year. The return on tangible common equity was a very strong 23%. Bank of America also reported a great quarter of $1.21 versus $0.89, 36% growth, and versus the consensus of $1.12. Revenue was up 15% on better trading, investment banking, and it had nice operating leverage. Return on tangible common equity was a strong 16.5%. Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo has a history of occasionally disappointing, like last quarter, but not this time. Wells results beat. EPS was $2 versus $1.60, 25% growth. Again, the strong results were largely from trading and investment banking. Wells' return on tangible common equity has been stuck at 14 to 15% for many quarters. This quarter elevated the ROTCE to 17.7%. Impressive. Citi also had a good quarter for similar reasons. The company reported EPS of $3.15 versus $2.12, 48% growth. Company posted strong results in services, trading, and investment banking, and the return on tangible common equity was 13%, the same as the first quarter of this year and versus 8% in the second quarter of last year. Right now we are in a golden age for investment banking. Trading volumes are high. AI is creating massive financing needs. The IPO market isn't bad and M&A is very strong. That's why the most powerful results this quarter came from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Goldman Sachs reported a great quarter. It reported EPS of $20.98 versus $10.91, 92% growth. Wow. Again, the results were supported by powerful trading and investment banking, and the return on tangible common equity was a powerful 25.5%. Like Goldman, Morgan Stanley produced powerful numbers too. Revenue was at record levels and up 27% versus last year. EPS was up 62%, and the return on tangible common equity was a best-in-class 26.6%. As to how to value the banks, the easiest and most consistent way is to look at the return on tangible common equity. The higher that percentage, the higher the price to tangible common equity. That's why Goldman, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley are valued at 3 to 4 times tangible book. Their return on tangible common equity exceeds 20%. At the same time, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citi are at 1.3 to 2.1 times tangible book. As their ROTCs are 13 to 18%. Our one mailbag is a follow-up from last week. Last week, I answered a premium subscriber's question as to what I read. I provided a list of books, mostly history books, but I also mentioned that I read graphic novels and comic books, partially because I find them somewhat oddly prescient, and they also tell great stories. I did not provide any titles. So, of course, several viewers asked for titles of graphic novels. This could be an endless discussion. My digital comic book collection exceeds 11,000 comics. If I listed every comic I like, we'd be here all day and all night. So I'll just name my top 21. Number 1, Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Maybe the greatest comic book ever written. The Netflix series was pretty good too. It's about the God of Dreams. 2, Lucifer by Mike Carey. A Sandman spinoff. And yes, that Lucifer. Lucifer quits being the devil and ends up living in Los Angeles. This comic is one of the deepest theological stories I have ever encountered. Number 3, Fables by Bill Willingham. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Prince Charming have been living in Greenwich Village for hundreds of years. A great story. Number 4, Hellblazer. Varied authors. Some authors were better than others, but the character Constantine is complex and amazing. Number 5, Swamp Thing, one of the most underrated comics ever, but one of my favorites. Alan Moore changed the entire story. Number 6, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, published in 1986. This story changed comics forever and made comics darker and much more serious. Number 7, Batman: Year One by Frank Miller. And number 8, Daredevil: Born Again, also by Frank Miller. Number 9, Watchmen by Alan Moore, an iconic comic. Number 10, Lazarus by Greg Rucka. This comic is ongoing and has been going on for more than a decade, but it's the best dystopian story in comics. The entire world is ruled by a few rich families. 11, Nemesis by Mark Millar, just a great story. Wolverine: Old Man Logan, an alternative history comic. 13, Welcome to Tranquility by Gail Simone, superheroes living in suburbia. This is an amusing story. Number 14, Flashpoint by Geoff Johns. What happens when the Flash changes history? The results are not good. 15, The Boys by Garth Ennis. The original story of a world where superheroes are bad. Up is down and down is up. 16, Starman by James Robinson. Robinson takes a B-level superhero and elevates him. 17, The Golden Age by James Robinson. What if Hitler had survived? 18, Avengers Disassembled by Brian Michael Bendis. What happens when a superhero goes completely insane? 19, House of M, also by Brian Michael Bendis, the sequel to Avengers Disassembled. 20, Powers by Brian Michael Bendis. What happens when a superhero loses his powers and becomes a cop? And finally, 21, Alias by Brian Michael Bendis. This comic introduces the character Jessica Jones to the Marvel Universe. It's a story of an emotionally damaged superhero who becomes a private detective. And in honor of the new movie The Odyssey coming out this Friday, I have a book recommendation. There are many novels that explore aspects of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and I've read several. For me, the best one is a trilogy written by David Gemmell. The first book is called Lord of the Silver Bow. It's a complete reimagining of the Trojan War story, and it's fantastic. This last Monday, July 13th, we released on our free service an interview with Torsten Slok, chief economist of Apollo, and we discussed a broad range of topics but focused a lot on the impact of AI on the overall US economy. So check it out. And this coming Monday, July 20th, we will release an interview with Ben Callow, the sustainable energy and mobility analyst at Baird. We discuss how the buildout of AI data centers has upended the entire sustainable energy landscape, creating a hypergrowth story. The best way to support The Real Eyes and Playbook is to subscribe to Substack and to YouTube. Subscriptions are free and we appreciate your support. And that's the wrap. