Subject: Re: Yale Finance Prof. advises 100% stock
I suspect that when the dust settles we'll pop back up. The US is going to come out the other side as the big winner. It will finally be widely recognized that big parts of what is called the First World are more accurately Second World.

I disagree. This issue will not be settled militarily. The US lacks both a plan and the will. Iran knows this. It will be settled at the negotiating table. A while back someone on the BRK board (I believe) recommended a book on negotiation called "Getting More" by Stuart Diamond. Very interesting book, I recommend it. A lot of it was doing things that should be obvious but many people don't think about, but the cardinal negotiating rule is never break trust.

One of the US demands is that Iran dismantle its nuclear program, surrender its enriched uranium, and allow 24/7 monitoring. Iran had already agreed to this deal and complied, but the US broke the agreement with the president claiming he could negotiate a better deal. Of course, he failed to do so. We broke trust, so Iran has no reason to trust us again, especially not the current president. They have no reason to trust us, so we're not getting a better deal.

Same the tariffs. Our agreements were carefully crafted over many years and we broke them arbitrarily, again with the claim better deals would be negotiated. To date, better deals have not been negotiated and they won't be. You get worse deals after you break trust, not better deals.

Nope, none of this stuff benefits us. We're not going to emerge stronger. We going to emerge as weak and untrustworthy. Shoot, that's what our former allies are already saying about us.