47 Fitts: Perfect! This is why I think you are a genius. Farrell: It’s very clear. You had two deaths that removed the foot from the brake pedal, and that was David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Fitts: And Bush is now incapacitated, and Cheney is essentially out. Farrell: So you have an entire group of young Turks, essentially, in that segment of the deep state who: 1) Don’t have the experience, 2) Are much more stupid and much more arrogant. Fitts: They are very, very smart, but what they have is the fever, and they don’t know what they don’t know. Farrell: That is part of it. I think they are the ‘yes’ men that the old guard surround- ed themselves with. Now that the foot is no longer on the brake pedal and they no longer have that realpolitik and experience that is guiding them, you can see it in our blundering in foreign policy; it’s all over the place. Now that that brake is removed, they have the fever and they are going to run with it. I think this is part of the problem. I think this is why you are seeing the retrench- ment. I think there is a certain segment of the global crowd that realizes they are in a strategic pickle. You have an emerging conflict – and I’m going to predict that people will watch for this very careful- ly – from the people who do realize the strategic mess they have put themselves in, and they are going to have to reshore the money, reshore the manufacturing of this country, and then you have the people with the fever pitch who want to press forward full steam. That is a dangerous mix because this is also playing out in the background of all these other activities that we see happening. It’s a very, very dangerous situation. Fitts: The first group understands herd management. The second group has always been living in virtual reality. Farrell: Precisely. I think this is going to be one of the themes over the next five years – if not the next decade or so. This is going to play itself out, and it’s going to play itself out chiefly in this country. I think that, to a certain extent. you are seeing it played out in Europe. You have it playing out in terms of the faction behind the Brexit vote, which I would include the royal family with that, and then, on the other hand, you have the people living in their virtual reality world – Macron and the Vice Chancellor of Europe, as someone once said. Merkel has just been reelected. Fitts: Although with a much weaker mandate. Farrell: The alternative for Deutschland Party grew. I think it has 90 seats in the Bundestag, and that is a sign that things are very shaky. She dismissed Schäuble, which is monumental and the end of an era. That was a huge, huge move because he understood things and I don’t think she does. Fitts: I think he is a brilliant man, and I was fascinated. One of the most import- ant books that I read this year – and I recommend it to everybody – is the Greek Finance Minister’s book, Adults in the Room. A couple of things that you see are: 1) The austerity plan is war. They don’t want Greece’s economy to turn around and succeed. They don’t want to get paid back. They want to strip the place. It is the Rape of Russia in a much more sophisticated, subtle plan. 2) The guy’s naiveté allows the process to occur and his ability to record all of the conversations with an iPhone basically shows you that. One thing that you see at the end, is that Schäuble is ultimately a very human per- son who knows how horrible what is hap- pening is and how wrong it is, and some- how his humanity comes out. It wouldn’t surprise me if that book cost him. You know he’s going to be running the Bundestag. He’s going to be the President of the Bundestag. Farrell: It’s going to be interesting to see where his career goes from this point now that he is no longer officially part of her cabinet. I think this puts him in a position of some strength over the long term. Fitts: If I were him, I would much rather be the President of the Bundestag. Farrell: Especially under the conditions now under this new parliament that is coming into office. Fitts: I think austerity might be dead. Farrell: It’s not only that, but the other long-term thing this presages is, is that we are going back to the old guard and the people living in their virtual reality. Merkel is living in her virtual reality, and he’s not. If I remember correctly with Schäuble – and you pointed this out about a year ago – it was Schäuble who pointed out that there is no fixing of the financial system that is not a reform. That’s huge. Fitts: The debt growth model is over. There are no reforms that are not real reforms. I’m curious, but my guess is that he understands that Fortune 500 chart. Farrell: Absolutely. Fitts: We can’t keep destroying the economy just to make the stock market rise. Ultimately, this is the issue of the pilot seniority. Did I ever tell you the pilot seniority story? You speak your point first, and then I’ll tell you the pilot seniority story. Farrell: The other thing that we need to remember about Europe, and particularly Merkel’s government, is that Merkel is coming out of a mentorship from Chan- cellor Kohl. He was her mentor. The Christian Democratic Union in Germany was, in turn, heavily financed by the Ger- man chemicals industry – in other words, the big multi-national global corporations there. Merkel always appeared to me as though she was a national globalist kind of person, and she’s been running Germany and Europe that way, and it’s not working. So Schäuble’s dismissal from the govern- ment, I believe, indicates that there were some really deep philosophical divisions between her and her Finance Minister. He has cut himself loose. I would not be a bit surprised to see him start maneuvering for control of the CDU and see him as a candidate that stands against her next time for leadership of the party. That would not surprise me at all, particu-