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. The host and guests may hold positions in stocks discussed. Opinions expressed are their own and not recommendations. Please do your own due diligence and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Evening, buyer's remorse. Buy a new car? I'll be moving in. Let's get started. Uh, sorry, I I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana. You what? Yeah, great price. I even have 7 days to love it or return it. So there's no— No, no buyer's remorse. More like buyer's rejoice? I guess I'll let myself out. Congratulations! I mean it! Buyer's rejoice! Buy your car today on Carvana. Limitations and exclusions may apply. See our 7-day return policy at carvana.com. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. 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   Steve Eisman · The Real Eisman Playbook · Bank Earnings Just Gave the Market a Much Needed Confidence Boost | The Weekly Wrap · 2026-07-17

10. I mean, should we look into that? During the postwar decades, Sweden dramatically expanded government spending, the taxes, the regulation. By the 1970s and into the 1980s, economic growth slowed way down. Investments weakened. Entrepreneurs left. Some of Sweden's most successful companies and business leaders moved. They just moved out of the country. IKEA relocated ownership to the Netherlands. Tetra Pak moved to Switzerland. Sweden's relative standing among wealthy nations fell sharply for two decades. And then everybody turns away and doesn't say, so what happened next? Sweden didn't double down, okay? They didn't double down. It reversed course. Governments from both the left and the right reduced regulations. They reformed the pensions. These are things we're not doing. They introduced private competition into education. That's— that'll never happen, right? Today, more than 800 independent schools operate with public funding. Private companies run a substantial share of the Swedish primary health centers. Taxes were restructured. Markets were liberalized. The reforms were not a rejection of the welfare state. They were an acknowledgment that somebody first has to create the wealth to pay for it. It's really hard to redistribute prosperity after you've regulated prosperity out of existence, and that's what New York is doing. And here's another fact that surprises most Americans. The Nordic countries, they don't finance their governments primarily on taxing billionaires. Did you know that? Nope. They tax everyone. The cashier, the plumber, the teacher, the nurse, the mechanic. Not just the billionaire. Everyone. In Denmark and Sweden, value-added taxes of around 25% apply to everyday purchases. So that means if you want this, your taxes are gonna go up at the very bottom and you're gonna get a 25% VAT tax. You buy shoes, furniture, television, dinner at a restaurant, restaurant, a significant amount of that, 25%, goes to the government. Income taxes are broad, payroll taxes are broad, consumption taxes are broad, meaning everybody pays them. And the system works there because almost everyone contributes. Now, do you think Americans are going to accept that? Because I don't. Would you trade that? Another myth deserves some attention here. Many people believe Scandinavia punishes wealth more aggressively than America. Nope, nope, nope. The reality is that several Nordic countries actually have abolished their wealth taxes because they don't work. Sweden, get this one, no longer has an inheritance tax. Norway is debating reducing its wealth taxes because the high net worth individuals are leaving the country. That's what's happening in California. Where are they going? They're leaving New York to go to Florida. They're leaving California to go to Texas. If it was all countrywide, these extensive socialist taxes, they'd leave America because the policymakers understand something every country eventually discovers, but we just don't. Capital moves, entrepreneurs move, investments move, governments compete as well. And here's one of the biggest misunderstandings we have. It's, it's on healthcare. Healthcare is free. It's not free. It's never free. Nothing's free. Nordic healthcare systems are financed through the taxes that every— remember I told you everybody pays taxes? Citizens pay throughout their working lives. Many systems also include copayments for doctor visits, prescription drugs, or specialist care. Look at Canada. You're paying for private insurance on top of it. Now, different countries use different arrangements. Some are good, some are not. The point is, it's not that their systems are bad. The point is that they're paid for by the taxpayer and not the billionaire. Somebody always has to pay. The bill doesn't just go away, it just arrives in a different envelope. Let me give you this. This is even more interesting. Nordic countries are filled with private companies, filled with private companies, global companies, innovative companies, successful companies. Volvo, Ericsson, Lego, Spotify. Cone. They all compete around the world and their governments expect them to succeed because those companies generate the tax revenue that supports the welfare system. Why do you hate successful companies if they're expected to pay taxes? But our taxes, everything is so screwed up here. We made special exemptions for everyone. Everyone should pay taxes. No successful business, no generous welfare state. It's that simple. You get rid of business, you don't have the welfare. Another ingredient that economists often point to, and that is trust, something we don't have. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway consistently are the highest trust societies in the world. People generally believe their neighbors will obey the rules. Now that's changing because of the border situation. Government corruption is relatively low. It's not here. Institutions enjoy broad public confidence. Not here. Look at the fraud that's going on. That kind of social capital is incredibly valuable because it lowers the transaction cost. It simplifies regulation. It allows systems to function with fewer layers of enforcement. Trust— you cannot legislate trust. It develops over generations, and once it's gone, it's gone. And that's why culture matters and institutions matter and history matters. I'm not, I'm not selling the Nordic model down the river, and I'm not saying it's perfect. It has its strengths, it has its weaknesses, like every system designed by human beings. The real lesson here is not about socialism versus capitalism. The real lesson here, I think, is about intellectual honesty. If somebody proves or points to Denmark as proof that socialism works, now you have the information. You have to say, would you, would you acknowledge Denmark's commitment to private enterprise and taxes? If somebody praises Sweden's welfare system, you want to mention Sweden's market reforms after 1990? Well, Finland, their public services— you want to mention Finland's strong support for private business and global competition? You know, good ideas don't travel alone. Neither do bad ones. The danger comes when we import only the policies we like while ignoring the conditions that make them possible. It's like pointing to a championship football team and deciding the secret to winning is a fancy stadium. No, no, no, it's not. Yeah, but look at the stadium, it's visible. Yeah, but the years of practice, I don't see that. Well, but they may not be visible. Well, it's, it's really the secret is the trophy. No, it's the discipline that you don't see in the, in the case. The welfare benefits are visible, but the productive economy underneath often isn't. And every society eventually faces the same question: how much can you distribute? The answer depends on the other question that comes first: how much can you produce? That's the question that humbles governments. History is filled with nations that become wealthy and then debate how to share the prosperity. History is also filled with nations that try to distribute prosperity before they've created it, and those stories always end the same way: the pie shrinks, everybody receives a smaller slice. The Nordic companies remind us something worth remembering: markets create wealth, governments redistribute that wealth should you choose. But you can't redistribute wealth that no longer exists. And that's what New York needs to learn. Back in a minute. Sponsor this half hour is Z Factor. There is nothing quite like the feeling of dragging yourself through the day, you know, so tired you can barely stand it. Nothing like feeling your eyes starting to glaze over while somebody's talking to you and you really are just, you really, you're, you're not bored by them or anything else and you're just like, oh, please don't notice that I'm just falling asleep here. Please stay awake. Stay awake. I mean, it's the worst. Worst. Get a good night's sleep from Z Factor. Z Factor, give them a try right now. Save 46% on your first order. It's $19.95 for a 30-day supply. It works with your body. It has 4 different natural ingredients in it. 800-4-RELIEF. 800, the number 4, RELIEF. Or visit relieffactor.com. It's better sleep, better days. Z Factor from Relief Factor. 10 seconds, station ID. Uh, so I was at the, uh, Midway on June 6th, the USS Midway. Um, and, um, a lot of people just think that everything is just meh, but that The right to say meh has been earned and paid for by somebody. This speech is available now wherever you get your podcasts. I think it came out Saturday and it's available now at GlennBeck.com/torch. Watch all of it. It's really good. Here's a clip of it. Cut 8. It is our 250th anniversary. How many of us remember? How many of us remember what we're even living in today and the value of this freedom. The things that we see, the things that we're able to accomplish, the God we can praise or not praise. For the first time in human history, men live like they've never lived before, and most Americans say, meh. Remember where we have come from. Remember what it has taken. Remember those who have sacrificed so we can say, 'Meh.' Uh, I'm really struck by, um, the fact that our answers are really easy. And, and today's theme of today's show has really been You know, all of these, all of these organizations from the Democratic Socialists to the Patriot Front to BLM to the crazy Palestinian, you know, fronts that are screaming to the woman in that was with Elizabeth Warren who, you know, was just in Iran for the Ayatollah Khamenei chanting death to America. They all have one thing in common, and that is a collective ideal, a collective point of view. God is the individual. God is the God of the individual. That is, you know, I just saw somebody say, uh, this weekend, who was it? It's, uh, one of the sots we have, that, um, uh, that, you know, we don't have a national religion. You're right, and I don't want a national religion, but we do have national principles, and they come from the Judeo-Christian religion, the Judeo-Christian tradition of that the individual matters. Look at what we've accomplished between understanding the Declaration of Independence and then having gratitude for everything that we witness, good and bad, today. Our life, having gratitude solves all of our problems. Back in just a second, let me tell you about My Patriot Supply. Preparing for something is a lot cheaper, a lot cheaper than wishing that you had prepared. It's a good rule of thumb for just about everything in life, and especially good to remember when you're thinking about potential, you know, survival situations for you and your family. That's really not the time, you know, it's like, you know, you're on the Titanic, you don't want to be like, hey, we should have designed some lifeboats. Yeah, you want those there. That's a whole different story, but may I recommend My Patriot Supply? Over 3 million American families trust My Patriot Supply. Why? Because they deliver 2,000 calories a day. Their food lasts up to 25 years without needing to be refrigerated. It doesn't have any GMOs, no artificial flavors. It just keeps your family fed no matter what happens. Right now they're celebrating America's 250th anniversary with one of the best deals that they've ever offered. $250 off. Their best-selling emergency food supply right now. Go to preparewithglen.com. Even at full price, it's the best decision you can make. Now with $250 discount, no-brainer. It's preparewithglen.com. Preparewithglen.com. Don't just read history, experience it with the American Story series at glennbeck.com/americanstory.

