We already live in post-capitalist or meta-capitalist times. New feudal lords are emerging whose digital platforms, with the help of the governments that they control, have grown not just into monopolistic markets, but rather into digital fiefdoms in which you, me, all of us are their neosurfs. This is why, last year, DM25 set up meta, our center for post-capitalist civilization. In our mission statement, we explained its purpose. It says, we live in post-capitalist times. They may turn out dystopic, utopic, or anything in between, through art and research, argument and poetry. Meta works to break with a dystopic present, to imagine the world I knew, to grasp our present historical moment in order to help progressive movements find the path from the emergent dismal post-capitalism to a post-capitalism worth fighting and living for. That was our mission statement. Meanwhile, the most prominent of the techno feudal lords, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame, has already told us in no uncertain terms what he wants. He is planning to turn Facebook into a three-dimensional metaverse in which people, billions of people, move their lives. A digital world in which humanity lives, works, plays, and laughs. A world that he owns, and in which we, you, are his digital serfs, make no mistake. Zuckerberg, basis, and company are helping on creating exactly that which DM25's meta was created to prevent, a techno feudal dystopia. And as if to drive his point home, Mark Zuckerberg made the first step by announcing that this 3D version of Facebook is going to be called meta. So here we are, staring at a fork in the road. We can take DM25's meta path towards a technologically democratized society, leading one day when technology allows to something like a Star Trek liberal communism. Or we can surrender to Mark Zuckerberg's meta, a techno dystopia that will lead humanity to a matrix like nightmare. Well this is where you come in. To help us help you walk DM25's meta path, rather than to be sucked into Zuckerberg's meta, here are some simple steps you can take right now. A good first step would be to join DM25 along with Nam Chomsky, Caroline Lucas, Naomi Klein, Slavoj Cizek, and tens of thousands of intellectuals and activists across Europe around the world. A second important step is to donate some money to DM25, noting and remembering that Zuckerberg is investing zillions into his metaverse dystopia. Now we don't need zillions, but we still need a little bit of money to continue our work. And the third and final step is to follow DM25's meta and contribute to our work, ideas, projects and so on. It's either DM25's meta or Zuckerberg's meta. So let's seize the day or carpet DM, as we say, DM25. For if you, we fail to seize the day, Zuckerberg, Bezos and the others will. So join us. Join DM25's meta.


In Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources recognizes May as National Arbor Month. For this week's Golden Apple, Hady Clotter shows us how students at Clearbrook Gombeck School are contributing by planting trees. Clearbrook Gombeck School has a 360-acre school forest in their neck of the woods. Agriculture education teacher Kim Anderson says it's the largest school forest in the state. There aren't very many trees on this specific property, and so we decided that it would be an opportunity that we could plant some trees and build a shelter belt. Fourth, fifth and sixth graders planted the trees with the assistance of upperclassmen and foresters. This day provided the seedlings for the school's forest for Minnesota's Arbor Month and to teach students about how trees grow. Trees are always a good thing in the community, an area like this where there's a lot of open land, it sure is nice to have trees, helps educate the children about having trees and the things that trees are good for. Upperclassmen like Brandon Quirin help the younger students plant trees, which included digging a hole and properly putting the tree into the ground. I think they learned that the tree planting is important, you know, for the soil around here. Our soil isn't the best up at the school grounds and the tree should help put some of the nutrients back into it. This worked quickly. Within 30 minutes, 100 spruce trees and 100 white cedar trees were planted. This is their land, this is where they're going to end up, this is where they're going to raise their kids and so to take care of that, you know, it's a really important part of living. For the students that eventually want to work in natural resources, the school forest program gives them that connection. It gives students a good idea of what they can do not only at their own homes but also in the community. You know, planting trees is a great activity for them so to show them how to do that, you know, it gives them a lifelong skill that they'll always know. The Clearwater Soil and Water Conservation District is also giving a variety of trees to every elementary student in the district. Now these young foresters can plant a tree of their own. For this week's Golden Apple and Clearbrook, Hady Clodder, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Hi everyone, Sean with jaspyscasebrakes.com here doing 2019-2020 Penini Mosaic basketball. Hobby, one box break, where every spot can see three random teams. So 10 spots, where we can get three random teams to NBA and all cards ship. There you go. Here is our list of customers. Thanks to everybody for getting in. Scott Blackwell down to Brian Heyman. Last spot, Mojo, Brian Heyman times two. And the teams from the Hawks down to the Washington Wizards. Since every spot can see three random teams we need to triple up this list. Well that and this is the time to actually be buying it too Brian when offseason prices are there. So Brian last spot Mojo once, twice, three times. Dice roll randomized both lists and pair them up. Two and a one three times. Third and final time. Brian down to Bennett. Three times on the teams. There you go. Warriors. Kistans. So three times on the teams. Three times customers. Three times dice. There you go. Brian Heyman. Warriors. Scott Blackwell. Magic. Bennett Page. Spur. Sean O'Leary. Bucks. Adam Bernstein. Jazz. Brody Vaughn. Nets. Scott Blackwell. Hornets. Kings. Sean O'Leary. Nuggets. Scott Blackwell. Pelicans. Sean O'Leary. Thunder. Brian Heyman. Lakers. Sean O'Leary. Rockets. Brian Heyman. Mavericks. Hawks. Adam Bernstein. 