It is a big week for America with the 4th of July on Saturday, the nation will be celebrating its 250th birthday as we enter this moment that commemorates freedom and independence.
Geopolitical risks do remain.
The US and Iran agreeing to stand down ahead of critical peace talks in Doha tomorrow.
US officials are saying that the new agreement halts a dangerous wave of tit for tat military.
Strikes and allows commercial vessels to once again move freely through the Strait of Hormuz.
The recent strikes and violence erupted last Thursday when Iran struck a container ship and that did prompt US retaliation on Friday, followed by more American strikes late Saturday after Iran targeted a vessel carrying Qatari oil.
Well joining us this morning to weigh in is Patrick L.
Young, chairman and founder of Exchange Invest.
Good morning.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Well, let's start off with America's 250.
The US has been divided politically for quite some time, but what does the Fourth of July actually mean and where does America stand heading into this pivotal moment here, especially given some of the what we have seen when it comes to democratic socialism here in New York City.
OK, we'll look at the macro first of all, Remy.
God bless America, 250 years young.
For the last 50 years, people have been saying it's the end of the US dollar and the US empire is in decline, and yet we still haven't seen any clear tangential proof of it as America reigns supreme.
This is the civilization that has given more throughout the course of the last 2000 years than any other in a corroborated burst of 2.5 centuries.
That's a phenomenal thing for the United States of America.
It is a.
Joy to be able to celebrate this weekend, even as someone who's entirely a non-American.
At the same time, obviously there are political issues.
What a tragedy that not everybody feels obliged, or indeed inclined to get together and celebrate the wonderment of the USA as I believe a great many people such as myself will do at the weekend as we raise a glass to the celebration.
In New York City, we have a fascinating blip, and it could well be the suicide of the Democratic Party.
They have in many ways got an open goal, they could manage.
Oppose President Trump in a coherent fashion, but instead, what we're hearing about is, I don't know, goldfish bowls or something, and all sorts of things to do with what's happened to the lining of a particular swimming pool or something.
Who cares?
And at the same time in New York, we've got this wave of socialist candidates.
Here's the problem.
The way New York votes is absolutely irrelevant to the United States of America, which is a predominantly conservative group of states.
I don't mean that they are super conservative in terms of being.
Ultra right wing, but essentially they don't like having foisted upon them the super socialism that Mr.
Mandani and his cronies are liking.
And that of course has a huge impact, because what's going to happen in the future?
Will we be sitting for America 260, celebrating this by talking at the New York Stock Exchange in Texas, or will we still be talking direct to Wall Street?
That's all to play for, and it's up to the Mandani cronies whether or not they want to keep capitalism alive, at least in New York City and New York State.
Yes, Patrick, there are a lot of moving parts when we're talking about politics at the local level, state level, and national level, but I do want to shift our focus over to what's happening in the UK.
It's hard to believe, but last week was the 10th anniversary of Brexit.
So what does this mean for the UK, especially following Keir Starmer's stepping down and Andy Burnham potentially stepping in sometime soon?
Very interesting question altogether.
So of course what we've had over 10 years, you talk about political division in the United States of America, the UK remains cleaved in half.
Effectively, the British elite are still determined to try and bring those pesky voters to, uh, to call for and account for their having the temerity to vote against the European Union that simply didn't work for their lifestyle.
And in the course of the last 10 years, we have seen.
The people are further away from this blob group, of course, Keir Starmer made his name by trying to do everything to oppose Brexit in an entirely anti-democratic fashion.
Now we've got Andy Burnham, who's a super remainer, he wants to get back into the European Union, and that could be a huge problem for him when he actually wants to go to the ballot box in the near future, because ultimately, try as everybody has, talk Brexit down as all the.
Established media, the establishment media has done, the reality is there still is not a majority of people who want to rejoin the European Union.
In fact, there is a majority of people who want to stay out of the European Union, and that has been consistent through every poll that's done, including a great many that are not being published because it doesn't suit the narrative of the media who think that they should be back closer to Brussels.
Yes, so I do want to expand on this, Patrick, especially since Burnham did mention the creation of a Number 10 North office in Manchester.
So for viewers who may not be familiar with the significance of Number 10 North versus 10 Downing, can you walk us through this?
OK, so look, what we've got here is a situation where 10 Downing Street, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, to all intents and purposes, sits in the center of London.
It's the epicenter of power.
What Burnham is saying is actually quite reasonable.
The UK government has been centralizing with gusto all the way back over 40, maybe 50 years.
Certainly, I mean, Mrs.
Thatcher was a particularly strong centraliser.
He's very keen to get devolution back into the country.
The problem with that is, of course, that, This has been created by the Labour Party as a means to effectively ensure that they keep running parts of the country.
But everywhere that they've actually had major league devolution, what's happened is within 10 years they've been so inept at it, that local parties have actually taken over.
So therefore, you've got a situation where even in Wales, the ultimate heartland of the Labour Party, they're losing ground hand over fist.
Scotland, they lost many years ago to the Scottish.
National Party, and actually it's really only creating more chaos at the same time, where Burnham is quite right is that we need to move away from having a total London centricity about the UK but that's very difficult because ultimately the London economy is the thing that keeps pretty much the rest of the UK going, hitting way above its weight in financial services, tourism, and many other elements of the UK economy.
And Patrick, I do want to shift our focus on over to the Middle East as the US officials and Iranian officials will be meeting in Doha for talks, and this does come at a time when ECB officials will be gathering in Portugal and Kevin Warsh will also be here.
So what do you expect to see this week?
Look, I mean, I think the ECB has already realized they've got a huge inflation problem.
Of course the ECB also have a huge problem, which is the ultimate decline of the European Union, as can be seen by the fact that, uh, well, the French are trying to basically heat their citizens to death by refusing to give them free access to aircon at the moment.
Where we're going in terms of the Middle East is a very tricky thing.
Lebanon is playing up, but that of course is a hugely difficult coalition trying to hold.
Together the post civil war state there even 30, 40 years on from the end of hostilities firmly.
And that's a difficulty because Israel is not having anything of Hezbollah trying to take over the country.
That tale is going to be wagging the dog all the way to Qatar.
But as you said at the top of the show, how happy are the folks in Doha, whoever they might have been supporting, whoever they might have been funding in recent years, at the fact that some Iranian lunatic has been found.
Firing missiles at their gas containers as they've been trying to cruise through the Straits of Hormuz.
In that sense, this is much, much more complicated than simply being a them versus us situation.
And if the US plays its cards well and diplomatically, there is the opportunity to come out with some sort of a lasting peace.
The difficulty is that Iran simply doesn't seem to be able to be trusted with whatever it signs.
Well, Patrick, we will have to leave it there for today.
So thank you so much for joining us and as always, thank you so much for sharing your perspective.