    Glenn Beck · The Glenn Beck Program · Glenn RIPS Mamdani's Communist Independence Day Speech Apart | Guest: Jaco Booyens | 7/6/26 · 2026-07-06

11. The soft hands of a precious few. Let's just use Elon Musk. Has he not earned his money? I mean, I don't know how you earn a trillion dollars, quite honestly. Um, you know, but has he— does he not deserve what he has brought to the world through speech and technology, uh, communications? What he has done for the world where they can now communicate freely in countries where you could not be free to speak. He has got the satellite system up. He has reinvented the car and given all of the tech. He did not put a patent on it. He gave the patents away for free so anyone can use it. He is transforming the idea of space. He is building a space, uh, a space economy which you won't understand for another 5 to 10 years, but when that thing hits, you will understand. He may have soft hands, but he's done the intellectual plowing of almost every field. I don't want to get this, you know, I'm just tired of socialism. I, I really, I'm tired. I, I just wish we could have an honest conversation, but we, we are dealing with so many people that are so uninformed. Yes, there are great disparities in wealth. Yes. And you say, and while they're buying elections, yes. Like Soros. Do you mean Soros or is he exempt? Because I would like the money to get out of politics as well, but it, it's not an honest fight. Most people who are saying that's not honest— if you have a problem with all the money in politics, good, good, so do I. If you have a problem with corrupt capitalism, so do I. But the answer is not bigger government. But socialism will work. Let me tell you, America's been told a really simple story for a very long time. If America could only be more like Denmark— now we're not even talking about Denmark or Sweden, you know, or Norway anymore. We're not talking about that. They are talking about a different kind of socialism now. But let's just say they're talking about, we just want to be like Norway and Sweden. It's, it's, it's the favorite exhibit in almost every debate about capitalism and government. The Nordic countries They're proof socialism works. But before you remodel your house after somebody else's blueprint, let's walk through the front door first, okay? Because the story that almost everyone tells you about Scandinavian nations leaves out the part that actually made Scandinavia successful. The leaders themselves reject the label socialist. Don't believe me? Look it up. The former Danish Prime Minister, Andreas Rasmussen or something, came to the United States and addressed it directly. He said Americans associate Denmark with socialism. Then he added, and I'm quoting, Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy. Wow, how come it— how come— where are the posters for that? That's a remarkable statement. Imagine somebody insisting Texas is a communist state while the governor keeps coming out going, we're not, we're not, we're Texas, we're not communist. And yet the myth survives somehow. So what's really happening? The Nordic countries have built generous welfare states. That part is absolutely true. They provide universal health coverage, uh, college is subsidized, heavily subsidized or free. Parents receive paid leave. Safety nets are extensive. But those benefits sit on top of economies that depend on capitalism every single day. Not just capitalism, competitive capitalism. Strong property rights, private ownership, entrepreneurship, open trade, innovation, businesses that are expected to compete in the marketplace rather than survive on government protection. Those days are long gone. And this is the part that never makes it to a campaign speech. According to the Index of Economic Freedom, Denmark has consistently ranked among the freest economies in the entire world. The country most often used to argue against capitalism scores routinely as the world's freest capitalist economy. Wow, does that make you curious at all? At all? I mean, should we look into that? During the postwar decades, Sweden dramatically expanded government spending, the taxes, the regulation. By the 1970s and into the 1980s, economic growth slowed way down. Investments weakened, entrepreneurs left. Some of Sweden's most successful companies and business leaders moved They just moved out of the country. IKEA relocated ownership to the Netherlands. Tetra Pak moved to Switzerland. Sweden's relative standing among wealthy nations fell sharply for two decades. And then everybody turns away and doesn't say, so what happened next? Sweden didn't double down, okay? They didn't double down. It reversed course. Governments from both the left and the right reduced regulations. They reformed the pensions. These are things we're not doing. They introduced private competition into education. That's— that'll never happen, right? Today, more than 800 independent schools operate with public funding. Private companies run a substantial share of the Swedish primary health centers. Taxes were restructured. Markets were liberalized. The reforms were not a rejection of the welfare state. They were an acknowledgment that somebody first has to create the wealth to pay for it. It's really hard to redistribute prosperity after you've regulated prosperity out of existence, and that's what New York is doing. And here's another fact that surprises most Americans. The Nordic countries, they don't finance their governments primarily on taxing billionaires. Did you know that? Nope. They tax everyone. The cashier, the plumber, the teacher, the nurse, the mechanic. Not just the billionaire, everyone. In Denmark and Sweden, value-added taxes of around 25% apply