Game Theory #7: America's Game

Okay, so let us review last class. So last class we discussed the British Empire and how it ultimately triumphed over its main rivals who were the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch because of three major powers, okay? The first is the Bank of England. What made the Bank of England so important is that it could absorb foreign capital, okay? From all around the world. So at first it absorbed capital from the Dutch Republic, but then if you were a French aristocrat, if you were the Catholic Church, if you were the Habsburgs, you could all move your capital to England where it would be safe, because it would be protected by the law, okay? The idea of property. The idea of property rights. And when Britain became an empire, this was important because local elites in China, in India, in Southeast Asia would help the British because they were incentivized to do so. They could help

the British steal from these places and then move capital, their wealth, to England or one of the British colonies for safekeeping, okay? So that's a source of English power. Second is the idea of security. Security is a piece of soft power. So we are in school, learning English because we want to go and study in the West. That's soft power, right? So Shakespeare, the BBC, Oxbridge are all components of British soft power which still rules the world today. And the third, of course, is the British Navy which controls sea lanes, and therefore controls all dassomes, trade, okay? So for the longest time, for a hundred years, Britain was able to maintain a global empire, which really was the first global empire because it spanned the entire world. But there were three problems or three limitations to the British empire, okay? So the first major limitation is that Britain had an ethnicity. It had a race.

It was the white people, the Anglo -Saxons. And so even though Britain was ruling over a vast global empire, it was very much racist. It saw itself as superior to everyone else and that limited its capacity to work with local elites, okay? So in other words, eventually India rebelled to establish its independence and eventually Britain lost its overseas empire. A classic example, of course, is 2016 Brexit, when the English people decided that we no longer wanted to be part of Europe, okay? And so even though Britain is an empire, its people are very provincial, okay? They see themselves as better and they see themselves as superior to everyone else. And so even though Britain is an empire, its people are very separate from everyone else. I've met English people who've told me, like, English people cannot learn a foreign language. English people speak English very well and that's it. They can't learn French. They can't learn Spanish.

They refuse to learn Chinese. And they told me it's because their brains are different, okay? Their brains are hardwired to speak English really well and that's it, all right? So that's just the British attitude. Second problem is the idea of currency. Or wealth standard. The idea here is that, okay, yes, you're stealing wealth from other places, but what is wealth, okay? And for the longest time, people understood wealth as gold. The problem with this is that there's a limitation or there's a limit to the amount of gold in the world and therefore there's a limit to how many people can participate in this game and how much money they can win in the end. So it's really a game only for the elite. That's the second major limitation. The third problem for Britain is that it's really a small island, with very few people and very limited resources. And therefore it was really not sustainable for Britain to control the entire world.

There's a limitation to its reach and ultimately, other powers in Europe will arise. challenge British hegemony including Russia including Germany ultimately the power that would overthrow the British Empire to create its own Empire is of course America and what America would do that's very important is resolve all three of these limitations to click to create a world game in which we all play today okay so Britain basically birth this game but there were limitations to how far this game could spread America will then take the concept of this game and spread all around the world until I conquered entire world okay so how do you do so all right so let's go over America well first of all America is on a small island it is a continental fortress in fact it controls the entire Western Hemisphere we know that the Western western hemisphere is very

very wealthy okay so america is not just the country of america it's really the western hemisphere and as such has unlimited population and it's unlimited resources that's unlimited land okay so this resolves the issue of um resources okay second problem the currency well what america would do that would revolutionize the world is make the u.s dollar the standard of wealth in the world and because the u.s dollar is just a concept it's just an idea everyone can now play this game and wealth can now be infinite okay but that makes sense right before gold was what everyone was playing for but there's a limit to gold but with u.s dollars anyone and everyone in the world can now play okay so i'll talk about how the u.s dollar became uh the standard of wealth in the world now the ethnicity is another problem okay and so what america did that was

very clever is tell the world we are not an ethnicity okay we're not a land what we really are is a game all right so the idea is that america became a nation game all right so um what so this is pretty easy to understand okay so i'm gonna explain this first and i'm i'm gonna explain how the u.s dollar came to dominate the world okay all right all right so for the longest time we have problems deciding what a game or a nation ought to be okay so um traditionally nations have been ruled uh politically through the monarchy okay um an oligarchy a democracy or a theocracy okay so there are others but these are the four major ones a monarchy is very simple a king is in charge everyone just obeys the king uh oligarchy is where the nobility are in charge another name for oligarchy is the aristocracy okay and that's