76ers. Sean O'Leary. Grizzlies. Brian Heyman. Raptors. Bennett Page. Clippers. Adam Bernstein. Cavaliers. Scott Blackwell. Sons. Brian Heyman. Celtics. Wizards. Brody Vaughn. Heat. Brian Heyman. Bowls. Sean O'Leary. Pacers. Brian Heyman. Blazers. Brody Vaughn. Nicks. Scott Blackwell. Timberwolves. Bennett Page. Pistons. Trade window is open. This is your opportunity to trade for your favorite team or trade out of the teams that you did get. So here is the full list. Trade window is open. I'm going to turn on the NIC cam here. You can see Sealbox and actually pop over here for a second. Sealbox, Mosaic, Hobby 2019-2020. So while you guys are thinking about possible trades, I'm going to close the trade window as soon as I'm done. Pack stacking on this box. It's not a lot. It's 10 packs. It won't be very long. Brody is asking if anybody wants the Nets. I know Brian's in the chat. I'm trying to think who else would be in the chat that was here earlier. Bennett maybe? Bennett might be in the chat. I know he bought not too earlier tonight. Brian says no, not for him on the Nets. Anyone big? This is first year Kevin Durant on these ones. Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. I was like Kevin Durant first year with Brooklyn Nets. Okay, trade window. Obviously, I think you're only trying to trade in Nets and Brian's only one active in the chat. He said no. So we're going to go ahead and close the trade window. Trade window going once, twice, three times. Cool. So let's print this out. You also have Rookie Nicholas Claxton who has shown some pretty decent potential too. So here are the stacks. That's our full box there and our final list. Thanks to everybody for getting in on this and closing it up tonight. Remember all card ship Aaron Holiday, Pacers, Sean O'Leary and Steph Curry, Team USA Red. The hobby reds are not numbered but Golden State Warriors, Brian Heyman on that one, Ardrey Barrett for the Nicks, Brodie Von and Kyrie Center Stage for the Nets, Brodie Von, Ruihachimura, Wizards, Brian Heyman, Zion, NBA debut, Pelicans, Scott Blackwell, Larry Bird, Hall of Fame, Silver, Celtics, Brian Heyman, and Kenrick Williams for the Pelicans, another hobby red, Scott Blackwell, De'Aaron Fox, Stairmasters for the Kings, Scott Blackwell, and Steph Curry again for the Warriors, Brian Heyman. I know he does not know Brian, not this year's maybe 2020-2021 not 2019-20-20 though. Danilo Galanari for the Thunder, Sean O'Leary and D'Angelo Russell, hobby red, Warriors, Brian Heyman, LeBron James, Lakers, Brian Heyman, and Zion Bass, Pelicans, Scott Blackwell, Trey Young, second year, Atlanta Hawks, Brian Heyman. See if some of this up. Yeah, I can't say that with 100% certainty Brian but I'm almost positive without even looking that he does not have an auto in this. So this year they've had a pretty big return of him with autos and products. There was some question about some of his rookie autos and who may have may or may not have autographed them so I think Panini was a little bit hesitant on having him in a lot of products after that they wanted the window to kind of wash away with the rest of that concern before they put him back in you know and this year they've put him back into products so and he's in quite a few different products not like high number autos but still he is in there live. Austin Rivers for the Rockets that is Sean O'Leary and our first numbered color is Buddy Heald Blue out of 99 for the Kings, Scott Blackwell, Kobe White for the Bulls, Brian Heyman and Steph Curry Overdrive, Golden State Warriors, Brian Heyman. I love this insert set. These are non numbered but such a cool look. Darius Garland, Cavs, Adam Bernstein and Bruno Fernando, Kobe White, Bulls, Brian Heyman and LeBron Bass, Lakers, Brian Heyman, such a great looking card. Our auto, it's Taylin Horton Tucker also for the Lakers. Very nice. He, people really like him so that's cool. Brian there again, Scotty Pippen, Bulls, Brian Heyman and Kasey Akpala for the Heat and Brody Vaughn. You got Joellen Bied for the 76ers and Adam Bernstein and Steph Curry again for the Warriors, Brian Heyman, Seku Demboya, Piston's Bennett Page, Deandre Hunter for the Hawks and Brian Heyman. Kelbin Johnson, very nice. Rookie Silver, Spurs, Bennett Page and Bryn Forbes for the Spurs also Bennett Page. Deiren Fox for the Kings, Scott Blackwell, THT Rookie Otto. I thought maybe the black, I was like wait is that a one-on-one but I think the all black is the one-on-one. That's why I keep looking at the back of it, I'm like wait is that number? I know, right? Some RJ Barrett, let's get it Brody.  Last stack, first year Durant, Brooklyn Nets, Brody Vaughn like we were just talking about. Miles Turner for the Pacers, Sean O'Leary and Taco Fall for the Celtics, Brian Heyman, Trey Young's second year Hawks, Brian Heyman and Luca Donchich for the Mavericks, Brian Heyman, Deandre Hunter, Hawks, Brian Heyman, what's up Jonathan? Kevin Knox for the Knicks, that is Brody Vaughn and a white Dominique Wilkins, that is out of 25, eight out of 25 for the Hawks, Brian Heyman, the Mosaic whites are so nice. James Harden for the Rockets, nice swagger insert, Sean O'Leary and Cameron Johnson for the Sons, Scott Blackwell, Deandre Hunter for the Hawks, Brian Heyman and Shay Gildes Alexander for the Thunder, Sean O'Leary, Ricky Rubio for the Sons, Scott Blackwell and PJ Washington Jr. for the Hornets, Scott Blackwell, Steph Curry Warriors, Brian Heyman and D'Angelo Russell Silver for the Warriors Brian Heyman, Cantavious Caldwell Pope, Lakers, Brian Heyman, Yanis, Bucks and Sean O'Leary, RJ Barrett, Knicks, Brody Vaughn, LeBron James, Cavs Edition, MVP, Adam Bernstein and PJ Washington Jr. to finish it off for us and the Hornets and there you go for Scott Blackwell. One box hobby break of 2019, 2020, Panini Mosaic, basketball, three random teams with each spot number one in the books. I'm Sean, JaspiesCaseBricks.com. We have a whole other box in the store, JaspiesCaseBricks.com. Thanks for hanging out. See you next time.