to everyday purchases. So that means if you want this Your taxes are gonna go up at the very bottom, and you're gonna get a 25% VAT tax. You buy shoes, furniture, television, dinner at a restaurant, a significant amount of that 25% goes to the government. Income taxes are broad, payroll taxes are broad, consumption taxes are broad, meaning everybody pays them. And the system works there because almost everyone contributes. Now, do you think Americans are going to accept that? Because I don't. Would you trade that? Another myth deserves some attention here. Many people believe Scandinavia punishes wealth more aggressively than America. Nope, nope, nope. The reality is that several Nordic countries actually have abolished their wealth taxes because they don't work. Sweden— get this one— no longer has an inheritance tax. Norway is debating reducing its wealth taxes because the high net worth individuals are leaving the country. That's what's happening in California. Where are they going? They're leaving New York to go to Florida. They're leaving California to go to Texas. If it was all countrywide, these extensive socialist taxes, they'd leave America because The policymakers understand something every country eventually discovers, but we just don't. Capital moves. Entrepreneurs move. Investments move. Governments compete as well. And here's one of the biggest misunderstandings we have. It's, it's on healthcare. Healthcare is free. It's not free. It's never free. Nothing's free. Nordic healthcare systems are financed through the taxes that every— remember I told you everybody pays taxes? Citizens pay throughout their working lives. Many systems also include copayments for doctor visits, prescription drugs, or specialist care. Look at Canada, you're paying for private insurance on top of it. Now different countries use different arrangements. Some are good, some are not. The point is It's not that their systems are bad. The point is that they're paid for by the taxpayer and not the billionaire. Somebody always has to pay. The bill doesn't just go away, it just arrives in a different envelope. Let me give you this. This is even more interesting. Nordic countries are filled with private companies, filled with private companies, global companies. Innovative companies, successful companies— Volvo, Ericsson, Lego, Spotify, Kone— they all compete around the world, and their governments expect them to succeed because those companies generate the tax revenue that supports the welfare system. Why do you hate successful companies if they're expected to pay taxes? But our taxes— everything is so screwed up here. We made special exemptions for everyone. Everyone should pay taxes. No successful business, no generous welfare state. It's that simple. You get rid of business, you don't have the welfare. Another ingredient that economists often point to, and that is trust, something we don't have. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway consistently are the highest trust societies in the world. People generally believe their neighbors will obey the rules. Now that's changing because of the border situation. Government corruption is relatively low. It's not here. Institutions enjoy broad public confidence. Not here. Look at the fraud that's going on. That kind of social capital is incredibly valuable. Because it lowers the transaction cost, it simplifies regulation, it allows systems to function with fewer layers of enforcement. Trust— you cannot legislate trust. It develops over generations, and once it's gone, it's gone. And that's why culture matters and institutions matter and history matters. I'm not, I'm not selling the Nordic modeled down the river, and I'm not saying it's perfect. It has its strengths, it has its weaknesses, like every system designed by human beings. The real lesson here is not about socialism versus capitalism. The real lesson here, I think, is about intellectual honesty. If somebody proves or points to Denmark as proof that socialism works Now you have the information. You have to say, would you acknowledge Denmark's commitment to private enterprise and taxes? If somebody praises Sweden's welfare system, you want to mention Sweden's market reforms after 1990? Well, Finland, their public services— you want to mention Finland's strong support for private business and global competition? You know, good ideas don't travel alone. Neither do bad ones. The danger comes when we import only the policies we like while ignoring the conditions that make them possible. It's like pointing to a championship football team and deciding the secret to winning is a fancy stadium. No, no, no, it's not. But look at the stadium. It's visible. Yeah, but the years of practice? I don't see that. Well, but they may not be visible. Well, it's really— the secret is the trophy. No, it's the discipline that you don't see in the case. The welfare benefits are visible, but the productive economy underneath often isn't. And every society eventually faces the same question: how much can you distribute? The answer depends on the other question that comes first. How much can you produce? That is the question that humbles governments. History is filled with nations that become wealthy and then debate how to share the prosperity. History is also filled with nations that try to distribute prosperity before they have created it, and those stories always end the same way: the pie shrinks. Everybody receives a smaller slice. The Nordic companies remind us something worth remembering: markets create wealth. Governments redistribute that wealth, should you choose. But you can't redistribute wealth that no longer exists. And that's what New York needs to learn. Na na na na!