basically rome a democracy is where the people make all the decisions and so what happens is that if a decision is to be made people get together and they give speeches whoever gives the best speech gets the most votes and then that decision is implemented okay and of course the classic example of democracy is athens okay and then you have a theocracy which is to say that the priests are in charge and the priests represent the will of god okay and of course uh theocracy the last example is a catholic europe this is a medieval europe when the catholic church was in charge all right but with the enlightenment uh when god was no longer considered that important philosophers debated amongst themselves what a nation ought to be what society ought to be okay and so let's discuss the major theories of this time period all right so the first idea is if god doesn't

really matter okay if it's up to humans to decide how to structure society how can you best do so and at this time the most popular idea is social contract theory social contract theory and there are two major theorists okay the first is john locke who of course is english and for him government it's very simple okay human beings have three fundamental rights that god gave us okay which are in in edible which means that no one can take take away from us the first is life okay the second is liberty the right to say whatever we want the right to do whatever we want the third is the pursuit of property wealth okay so they have private property in other words government exists in order to protect the wealth that we generate for our hard work and we steal it that's okay as well okay and we kill a lot of people in India

China and France do you get it that's okay too because it happened elsewhere okay all right so part of property and as you can imagine if you have wealth you like this system a lot and not only that but you are encouraged or incentivized to work really hard and that's what actually allowed England to overtake the French the Dutch and the Spanish okay then you have another theorist named John Jacques Rousseau and this theory is different okay it's also social contract theory but it's a different idea which is okay we're born in a state of nature we have complete freedom we can do it whatever we want so why do we choose to give up this freedom and come into society okay the reason why is when we do so we create a sort of social contract that creates the general will okay and the general will it's a substitute for God it is the

expression of the best of who we are okay do you understand so by ourselves we're fine okay when we come together we create a new concept that allows us to be truly and fully human the general will so what is the general will okay all right so think of Immanuel Kant who was a German philosopher and he explained that the very basis of humanity what we should all try to achieve is something called the categorical imperative okay imperative is the highest moral law right it's really God's law and there are three components to the categorical imperative okay the first is the idea of universality universality just means that imagine this whatever you do everyone else around you will automatically do okay so you want to go drink alcohol everyone's gonna drink alcohol do you want to live in a society of cheaters okay if you read books everyone else is going to read books so

imagine that whatever you do will be replicated by everyone else immediately okay that's the idea of universality second is the idea of free will okay I know that eating ice cream is bad I know that uh eating protein chicken is bad okay but I cannot be forced to eat chicken even though it's better for me I have to choose to eat chicken by myself if I want to eat ice cream I can do that okay so we cannot coerce people to do what they do not want to do all right and number three is uh human um is the end onto itself okay and the idea here is that you cannot use humans a human being to achieve a higher purpose because humans are the ultimate purpose so I can't be like a king says you know what I'm sort of war to make a lot of money for everyone and I'll sacrifice 50 of

my people but the other 50 percent would live will be happy they'll live in Paradise you can't do that okay because you cannot sacrifice anyone's life in order to achieve a higher end because the ultimate end is the human life okay so that's the idea of the category imperative the ethical basis for the general will okay now in practical terms how do you implement this in society well the general will gives rise to government and then the government gives rise to laws okay so the legitimacy of the government comes from the consensus of the people which is a general will the general will is not democracy right the general will is an abstract idea which represents the best of who we can be all right so just because everyone's like okay we should all vote to kill that person because we don't like him no that's not the general will the general will is everyone

is important do you want to others as you would want others to do onto you okay so you can't kill anyone okay and if you if people vote for this the government is illegitimate because it goes against the general will all right and this is important for us because this becomes the basis of the French Revolution and the French Revolution the entire European continent okay including Britain pressure Austria Russia everyone got together and attacked France France was poor France had no monarchy but France defeated everyone why because people were energized to fight for their nation they believe that I am now part of a greater good I have equity in this game therefore I will defend this nation with my life and France for the longest time was unbeatable on the battlefield okay all right so that is the French conception of a nation a nation is a social contract which guarantees rights to its