Thank you very much. So we get down now to the hard matter to the actual recommendations that have been made by the working group on risk-free rates so far, so it will become more technical, much more technical than so far. We're very happy here to have the chairs or co-chairs of various of the subgroups of the working group and let me introduce them one by one. So here on my left we have Anna Koshevnikova. Anna is head of the group Chief Investment Officer of his EdGenerale and she is one of the sub-chairs of the subgroup on cash products and derivatives. Then to her left we have Christian Gau, Director Treasury at Deutsche Bank, so he's the co-chair of that same working group. Then on his left we have Markus Schmidtchen, head of Treasury of KFW and he is in charge of the subgroup on financial accounting and risk management. And then last but not least Cheka Pardo from BBVA and Global Economics and Public Affairs Department and he is chairing the subgroup on contractual robustness. So thanks very much for being here today. So let's get straight into the topics. Christian, maybe we can start with you and yeah, you could give again an overview of the timeline. Of the transition from the Ionia to the Euro short-term rate and then tell us a bit what it means for the various product types. Yes, okay. So I think we have the timeline now. Is that a microphone? Yes. We have the timelines now already in the previous speeches to some extent. So let's have a look at at a picture which shows you actually what is going to happen when and also include some of the recommendations that we have been making already in there. So basically you can look at this in two steps. So on the 2nd of October. So what happens is that the publication time of the Ionia will change from same day, so same day end of day as we all know to the next morning 9 o'clock. So and that publication time is obviously triggered by the implementation or the go life of Euro-STR. Euro-STR will therefore be published for the first time in the morning of the 2nd of October. And in sync, Ionia, and you heard that before, will be recalibrated in a way that it equals Euro-STR plus 8.5 basis points. So that is that step. That step is basically kind of the initiation of the process. And then you already heard that Ionia will cease to be published on the 3rd of January 2002. So end of end of 2021. We will have a transition time exactly in between that. So that transition time is obviously what we are going to be looking at in more detail in a few minutes. But what you can see on the graph, and that's important to note which I will pick up on in a few minutes, is already a recommendation when we believe the so-called discounting switch date, which is basically kind of the date on which we would like to change the use of or we would like to change, which we recommend to change the use of Ionia as the discounting measure for the valuation of derivatives contracts. And basically we recommend to use that timeframe, which is basically the second quarter of 2020, to make that change. And I will explain in a few seconds why we believe that that recommendation is important to recognize. So on the next page, oh, I think wrong direction here. So this one is right. So let's have a look at a few of the implications. The implications of that change is maybe some of the implications that people were worried of, that will not come to us. It will not affect the publication of Ionia via the usual distribution channels. So all the places in Reuters and other market data vendors where you find Ionia today, they will continue to exist and Ionia will be published via these channels. Obviously in a recalibrated way, as I said before, therefore all the unique identifiers, which you know, which you have incorporated in the systems, they all stay the same. Also in terms of the time series, obviously no change as well. The only thing you have that tends to be incorporated by I think all market participants is of course that the publishing date does not match anymore with the date that Ionia is actually applicable to. So therefore there is a T2T plus one gap in there and that needs to be incorporated into any buildup of histories. Market participants are also requested to align their processes with that publication date, of course, which is important as it influences settlement procedures. It influences the calculation of compensation for clients on certain contracts so all of that needs to be brought in line with the publication time, of course. Especially the settlement procedures needs to be taken into consideration. We have made a recommendation in the report that in order to make it applicable to kind of a large area or a large range of different market participants from different areas of this world, especially from the Asian area, it might be recommendable to also to have a change from T plus one settlement, which is on the next day after the fixing to T plus two. That is currently being discussed I would like to add. And it depends very much actually on the processes applicable in the individual market, I should say. So therefore please review that carefully and please review that mainly, especially together with your clients. On the next page what we are now looking at is one the market segment, the derivatives market segment. So how to what extent does the union now impact the derivatives market? And the first thing that we need to talk about is the so-called floating rate option. It's a term that is being used in ISTA contracts. It basically describes the rate that is applied to the individual derivatives contracts for the underlying rate that is agreed upon. And what is important there to take a look at is how can you transition from that to Euro-STR. And the two approaches which we came up with in the working group is basically the so-called fallback approach. So you define a fallback for your union for your current union contracts and rely on that fallback from the very point in time on union ceases to be published. The second alternative is and that's what we actually recommend to use is an active transition. So you take a look at your portfolios of union-related contracts and you actively transition them by renegotiating the floating rate. And therefore also obviously agreeing with your market or with your clients respective your counterparties as to the compensation from changing from a union to Euro-STR. Then the next part or the next segment of topics that we typically look at in terms of derivatives is the collateral remuneration. It's and that's let's keep in mind the impact of a union to the derivatives market is not so much about the union contracts themselves, it is more about the use of a union as the compensation rate or the price alignment rate I should say for price alignment interest for the CSA contracts, for therefore the collateralization of the individual derivatives contracts. So and that and that rate and