    Glenn Beck · The Glenn Beck Program · Best of the Program | Guest: Jaco Booyens | 7/6/26 · 2026-07-06

12. After roaming the earth for 35 years, my conclusion is the US is the best place to make money and Europe is the best place to spend it. Though Europe does have dynamic countries that the shitposting narrative regarding structural decline ignores. Living in the UK for the past four years and traveling around the continent, I've observed two versions of Europe. A stagnant welfare state limping toward insolvency, exaggerated but true in places, and a dynamic fusion of capitalism, full body contact, violence in the market that unleashes innovation and opportunity with a meaningful social safety net, real but overlooked by Americans. Let's discard the fiction and talk about the Europe I've encountered in real life. Last week, Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire. His wealth is greater than the combined fortunes of the next three men on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Jeff Bezos. Of the 500 people on the list, 180 are Americans or reside in the U.S. their combined wealth is equivalent to that of the bottom 54% of U.S. households. In American politics, the interests of the few are framed in opposition to the interests of the many. We can have billionaires, we're told, or we can have universal health care. But we can't have both. That's a false choice. Sweden, among other countries, settles the argument. Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist. It's not capitalism versus socialism. Capitalism actually works better when built on a foundation of empathy and equity. Sweden is a contradiction an F1 engine running inside a Volvo station wagon. On the one hand, Senator Bernie Sanders praises its universal healthcare system, 11% of GDP spent on healthcare, life expectancy of 82.7 years, and outcomes on par with or better than those of other advanced economies. On the other hand, while the EU stagnates, Sweden is projecting 2% GDP growth. A recent analysis from Boston Consulting group found that 30% of Swedish firms ranked in the top quartile of performance for their sectors, nearly double the performance of the best performing EU nation, the Netherlands. The report cited three drivers of Swedish a culture of risk taking encouraged by worker mobility paired with strong unemployment benefits, sustained government investment in R and D and deep capital markets. As the Economist wrote last year, Stockholm is the new capital of capital. Crucially, participation in Sweden's capital markets is widespread, thanks to the creation of ISK investment accounts, which simplify trading and eliminate capital gains taxes in favor of an annual standardized income tax tax. Swedish households invest over half their savings in equities, more than twice the European average. Although it has the population of North Carolina, Sweden has produced more than 30 unicorns, including Ericsson, King, Klarna and Spotify. With only 2% of the EU's population and 3% of its GDP, nearly one out of every five of Europe's best performing companies are Swedish. Taiwan, which manufactures 97% of the world's high end chips and controls 72% of the global foundry market, is the choke point for AI and the digital economy. But the island nation is downstream of the Netherlands. Nvidia designs the most advanced chips and TSMC manufactures them. But both companies, along with the rest of the industry, depend on a single company ASML for the machines that make any of it possible. ASML is the world's only producer of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines used to manufacture the most advanced chips, and it commands 90% of the broader lithography market. This month, ASML became Europe's most valuable company, making the picks and shovels of AI Dutch economic leverage isn't an accident, but the result of government policies, its infrastructure and R and D investments. Highly skilled English speaking labor pool, strong legal and regulatory frameworks and favorable tax regime make the Netherlands a digital economy hub as well as the gateway to Europe in terms of moving atoms. Rotterdam is Europe's busiest port handling 438 million tons of cargo annually, nearly double the capacity of Antwerp, Europe's second largest port. Advances in vertical farming, seed technology and robotics have allowed the Netherlands in recent decades to halve the resources that go into food production while doubling the output. Last year the country, the size of Maryland, was the second largest agricultural exporter in the world by value behind the US in terms of moving bits, the Netherlands is one of Europe's key connection points for global information technology infrastructure. The country ranks second worldwide for online connectivity, with 98% of the population connected to high speed Internet, 20 points above the EU average of 78%. A 2025 report from London's center for Economics and Business Research that looked at education, STEM employment and Overall innovation across 35 countries ranked the Netherlands 10th in global tech competitiveness, ahead of every G7 and one spot behind Sweden. The Dutch focus on digital infrastructure has put the country at ground 0 for AI. Outside of the US the Netherlands has the most data centers per capita while also making Amsterdam the go to EMEA headquarters for transnational companies including Cisco, Netflix, Nike, PepsiCo, TikTok and Uber, just to name a few. None of what makes the Netherlands great comes at the expense of its commitment to empathy and equity. The Dutch poverty rate is 5%, half the rate of the U.S. unlike most EU nations, the Netherlands leverages a heavily regulated private insurance sector to cover its citizens. Using a managed competition model, the Netherlands ranks third in healthcare globally based on public surveys evaluating medical quality, infrastructure, staff, wait times and costs. The takeaway if we followed the Netherlands, we might cut our per capita healthcare spending in half, improve outcomes and keep private insurance. No system is perfect. Immigration, a housing crisis and political volatility are among the issues facing the Netherlands. Sweden is trading its German style fiscal discipline for deficit spending in order to ramp up defense. It also faces a potential housing bubble linked to high levels of private debt and and has struggled to integrate immigrants. Nevertheless, the Swedes and Dutch remain committed to capitalism built on a foundation of empathy and equity. Whereas Americans are divided on fundamental questions, in the US the right is cheering on crony capitalism and the hollowing out of the social safety net. The left is embracing socialism and as Joan Didion famously wrote, the center will not hold. This isn't a matter of policy, but the scarcity of one of society's most important assets trust. Then Senator Barack Obama made this point in a 2006 speech at the University of Nairobi, delivered as Kenya was in the throes of a constitutional crisis.

