According to Nehemiah, people really listen to him.

Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall, and we did not buy any land.

All my servants were gathered there for the work.

He loves the wall.

And at my table were 150 Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us.

Now that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep.

Also, fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine.

Hey,

And so I'm curious, how should we perceive trade deficits as, uh, a worker, as a employer, as just a citizen of the United States?

So I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions, because people often use a metaphor of, "Well, if my company has a deficit, that's bad for my company." But a trade deficit is very different from that.

At one level, bilateral trade deficits are somewhat meaningless, and the reason is because of international supply chains.

So I have an Account of Fact memo with a friend, Mark Melitz, and we drew on some other research that shows when the United States imported an iPhone 7 from China, it counted as something like a three hundred dollar import.

The actual amount of what's called value added from China was five dollars.

All the other, you know, components coming from South Korea or Vietnam or even the United States itself, those were, um, just assembled in China.

But the, you know, the, um, the cost to the United States was a two hundred and-- or three hundred dollars, and that was recorded as the trade deficit with China.

Um, and so how do you see Federal Reserve independence playing out, and why is it important for your average US citizen?

Um, yeah, what does it do to us?

us?Well, as you're suggesting, you know, the price of oil has been very volatile.

It's come down from its peak, but, you know, it could go up again next week if their, uh, hostilities, um, continue.

But I think not enough people understand it's not just oil.

Like, very important fertilizers go through the Strait of Hormuz, and that's going to affect the price of food.

And in the West, you're having a drought as well, so, you know, food prices are likely to rise also.

And so this is gonna put a big dent in people's wallets.

Are we on an AI- Are we gonna fall off an AI cliff?

I don't remember.

Interesting.

"And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought them into the temple of Babylon, those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered unto one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom we had made governor, whom he had made governor." So that was the guy you were talking about, right? The-

Kind of, and, and archives.

Yeah.

"And there was found at Ecmaitha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written: 'In the first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus the king'" [chuckles] what? "Made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem.

'Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid.

The height thereof, three score cubits, and the breadth thereof three score cubits.'"

For one thing, they didn't do episiotomies, in large part because midwives, not obstetricians, attended most of the births.

So I would wander through the, the tunnel to the adjacent hospital, and the midwives let me catch babies.

And so by the time I had to go back to Stanford to finish my training, I had already attended about 200 births with midwives, and I thought that was normal, and I had yet to take obstetrics.

On one of my last clerkships before graduation at Stanford, I arrived, uh, and started my first couple of births, and I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder, and it was the chief of obstetrics and gynecology, the academic head.

And he said to me, "Come into my office," in a rather irritated way.

I got to his office, and, uh, he, uh, said to me, uh, "You know, uh, in my service, every woman will get an episiotomy, and if she doesn't get it before the birth, she'll get it after." Which I thought was a sick joke, or maybe it was true.

I didn't know.

Tell me a little bit about what you saw there and, and the connection between that and what you eventually saw in places like, like the east end of Montreal.

Okay.

"Then Hezekiah answered and said, 'Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord.' And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings."And as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings.

So now it's time for-

... is suddenly like, "Yeah, whene- I mean, whenever's good for you." [laughs]

[laughs]For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land.

For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you if ye return unto Him.

I like it.

They're like, "He's, He is-