that impact is I think the more important one. So therefore you need to you need to transition from the current use of a union for the construction of discounting curves. You need to find a transition path for the current use of the compensation rate. So on the discounting, the working group has always been recommending to go for clean discounting. So clean discounting means no different no different indices used for one set of for ACSA set. So that means for an agreement that you have with either your central your your your CCP, so your central counterparty platform and off with your client. So we recommend to basically keep an individual CSA set clean in terms of the use of the discounting approach. So that's kind of our recommendation there. So for the compensation, we recommend that your STR is to the extent possible always. Let's keep that in mind here. So we keep the your STR flat as a recommendation and we're using and we recommend cash payments to be made in order to accommodate for the economic value difference. That is a very simple method and that is chosen for for a good reason because we believe that all other alternative methods that we were discussing are more complex to implement. And therefore that should be the preferred choice. Alternatively, if not possible, we basically recommend to do it in two steps. First, transition to your STR plus eight point five. And then at a later point in time, once you can do the final step without frictions, go to your STR flat then. But again, recommendation is to use your STR right from the start as far as possible. Scouting switch date. We mentioned that already. That is basically the date on which the use of your STR should be used to create discounting curves for the evaluation or the valuation of derivatives contracts. And we recommend so we recommend is a big bang approach for the CCP's as far as possible. So obviously that is subject to execution now and it is currently being discussed and being one of the important topics we discussed in the working group. So therefore, let's say as far as possible. And then because we believe everything else would be too much of a coordination effort and actually not executable, we recommend that the bilateral market would then follow in a phased approach. So that the CCP's would kick it off and the bilateral market would take it from there. So also, please keep in mind to avoid the use of so-called dual-strap curves in projection and discounting. That is really important because that could lead to all sorts of valuation questions when you determine the corresponding value together with your clients and agree the corresponding payments. One final remark on derivatives is that for for valuation of options on derivatives with physical settlement, keep in mind that after the discounting switch date, now the option basically refers to a euro STR discounted derivative. So that might be triggering a revaluation and compensation in itself. So keep that in mind. That is the side effect which you need to keep in mind when dealing with portfolios like that. So I pass on to Anna for the second part of our presentation. Thank you, Christian. So what about cash products impacted by this reform? The mandate of our subgroup was to analyze product by product and from valuation operational standpoint, how actually the market or what kind of recommendations we could provide market participants with in order to transition from EONIA to euro STR in a smoothed way. First of all, we analyzed what kind of products we've seen the cash universe actually exposed to EONIA and will be exposed to this reform. So of course, I mean, we found out that we have securities or commercial papers in Europe referencing EONIA. Of course, investment funds because investment funds like, for example, money market funds, investing money market instruments and also in derivatives and of course, loans, bilateral loans or for example, swing line loans and also cash accounts or cash deposits. So the universe of these cash products is quite wide. And what I would like to highlight is that compared to derivatives, cash products have very often different infrastructures, different systems, IT systems, different legal frameworks. So it's actually the transition could require more efforts for cash products compared to derivatives. And this is something that should be taken into account by the market. Apart from the operational complications, what Christian was mentioning before, actually is a change, is a publication date because these impacts all settlement procedures that we have also for cash products. We also found out that there are other aspects that should be managed especially in the transition phase that we are going to manage and to handle in the next month. Of course, first of all, regarding securities, we strongly suggested not to issue new securities referencing EONIA. So we strongly suggest to start issuing new securities indexed Euro-STR rate, so the new rate. Of course, it means that also infrastructure systems and IT systems should be able to manage this. So should be able to trade, to buy, to issue, and also accounting systems should be ready to handle these new securities. Regarding the investment funds, as I was mentioning, investment funds are largely exposed to this reform. First of all, we need to remember about the net asset value calculation. So it's going to be impacted, especially by the change in the publication data. So again, the move from T to T plus one. And then, of course, the market also should consider the legal aspects. So as we know, in some funds, we have EONIA as a benchmark, used as a benchmark, or as a hurdle rate to calculate the performance fee. So this is something that, again, should be analyzed and should be managed in the next month in order to transition from EONIA to the new rate Euro-STR. Regarding, again, in general, what I would like to highlight is that many cash products are retail products. And the communication aspects are very, very relevant in this case. So education of your clients, communication towards your clients is really important, especially for this part of the market. Just the last remark regarding the loans, that especially in this case we're talking bilateral loans, or there could be infra-group loans, or syndicated loans, so swing-line loans, especially exposed to EONIA. In this case, we also would like to highlight the working group that any compensation mechanism should