    George Hahn · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway · No Mercy / No Malice: Europe IRL · 2026-06-20

13. Yeah. I mean, anyways, we need economic incentives and regulations that punish these people and create disincentives. But my win. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. My fail. I just spent the most wonderful week in Northern Europe. I was in Stockholm and then I was in Amsterdam. And Sweden is growing. It's kind of the non European European country. It's growing two and a half percent. It is actually produced. Despite having the population of North Carolina. It's produced companies including King, Klarna, Spotify, Ericsson. They produce a ton of unicorns.

    Scott Galloway · Pivot · The White House UFC Fight, SpaceX’s Big Pop, and Fox’s Roku Deal · 2026-06-16

14. Well, so corporate governance is based on governance. And that is, it's supposed to be one share, one vote. Like one man, one vote. Right? That's the idea that if you're, you want to attach economic sacrifice or risk to authority. So ideally what you want in a company is that if 51% of the shares vote for a certain action to fire the CEO or to sell the company or to put in place certain initiatives that they, given that they've put 51% of their capital at risk, that they get 51% of the vote. Dual class shareholder companies basically separate ownership from authority. And that is, and it initially was invented by owners of newspapers and media companies who said we're worried that a bad person's going to come in and use their economic power to buy a great media company and use it for their bad actor means. Google's founders were the first to demand a dual class shareholder company and want to maintain control with a minority position. And it actually, the VCs pushed back and ultimately Larry and Sergey won out. And that created a flood of new companies with dual class shareholder structures. Everyone from Richemont, the Sulzbergers own less than 1% of the new York Times and they control it. The Ford family owns, I think single digit percentage of Ford. They control Ford. I'm not, I'm not as excised by that because my sense is buyers, you know, need to do their own research. And there's a lot of companies that have a similar dual class shareholder structure and they know what they're getting into or they don't, but that's up to them. They, there's two sides of this trade. If you don't want Elon in charge, don't buy the stock. What I'm more worried about, and I think it's a bigger existential risk, is that we now have one man, and specifically this man who has more wealth than any man in history, by any ratio. And wealth in a capitalist society and an ineffective economy is just infinitely more powerful. So this is someone who can turn off and on battlefield technologies. And I've already said to you, I think the fix is in. I think that my guess is Donald Trump has had many conversations or an open dialogue with Elon Musk. And Elon Musk is now, you know, okay, so he's a trillionaire. And say he, he got, say he leaned on Trump. I mean, first off, let's talk, let's just talk about that wealth, that amount of wealth and power, I believe results with Citizens United in an undue amount of political influence. And generally speaking, for example, most elections are kind of, you know, 4,951 or 4,753. And when you have someone who basically might say, hey Donald, you know, you put pressure on your SEC chair to waive all these stupid rules in exchange, you know, I'm now a trillionaire, I put 250 million to work in your campaign and had an influence. What if I put 10 billion to work now? 1% of my net worth? So I think it's just a very. I think power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. Also, I don't think Elon Musk has acquitted himself well in terms of judgment. So I think we're in a. That dual class shareholder, poor governance, that doesn't freak me out. People can decide to sell the stock. What freaks me out is having someone who doesn't live with other people, as far as I know, is estranged from, you know, one or more of his children and has got a substance abuse issue and sleeps with a loaded gun next to his bed and believes there's a white genocide taking place in South Africa is now the most powerful person to ever exist on the planet. And just to wrap up this word salad, I've now gone to where Gary Stevenson, you know, of Gary's economics is, and that is he reframed my view of taxes and then a sense that he said taxes are our protection from corruption. There are protection from people aggregating too much power. And as I sit here in Stockholm, where there's higher tax rates, we have this false argument in the United States that democracy and socialism can't coexist. And that's the wrong argument. What they've settled here in Sweden, as I walk around and see GDP growth of 2% and no homeless people and really great education, is that you can have billionaires and universal childcare. And so this notion that it's one or the other that you have to put up with homeless people and weirdness and corruption. Sweden has produced Spotify, Klarna, King Ericsson. They have a GDP of $75,000 per individual with the population of North Carolina and deficit that is 30% of GDP versus ours at 130. And I think that the, what I'll call the billionaire class has created this argument that no, you can't have economic growth if unless you have this incredibly low taxation rate. And obviously I'm a little bit fond of Sweden right now because it's a summer day in Stockholm, but I think this country and other places say that that is just a bullshit argument from people who want to aggregate way too much fucking power. So dual class shareholder company, I'm not worried about it. One man with this much power, I think that's a risk.