citizens and in return its citizens must be willing to sacrifice its life for the nation and that's why um the French Revolution was so successful which ultimately led to the French Empire under Napoleon okay does that make sense now there's a another conception of the nation state which is this okay and these are the Prussians or the Germans okay and it's the idea of um iron and blood so a nation is not something that you choose to get into okay it's not something that you start a contract with a nation is in your blood a nation is language land okay and you prove that you are worthy by sacrificing your sacrificing yourself in battle okay this is this comes to us from the German in 1870 okay in the Franco -Prussian war between pressure and France these two concepts of the nation state came into battle okay the French was a social contract you fight

for us because you agree to be a citizen of this nation which guarantees you certain rights pressure is like no you fight because it is your duty to fight because it is in your blood it is in your language it is in your whole culture it's your family and then when these two cultures clash it was the Prussians who won and um that created of course Germany okay so in 1870 the current the modern nation of Germany was founded by the persons when it defeated France in the Franco -Prussian War all right so now we go to America okay and America has a different conception of the nation state okay so at this time in history first of all um America it's a very small place 13 colonies and the continent is controlled by these indigenous people the French are there the Spanish are there okay but the Americans are very very ambitious and they

are expanding really really fast and Britain the home country actually becomes um afraid of America because at this time about the 1700s America has more people it's wealthier it's welcoming people from all around Europe and so Britain tries to limit the Expansion of America okay it tries to say you can't cross the certain line the Appalachian mountains America says screw you we're gonna revolt okay and this creates the American revolution so but this is a transition of county level and monkey systems were running around and bangles started fragrance bolting Chinese recruitment!!! Revolution. And in 1789, America creates the Constitution, which becomes the highest law in the land. And so at this point in history, the American Founding Fathers, they look around the world, they know about the British system, they know about the French system, they're trying to grow the country as fast as possible. They have to fight the Spanish, the French, the British, and the indigenous people in their land.

They're trying to welcome as many people as possible. So they decide that the nation will become a game, a game where the citizen is a player. And the citizen is trying to maximize his wealth. And through this process of maximizing his wealth, trying to get as much wealth as possible, he will be energetic and he will work hard. And this energy will contribute to the overall wealth of the nation, which will allow America to grow very, very fast. That's the plan. So for this to work, they have to control the game that has three major characteristics. The first is that it has to be open, meaning anyone can come and play. But that just means also eliminating the history and the ethnicity of the place. Okay? So the concept that America creates is the idea of melting pot. We welcome anyone who comes to America, regardless of your

race, regardless of your history, regardless of your wealth, as long as you're willing to assimilate into America, into the melting pot. Okay? That's the first idea. The second idea is fairness. And the third is clarity. So in other words, people are willing to play a game and work really hard to win this game if first of all they can play this game they're allowed to play this game they're not discriminated against also if the rules are really clear okay you understand what the rules are in America the rules are very simple you go to America you follow the law you work really hard you get rich okay really simple it's called the American Dream right and the third thing of course is that the game is fair meaning the only criterion to generate wealth is how hard you work how much talent you have how much merit you have right the idea of merit okay

and look this is true when you go to America you will discover this if you work really hard if you're really talented you're really smart they will respect that okay I've been to a lot of countries I can tell you that America in America this is true but it's not true in Canada I grew up in Canada and they don't really care if you're ambitious if you don't don't care if you're smart don't care if you work hard they don't care they expect you to follow the rules and conform okay that's Canada you go to China okay we don't know what China is okay no one cares if you work hard no one cares if you're smart no one cares okay it's all about your guanxi about we're your family okay but it's true for actually this is true for most of the world and I would say that the idea of merit is only

true for two places America is the most obvious example okay I've been to many countries and I've been to many countries in the last five or six years and here we are talking about nothing alive we've been at meetings we're at first Americans are like ehhhhg this guy is Chinese but I speak any english he's not that smart okay so there's discrimination going on but the moment I speak the moment I try to make my case they are win over won over by my logic okay by my arguments by my creativity and they welcome me into the club that's the American attitude of being open -minded of being generous of appreciating talent above everyone else okay. similar in that way in that yeah maybe they're racist but if you can make a good argument in front of them they will accept your argument okay but guess what guys nowhere else is this true okay in

china you have the best argument in the world no one cares right okay so we there are lots of issues with america but in all honesty america is a place that really does appreciate merit and which really does reward merit and that's why everyone wants to go to america all right all right so the question then is how did america create this system okay well it did so through the constitution the idea of the constitution is to create a game and make this game above power okay and how they did that is creating a system of government that checks and balances each other so you have the president you have the you have the congress okay and you have the supreme court okay the supreme court it's very simple it's to interpret the constitution which is the highest law in the land okay and then the powers of the government are divided equally amongst these