be analyzed between the counterparties in order to, again, to manage the transition from EONIA to the new Euro-STR rate. Another aspect that we needed to work on within our subgroup was to analyze evaluation aspects. So how this reform is going to impact our evaluation systems and valuation models in particular. And here we are talking about the models. So what kind of models are exposed to this reform or are going to be affected by this reform? And, of course, again, when we looked at the universe of the models, we can mention interest rate of construction models, also term structure models, or discounting cash flow models. So the universe is quite wide, and what is important to highlight is that, of course, the structure of the models is not going to be impacted itself. But what is important to consider is, of course, input data, parameters, and especially discounting curves. So the discounting curves is something that should be managed very carefully. In general, what we also recommend as a working group, and especially subgroup five, is to design a transition plan for the models affected by this reform, because it's not only depends on the 2nd of October of this year, so actually the date of publication of the new rate, but it's also depends on how the market is going to evolve in the next months, in the next years, and when, actually, in this case, we will be able to build up, for example, the discounting, new discounting curve to be used in these models, and when actually these models should use these curves in the internal systems and internal processes. So this is something that should be planned. Regarding the discounting curve itself, of course, the first question was, how a new discounting curve based on the new rate can be constructed? After a lot of discussion, actually our suggestion was to use this fixed spread, 8.5 basis points in order to be able to build up the new curve. So it means that already starting from the 2nd of October, you can build a new curve based on the Ionia curve. Of course, it doesn't mean that this curve will exist for the next years and for, even during the transition period, because, of course, the market, especially the new euro-star market is going to evolve, to develop in the next months, and it means that it's important to observe that market, to understand when the market gets more liquidity and when, actually, it will be possible to move from this euro-star or Ionia-based euro-star curve to a real euro-star curve, so based on liquid build-up, based on liquid instruments and reliable, reliable data. So this is something that, of course, should be monitored, should be planned for the next months. Another aspect that I would like to highlight here, and it also was stressed by the working group, is that, I mean, it may happen that during the transition period, we will need to manage different curves. So Ionia curve, euro-star curve based on Ionia minus 8.5 beeps, and then also monitor situation and to start building a new euro-star curve. So basically it means that at certain point of time, we need to consider that we will be somehow constrained to manage four different curves. Of course, this could put additional requirements to our systems, to our infrastructure, infrastructures, to our processes and procedures. Another point I would like to highlight is that if we talk about the Ionia discounting curve, is also, the change in the curve is going to impact arrive or pass-off rate curves. And another aspect to be considered that, especially we need to be careful about non-linear derivatives because the switching of the PI rate from Ionia flat to the euro-star flat is going to impact that. So this is something that should be analyzed carefully. So that's all about the models. Just the last word, in August, in particular, on the 19th of August of this year, we published sub-group 5 and the ECB published the report on how to manage or what could be the best way to manage a transition from union to euro-star for derivatives and cash products. So we strongly invite you to read that report and because there are a lot of aspects not discussed today, but covered in the report and a lot of details that you can find probably useful for you. So we invite you to consult. Thanks very much, Anna and Christian. So that's a lot of material to digest already, I think. So please also refer to these documents and we will, of course, also make online the presentations of today. As I see some of you taking pictures, I suppose, already in the course of the day. So you can refer to that. And I also want to say that at the end of this panel, we will have the possibility for you to ask questions. So please already think a bit ahead whether there are any details you would like to ask the panelists about. Yeah, with that I hand over to the next speaker, Marco Schmidtian, chair of the sub-group on risk and accounting issues and he will enlighten us with the work and recommendations of his group. Yeah, thank you very much, Cornelia, but I would like to start with a question. So what's the name of the new animal? So we started with Esther, and then I thought the official name is EuroSTR and today I heard that's E-STR, so who's right? It's EuroShort-term rate. Okay, but that's a bit too long. You can say EuroSTR. Okay, so I'm more used to EuroSTR, so I use the same name as the second Steven did, so I hope that's okay with you. All right, so yeah, first of all, I wanted to say that, I mean, there was a kind of overlap between the sub-group five and the sub-group six, so and we have already heard it because you had a look into models, valuations, compensation payments as well, but your focus was much more on the product-specific level and within the sub-group six, so the sub-group I'm presenting, accounting risk management, we tried to stay more on a macro level, on a generic level, especially to give advice to institutions that are not, let's say, on the forefront of the transition to make them aware of what's going on and what functions need to be considered when setting up a benchmark transition program. And the speakers already mentioned, so the complicated issue is that when we talk about the transition from a union to EuroSTR is not only the transition of a floating rate option, so the overnight rate is heavily used also in the derivative space, price alignment interest, we spoke about it, but it's also highly relevant for the valuation, for risk management purposes, pricing