    Scott Galloway · Prof G Markets · SpaceX IPO Takes Off — And Elon Is Now A Trillionaire · 2026-06-15

15. Yeah, I think initially you could imagine that would be the case. But as it turns out, I think a few things here. First of all, EQT started off as a Swedish firm, but it really, by the time we met, had already become a much more global business. So first Swedish, then European, expanding into Europe and then expanding into the US had some presence in Asia, not much. Secondly, EQT is backed by the Wallenberg family. The Wallenberg family is a sixth generation family from Sweden that has a history of really doing business globally. Investors and Eric Ericsson, Electrolux, Saab. Many of the big Swedish companies, AstraZeneca, are backed by the Wallenberg family. And so they have a very global mindset, I would say, in the way they think about doing business globally and culturally. Then I think the other aspect here is there's a difference, I think between a European firm like EQT and say American firms. The European firms already are Thinking in terms of, well, every country is different. You've got, you know, the. The Nordics are different than Germany, which is different than France, which is different than Southern Europe. And so when they come to Asia, they have, I think, an heightened sense of appreciation for the diff. Cultural differences within Asia. And, you know, I think. I think that to me was really important that they understand that within Asia, Japan is very different from India, and India is very different from China. And so I felt almost like there was a kindred spirit there. And understanding that each country, each. Each region, the cultures really matter, then I would say that if you look at the histories of the firm, we're both about 30 years old at the time. We both had our ups and downs. We both kind of built the business from a founder of Connie and myself. And, you know, I think there was a lot of common histories, shared history there. And ultimately it boiled down to the, I'd say the chemistry of the senior team, but then ultimately the culture throughout the out. And I felt very comfortable with it. And we did some. Spent some time together, meeting with the team members, meeting with each other. And we ended up feeling like this was going to be a great fit. Still taking a chance and coming and bringing the business together. But having done it now, having been together now for nearly four years, I can tell you it's been a huge success. And it really boils down to the fact that the people. The cultural fit was very strong. Maybe a good time to talk about the values also of eqt, which are similar to the values we had at Baring Private Equity at the time. Time. You know, there's some key values that EQT has. Number one, it's high performing, which is, you know, something that I think most people in industry are going to focus on. But beyond that, it's also. We focus a lot on transparency. We focus on being informal, we focus on being entrepreneurial. And we have another fifth value, which is respectful. And if you take all those as a package, you know, what you start to sense is the sort of people that end up coming to eqt, staying at eqt, it's not the typical deal maker, kind of Wall street type of deal maker that you get in some of our parts of our industry. And I think that really appealed to the kind of makeup of our firm at the time. Having that really informal interaction with people. That's a little bit of a Nordic trait. I would say that this lack of hierarchy. You take a look at Connie, he's the founder of the firm. Firm. He's really opened up the ownership of the firm early to all the partners of the firm. The fact that he was even open to combining with my old business and in a sense diluting even further on a fairly large transaction, as you mentioned, that speaks to this kind of expansive view of we're trying to build an institution here. It's not about any one individual. It's not about sort of creating a legacy of any one individual. It's about creating a business that's going to last. So that sort of mindset I think really appealed to me and felt like the kind of place that was a good home for the company that we had built as a partnership prior to that.

    Jean Eric Salata · Masters in Business · Riding Global Tailwinds with EQT's Jean Eric Salata · 2026-06-12