different branches so the congress can create laws and control spending okay what's called the purse the president has war powers basically or the sword okay but if the president were to declare war he needs congress to approve because congress has to give them money to start the war okay and um the idea that the constitution is the highest law on the land means that it's really rule of law so even though you have this government system in place you also have another parallel system called the judiciary the court system which protects property rights in the same way that they do in britain okay does that make sense so so the very idea is that this is a game the government is a system to maintain the openness clarity and fairness of the game and because of this america was very quickly able to dominate the world okay the thing about this game okay that's very

important for us to understand is it is expansionist okay so what happened is that in its history america faced certain challenges to this game and this game won out every single time okay so the first major challenge to this game it's called the american civil war all right so let me explain what happened from 1861 1864 the civil war was fought between the north and the south this was a clash of economic systems okay so the north played the game okay and so we believe in free labor the south was its own independent economic system that focused on agriculture and so it used slave labor for many americans in the north slave labor was offensive because it corrupted the game okay because remember america's founded on the idea of openness fairness and clarity but if you're a slave that's not fair okay um when we talked about Okay, because you were born a slave and you can never participate in this game.

And so they fought a civil war to decide who will triumph in the end. And of course, the North won, because the North focused on free labor. So that meant that there were more people in the North, that meant that the North was wealthier because of manufacturing, and that meant that the North were more energetic. Okay, so they defeated the South. And so that was the first major challenge. Now the game is spreading, okay? It spreads across America and now it stops because America can't expand anymore, okay? It basically conquers the West. And now the game is an issue because of the nature of money. The problem with money is that ultimately, the longer you play this game, at the end of the game, one person controls all the money. Okay, does that make sense? That's a problem with capitalism. That's a problem with this game. So now

that the frontier has been settled, now that the borders have been controlled, a few people are now controlling all the money, which leads to the Great Depression, okay? So now the solution is America has to go and conquer the world, which it does, okay? In World War II, America conquers the world. And so now what America needs to do is spread this game throughout the world. And it does that by creating the U.S. economy, okay? The U.S. dollar, okay? So 1945, America wins the war. A year before, in July, July 1944, for one month, what happens is that America organizes something called the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, okay? And the idea of the Bretton Woods Conference is to establish the world game, okay? Before, America's game was limited to America, but now America wants to scale its game to the entire world. Okay? So how does it do that? Well, the first thing it does is it makes the U.S.

dollar the reserve currency of the world, right? What does that mean? It means that every other currency has to be derived from the U.S. dollar. Every other currency will find value from the U.S. dollar, okay? Which means that if you have Canadian dollars, you can now change it for U.S. dollars, which is what's valuable. The Canadian dollar is not the U.S. dollar, right? dollars is just not valuable okay all right they also agree on um exchange rate okay it doesn't make sense okay and this this is a system that we have to have today okay all right the global reserve currency is the u.s dollar that's what's valuable the room b derives value from its relationship with the u.s dollar the room b is not valued by by itself okay all right that's number one um okay so now

you're like wait a minute here if this is true the u .s dollar can the americans can just put as much money as they want and so to solve this problem uh the americans said the u.s dollar will be pegged to gold okay doesn't make sense okay meaning like you can always take your u.s dollar and change it for gold and because there's a limit to gold there has to be a limit to the u.s dollars which keeps the system stable okay okay all right that's number one number two is america needs to expand this game okay because it is in competition with the soviet union which is against this game okay so it creates two new organizations to spread the game throughout the world and these two games and these two organizations are called the world bank and the national monetary fund the imf okay so um i'm so for the

sake of simplicity okay understand this the world bank the job is to give you loans okay so let's say you are China and you are poor right you need to build dams well the World Bank gives you money and when it gives you money what it does is it allows you to start playing this game okay it allows you to participate in this game now what always happens is eventually the country's poor so much money they have to go into debt and they can't pay off the money right so then what happens is the IMF comes in and changes your government and its economic policies to make it conform more to the game okay does that make sense and its main mechanism is called privatization all right so what the IMF says is okay well you're inefficient you can't pay off the debt because you're inefficient you're inefficient because the public should not be in

control of the infrastructure the public should not be in control of water okay private companies should be in charge of the water and electricity and the land okay so the goal of the World Bank and IMF is to spread the game throughout the world all right okay then in 1947 they create something called the GATT okay the GATT is a general agreement on tariff and trade so this is the WTO basically okay that's changed into the WTO in 1995 all right so it's basically an agreement on free trade, right? Does that make sense? 1973, SWIFT. SWIFT is an agreement amongst different banks in the world on how to transfer money, okay? So, for example, if you want to transfer money from China, room B, into America to go to university, right? Guess what, guys, let's go through SWIFT, okay? So now it allows for more cooperation among banks in the world to use U.S.