purposes, but also financial accounting purposes, of course, and that's also the reason why, yeah, it's not only about new products, it's also about how to adapt the system infrastructure, risk management systems, but also accounting systems and so on, and therefore I would like to emphasize what Steven, the second, has said. Don't underestimate this transition, if you haven't started yet, it's really time to do so. And on the first slide here, we have put some risk types that might be affected depending on the individual exposure of a financial institution or of a corporate to the overnight rate, and we see that it is nearly the whole risk landscape that might be affected, so there are, of course, the obvious financial risks that are going to change, valuation risks. We spoke about the adaption of valuation systems, of various valuation systems, we might see changes in market risk metrics and in the valued risk calculations, dressed bar calculation, for example, or interest rate sensitivities depending on the institution-specific setup, and then we also have so-called second-order financial risks, counterparty credit risk, liquidity risks that might be affected, especially in the space also of derivatives depending if you have many uncollateralized derivatives contracts outstanding or also collateralized, but also non-financial risks are affected. We started to speak about it and we will hear from Checker about it, about the legal risk, for example. If you have got the financial contracts outstanding with the maturity exceeding end of 2021 and that are based on Aeonia, then I mean you have to start to reignitiate it and to transfer these contracts within the next two years to a new rate. Then we have technical risk factors, process disruption risk, IT risk, model risk that are in close connection to the adaption of IT systems, and then we have, of course, also kind of reputational risk if something is going wrong in this very, very important transition period and it might be possible that it creates negative headlines. Another aspect here heavily debated in the financial industry is also client communication. I mean, how should you communicate this transition to your clients? I mean, of course, it depends quite a lot on what's your concrete business here is, but this is potentially, of course, also a source of reputational risk if the clients don't feel that they get enough informations. Within the transition, a very, very important aspect is, of course, the adaption of IT systems and with this slide, I just want to highlight generally, or for at least quite a lot of financial institutions, a whole set of IT systems is impacted and knowing that the adaption of IT systems is very, very time consuming, that if you haven't start to adapt the systems or if you even haven't set up what you want to achieve and how you're exposed to the overnight rate, then it's really here time and it usually starts with the market data that needs to be feed in a market database. Based on this data, lots of applications are running, trading and booking system, pricing, valuation, engines, and these values are then also used for other applications such as collateral management for accounting purposes and so on, and at the end of this value chain, there's, of course, the generation of the financial reporting or the risk metrics, risk management, so have a look here on the adaption of the IT systems. It is usually the most time consuming part in the transition process. And that were already some key messages with regards to the risk management aspect, so not the main part because of the lack of the time, but we are going to publish a report. I expect the report to be ready within the next one or two weeks and you will find plenty of more recommendations, but, as I said, due to the time limit, I will leave it here on this information level. So then I would like to continue with potential impacts on financial accounting and, again, also this is highly instituted specific and it depends on how you have set up your financial accounting. But many, for many institutions, the overnight rate is highly relevant due to its crucial role for valuations, especially if banks are operating, for example, in the multi-curve environment, the base curve is the Ionia and if the Ionia ceases to exist and you have to implement EuroSDR, then it might certainly have an impact on the financial accounting and we have analyzed especially three channels through which the impact might come from when I start from the right side, so IRS 19, IRS 36 and so on. These are standards where these contrates play a pivotal role for the valuation of financial assets and financial liabilities, for example, the calculation of employee benefits and payment of assets provisions and so on. If their present value creation depends on the overnight rate and the overnight rate switches, you will see an impact here. In the middle, you will find the IFRS 13, which might also be relevant and IFRS 13 defines requirements for measuring financial assets and liabilities at fair value through profit and loss and there's a hierarchy, how you have to derive your fair value. For very, very liquid instruments, you take market prices, so that's the highest liquidity level for less liquid assets. You take market-based prices, so you got some observable information in a relatively liquid market and if there's a big lack of liquidity, then you make model prices, so the derivation here highly depends on the liquidity of the financial instrument. It is fair to assume that if we speak about Ionia instruments, that we will see over the transition period a decreasing liquidity, so that it might lead to a situation in which you have to change your level and that might have, of course, also an impact on the value and then if there's a value differential, you have to recognize it in the profit and loss. And the most prominent impact might come out of IFRS 9 and IFRS 39, that these are the well-known hedge accounting standards and they are heavily debated in the financial industry. Why? Because if hedge accounting relationships discontinue that might impact the profit or loss, quite a lot, would create volatility with many negative side effects, so which is something not really useful to support the successful transition. And the problem is that an interest rate transition might impact these standards quite a lot, so there are questions like, is a switch from Ionia to EuroSDR, substantial