As we end 2023 coming in to think about the nature and the shape of 2024, I am struck with how many countries now have begun to repudiate what had been essentially the establishment contract since World War Two. After World War Two, the establishment all across the world, said, You know, we’re going to offer you prosperity, we’re going to offer you a lot of international trade, we’re going to give you a chance to have a better life with new technology, we are going to give you safety by organizing internationally, things like the United Nations, we’re going to create a safer planet. And we’re going to gradually see a pleasant expansion of what might be called civilization. The ability to walk in Central Park at two in the morning and not be afraid. For the ability to travel from country to country without any real problems. 

And over the last 20 years, that contract has begun to fall apart. Countries have adopted some policies that are crazy, particularly on trying to rush to some kind of green future for which we have no technology, and which frankly, doesn’t work. In the long run, you cannot replace fossil fuels with solar and wind power, because you’re just not you can’t generate enough energy. And it’s very expensive. You can’t talk about the cost of internal combustion engines, and then ignore what’s happening.

Two levels, I’ve been briefed, one, the number of batteries that are going to be thrown away, that we don’t have very good method of disposing of, and two, the fact that electric vehicles are heavier, which means you’re both burning out more tires faster, and putting more pressure on the roads. And somebody who knows a lot about this said to me the other day, people haven’t even begun to confront how many tires are going to be that have to be disposed of, because they’re going to burn out so much faster with electric vehicles. 

The result is, and recently, you had over 1000, auto dealers sign a letter to President Joe Biden saying, Please, don’t force people to look at electric cars, because they’re not buying them. And virtually every dealer who has electric cars has an entire lot that he can’t sell. Because people look at it, well, I don’t know. 

For example, if you live in Florida, and you think about evacuating during Hurricane, it’s a long state. If you’re in the southern part of Florida, how often you’re gonna have to stop and charge your car? And how long is it going to take and can even find a charger? And so there are a lot of things going on, we don’t understand yet. 

Result is, in addition, we adopted a very permissive model of not policing, not locking people up. By Thanksgiving, there had been 900 carjackings in DC, our national capitol. We’ve had a huge increase in theft. New York City estimated $4 billion stolen goods in New York from people who now go out and planned it. There are actually pirates operating in San Francisco Bay. I’m not kidding. There are people who operate with piracy, and go out and steal things on boats. In San Francisco Bay. We have a huge drug problem. More Americans die of drug overdoses every year than died in the eight years of the Vietnam War. 

And so people are saying, wait a second, this contract isn’t working anymore. And the result is in country after country, whether you think look at Donald Trump here, you look at the emerging conservatives in Canada. You look at the victory of a libertarian in Argentina, you look at it and very conservative, anti immigration leader who just came in first in the Dutch elections, you look at a conservative woman who’s now the prime minister of Italy on a very conservative ticket. Then you go to Greece, South Korea, Slovakia, Finland, Hungary, all the crime, and you look at France and Germany where they’re really rapidly growing movements that are repudiating the old contract, the old agreement. I think this is gonna be one of the biggest stories of 2024 and beyond.