dollars, all right? Now, the last thing is, okay, how do these countries get together and decide on how to cooperate economically? And the answer is the Bank of International Settlements, okay, okay? And the idea is that the central banks of different countries get together and they agree on certain policies, all right? And this is all done, this is all done privately, in secret. No one knows about them, okay? All right, so this is the game that America creates. It's very simple, okay? And there are other components, but we'll focus on this now. Throughout the semester, we will focus on how this game is played, specifically, but first I just introduce it to you, all right? Okay, so now let's talk about how the U.S. dollar conquers the world, all right? So, for the longest time, this system works well, okay? The United States is in competition with the Soviet Union. But over time, the Americans start to abuse this system.

So, they pay for things they can't really pay for. For example, the war in Vietnam. For example, a space race. For example, something called the Great Society, okay? They're just spending too much money. And other countries start to freak out. So, France basically withdraws all its gold from the United States. So, in 1971, what Nixon does is say, you know what? Here's the secret, guys. We actually don't have enough gold to pay off everyone, okay? So, screw this. We're not gonna peg the dollar to gold anymore, okay? Do you understand? You can now no longer redeem your U.S. dollars for gold. It's done, okay? So, now what happens is the U.S. dollar becomes a Ponzi scheme, all right? What is a Ponzi scheme? A Ponzi scheme is basically, the U.S. dollar is valuable because people want to use it. Do you understand? There's no value in itself.

It's only valuable because people want to use it. So, now Nixon has to go and create demand for the U .S. dollar, right? So, the first thing he does is he goes to Saudi Arabia. He creates something called a petrodollar. The idea of the petrodollar is very simple. Saudi Arabia, which is the largest oil exporter in the world, will only accept payment in U.S. dollars. Therefore, if you want oil, you have to have U.S. dollars, okay? That's the first thing that Nixon does. The second thing that Nixon does is actually even more important. What does he do? Do you guys know? He visits China, okay? Not only does he visits China, but he establishes a framework in which America will give China everything, okay? In 1980s, what happens? America gives China everything. It's market access, right? Now, U.S. consumers can buy goods from China. That's a huge deal, guys, okay?

That's number one. Number two is America gives China FDI technology education, all right? Imagine what happens. America gives foreign investment to China, gives all this capital to China, gives all this technology to China, right? All these military secrets that America has, it gives to China for free. And not only that, but America educates the Chinese elite, okay? In the 1980s, all these Chinese students, Chinese students for grad school go to America to learn American technology, okay? And the third thing, and this is the most important, is military protection. All these conflicts that China has with Southeast Asia, with Japan, Vietnam, America will now protect China. When Chinese ships export goods to Europe, Africa, and the United States, the U.S. Navy will now protect these. Chinese ships, okay, do you understand? And you're like, oh my God, America gave China everything. America made China rich. Why would America do that? And there's one answer, and only one answer.

It should make China use U.S. dollars, okay? It's that simple, okay? So now when China trades with the world, it gets U.S. dollars in return. Do you understand? Okay? Okay? So their idea is to make the world addicted to U.S. dollars. And now that the world is addicted to U.S. dollars, now that the world depends on U.S. dollars, America can now control the global economy, okay? So in 1999, sorry, 1991, the Soviet Union collapses, okay? And now America is the only game in town. There's no one who can challenge the supremacy of the Americans. And so now what happens is America creates something called the New World. The New World Order. The New World Order is based on global trade. But because the United States controls the U.S. dollar, it can now control something called pricing. Pricing just means that the Americans can decide the value of everything, okay?

So what America does is create a price hierarchy. So at the very bottom are resources. All that is manufacturing. Then there's knowledge. And then finance, okay? This is the price hierarchy for the world. All right? And it divides the world into a division of labor, okay? So what is resources? Well, guys, it's Russia. It doesn't make sense. Russia, Africa, South America. What's manufacturing? China. What's knowledge? Europe. And what is finance? America. Okay? Does that make sense? So what's going to happen is that America is going to take its manufacturing and transfer to China, okay? Because it's cheaper for China to do. It's cheaper for America to do it than for America to do it. And all America is going to do is finance, okay? What is finance? Finance is just the creation of money for the purpose of creating more money, right? Okay. So this is the system in place. And at first, it sounds great because everyone's making money, okay?