modification contracts or not, so this is something that needs to be answered. There are questions about hedge effectivity. Is the effectivity decreasing of a hedge? How likely are the probability of the future cash flows and so on? So many, many open questions and that's also the reason why we as a working group but also many other working groups in the financial space has approached the accounting standard board to request for some reliefs and the general guidance here should be in our view that the discontinuation of hedging relationships should be avoided as long as this discontinuation is solely caused by a transition from one rate to another because it wouldn't impact actually the risk management strategy or it wouldn't reflect the change in the risk management strategy of a bank. And the good news is, and that's my last slide, that the IASB here is acting. It's pretty good so that they set up a program how to deal with the IBO reforms, not only here the Ionia EuroSDR reform but also other IBO reforms that are ongoing and it is expected that they are amending the IRS 39 and IRF S9 in two phases and the two phase approach and that they are providing reliefs to hedge accounting requirements which would of course be in favor of the market and be very, very helpful. So that's what I went with regards to the accounting section. We have already sent a letter to the IASB, I mentioned it, it's on the ECB website. We are currently in the state of preparing so finalizing the risk management report and I expect the report on financial accounting to be ready end of October. Thanks very much, Marc. And then we go right to the contractual robustness working group and let's check out what we're doing. Thank you, thank you Cornelia. Today it has been pointed out in many occasions that Ionia will modify its methodology in this week but more important Ionia will be discontinued in December 2021. To this end, the working group publish in July this year the Ionia to USTR legal action plan with the objective of proposing a set of recommendations to ensure a smooth legal transition from Ionia to USTR. There are three main recommendations. The first one is was pointed out there before. The working group recommends our market participants to start using USTR as soon as possible as soon as operational feasible. The second one in those cases where new contracts are still referencing Ionia and maturing beyond December 2021 or fall under the scope of the BMR where market participants need to include fallback provisions in these contracts and for legacy contracts in particular those legacy contracts maturing beyond December 2021 market participants should consider two options either replace Ionia or introduce fallback provisions in legacy contracts. To this end, the working group officially recommends USTR plus 8.5 basic points as at the Ionia fallback rate for all pros and purposes. These recommendations are more or less clear. Here the main challenge is how to introduce our fallback in contrast or how to amend the legacy portfolio. I will briefly outline these recommendations by asset classes. For derivative transactions the ISDA benchmark supplement and the ISDA benchmark supplement protocol provide a convenient way for all market participants to introduce fallback provisions in new contracts and to amend the legacy derivative transactions. In addition, last Friday ISDA announced the introduction of a specific Ionia fallback provisions in their ISDA definitions which I think it would help all market participants to enhance transparency and legal certainty about how will be the transition from Ionia to ISDA for derivative transactions. But ISDA is not the unique master agreement used in Europe. We have also the Spanish master agreement, the French master agreement, the German master agreement. So in this sense, the working group recommends the sponsors of these master agreements to amend their agreements to introduce fallback provisions and therefore, and then all market participants to use these master agreements. But the working group not only provides some recommendations to market participants, they are also for public authorities and in particular, I would like to highlight one recommendation in order to clarify that the amending legacy transactions does not entail margin or clearing obligations under the emitter regulation. If with this clarification would help all market participants to start thinking on how to transition. This is in relation to the relative transactions. Thinking on collateral agreements. Collateral agreements deserve a particular attention. There are three main facts that need to take into account thinking in the transition from Ionia to USDR. The first one is collateral agreements do not generally have a termination date. They are not under the scope of the BMR and they do not usually have fallback provisions. After several discussions in the legal subgroup and with the working group, the working group agrees that the introduction of fallback provisions in new collateral agreements would help enhance transparency and legal certainty open the cessation of Ionia in December 2021. To this end, the working group asks the market association, the sporser of collateral agreements, of standardized collateral agreements to develop solutions to include fallbacks in new collateral agreements and to identify options to modify the legacy portfolio. Then if we move on to cash products and when I mentioned cash products referencing Ionia are mainly certificates of deposits, commercial paper, reposts. So all of these, the majority of cash contracts referencing Ionia has short dated maturities. So probably most of them will roll over before December 2021. So I come back to the first recommendation at the beginning. They all market participants who start using Eurostia as soon as possible. But in those cases where cash products are still using Ionia and material beyond December 2021, we need to remind that for syndicate loans, the loan market association provides a standard market documentation with robust fallback provisions that market participation may wish to apply and also the working group publish two alternative fallback templates that market participants may wish to apply in their new cash contracts. I'm moving to the legacy portfolio of cash products. We need to remind that the use of ISDA style protocol to amend legacy portfolio is neither a market standard nor feasible for cash