But there are inherent instability in this system, okay? And we will discuss all this instability throughout the semester. But for the sake of simplicity, let's talk about America. Okay? What happens when you focus on finance is that you become a speculative economy. You focus on gambling, okay? Basically gambling. And this leads to something called the 2008 Great Financial Crisis when the American economy collapsed, okay? And at this time, the entire world economy should have collapsed. And so what happened was all these central banks from around the world came together as a whole. And they decided that in base of Switzerland, the Bank of America National Settlements, okay? Right? The secretive body in which all economic policies are made. And they decided the only way to save the world is if China spends money. Do you understand? Why do we have all these skyscrapers? Why are there all these airports?

Why are all these high -speed railways? Because China, to save the global economy, decided to invest in infrastructure, okay? Okay, and Belt and Road Initiative, and that saved the global economy. Now, after China did this, China developed a lot of debt, okay? And China basically said to the world, listen, we saved the global economy, so we deserve a seat at the table, right? We deserve to be equals to America. And so we're gonna sell our products, our Huawei phones around the world. We're gonna compete with America for global dominance. And America said, screw you, okay? And that led, of course, to Donald Trump. 2016, Donald Trump. And the first thing Donald Trump did, of course, was initiate the US -China trade war, right? China wants to be equal to America. America says, nope, screw you, we're gonna destroy you, okay? So America tried to sanction China. America tried to blockade China, okay?

So we'll discuss this again. We'll discuss this again later on for the semester, okay? Then what happened, of course, is 2022, Russia invades Ukraine, okay? So what Russia's saying is, you know this price hierarchy? Screw this, okay? Because guess what happens, guys? If you don't have any resources, this system doesn't work, okay? Try manufacturing without any resources. Try having knowledge without resources. Try having finance without resources, okay? So when Russia invades Ukraine, it's trying to control the resources of Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine together controls one -third of the world's carbohydrates. Africa, the Middle East, starves to death about Russian and Ukrainian grain, okay? Does that make sense? So now this entire system is in jeopardy, okay? And so what's happening today is America is fighting to save its game. It's trying to fight to save the system. It's trying to fight to save the US dollar. It's trying to fight to save its hegemony, okay? And Russia and China are trying to exert themselves.

So we are in a time of game reset, all right? Game reset. And this is the world that we live in today, okay? All right, so we will discuss this throughout the semester. Any questions? Are you guys clear? So I know this was a lot to take in, but we'll go into the specifics throughout the semester, okay? We'll go and we'll apply it to current events to explain why this is happening. Any questions? Okay.

So the only purpose of America, like they produce a service for China is to let them use US dollars, right? So America can use this game to everyone. But I think China does not do the same thing as America, like they created this game, why?

So we'll discuss this throughout the semester, okay? The relationship between China and the United States. So remember that the United States wants China to play this game. But they can't really say to the world, oh, we're doing this because we're greedy and we want China to be subservient to us, okay? So they said that we want China to play the game because this game will allow the middle class, right? The middle class to rise. It will make China much more democratic, okay? But that was just BS. That was just a fraud, a lie, hypocrisy. All right, so now that China is in this game, all right, what it's trying to do is restructure the game so that it's much more independent, okay? Because the problem for China is, okay, to play this game, what you're doing is you're taking resources, all right? You're, creating, manufacturing exports, okay? And so that's the role of China in this game.

There's certain problems with this game. The first problem is America controls the entire game, right? So America can say, you know what, we don't like you, so you can't trade anymore. So basically they stop, they limit the resources, and they limit the market access, okay? So what China needs to do to survive is the idea of diversify. Create markets outside of the United States. Create, like, five resources that are not dependent on the U.S., okay? So that's a game that China is playing, and that's the idea of BRICS, okay? We will discuss BRICS later on, all right? But the BRICS is a very different concept where before America was trying to impose its game on everyone. Now China is just trying to create a system that is not so dominated by the Americans, okay? That's the Chinese mentality. Right, does that make sense? Okay, all right, any more questions, guys?

Okay, great, so we'll continue this on Thursday, okay?