products. To this end, if there is any legacy cash product material beyond December 2021, its amendment or cancellation should be done through a bilateral renegotiation. To this end, the working group also publish an amendment agreement template that market participants may wish to use on a voluntary basis, of course, in their initial discussions with their parties to modify the amendment agreements. Just to finalize, all of these, I briefly outlined the legal action plan published in July. On the ECB website, you also may find the consultation paper published in May. The feedback received from more than 60 individual responses from all market participants and the final recommendations. Overall, there are more than 130 pages analyzing the legal implications of the transition from Neonia to Eurostar. Try to be quickly. Thanks very much. So again, a lot of information that we have here from you. So you see that the move from one benchmark to the other, even though we are talking of an overnight, unsecured, to another overnight, unsecured benchmark, it's still quite complex. And there are many different aspects that have to be taken into account. Now, the choice of the working group and then Amy to change the methodology of Eonia to become a tracker of the Eurostar rate probably helped in the transition. But as you outlined before, it still remains a very complex task. So you should all have started the preparations for the transition, obviously. But I hope that you are all on track. But if not, maybe before we open the floor to questions from your side, I can ask one question. So next week, we will have the Eurostar rate. One obvious implication for everybody is that the timing of publication of Eonia changes to the next morning. But what is in you the first steps that those who haven't prepared anything yet, the first step that people should take? Do you have any recommendation on that? And meanwhile, please think of questions. I mean, there's not much time left, so to say. So in this special case, I don't really know what other options are than taking the Eonia that is published at this specific date. And I mean, I know that this topic, TET plus 1, is heavily debated in the financial industry. But my perception is here also that the answer to the question is very, very difficult because it depends quite a lot about what function you're talking, pricing function, for example. A risk management function, also accounting. Then it might also be product specific. I mean, there's also an ongoing debate between, as far as I know, also clearing houses, what the right approach is. And it depends on so many questions that my perception is that there hasn't established a market standard so far. And I'm aware of that there are, of course, institutions out there that are taking the Eonia that is published on the relevant side. So this is a rather pragmatic approach. But I mean, this transition can only be a success if we are all pragmatic, in a sense, and not dogmatic. I spoke about the adaption of hedge accounting standards. For example, there are also the IRSBs quite pragmatic and supportive. And we have many fields and complex questions that are in conjunction with the division of discount curves, for example, or also the application of historical data, which is a big problem if you take a dogmatic approach. So that's why I would recommend in such a situation, I mean, take the Eonia that is published on the current date, on the specific website. Yes. A good, I guess, more high-level message in this sense, because the first one is to realize that Eonia, the discontinuation of Eonia is not a possibility. It's a fact. So you need to realize, and also to explain in your institution, in all levels of your institution, that the Eonia will no longer be operational since from 2021. And you have to explain this to all your institution. And then the second part is to carry out an stock taken in which systems are you using Eonia, which are your contracts, which contract you have and which of them mature beyond December 2021, because those are the critical ones that you need to manage in the next two years. And start preparing to use USTR, because you need to adapt your systems, you need to develop new contractual agreements, you need to develop an evaluation. So even if the USTR will be published next week, if you are not internally prepared, your compliance team approves all the new processes, you cannot use it. I would definitely also really align myself to my operations department, so kind of all those departments dealing with the execution of the settlements of all those payments being related to all the contracts related to Eonia, and have them and clarify what needs to change in terms of when is the Eonia available, so after the change in the publication date, and can they process it, and have they enabled themselves to use that information which will not come in later to process all the payments afterwards. I think that's kind of the immediate effect this has on any of those contracts. So of course, that should have been dealt with already some time ago, so I understand that a few days left might not be kind of changed a lot there. But anyway, that is immediately what comes immediately across my mind. So ensure that you are actually able to execute still, and that you are able to record the incoming information as to the benchmark applied to the correct day, actually. And also what we didn't really talk about a lot here today, but this is now part of regulatory reporting, so kind of MMSR is now feeding Esther, so from that, this is the concept, basically, which we are applying there. So therefore, all the banks being subject to MMSR, they become a deemed submitter. So they should keep that in mind as well, because I remember that there was one or the other question that came up. So therefore, by definition, they are submitted. So therefore, that should also be kept in mind. Thanks, Christian. Just one word from my side. What is important, I would like to highlight, is that it's not just limited to the 2nd of October, the transition. So it's really important to actually understand how you're going to be impacted on the 2nd of October, and what actually Christian was saying before, especially regarding the settlement process. But the transition is not limited only to that date, because there are a lot of activities, legal side or risk management side, accounting side, but even on the settlement itself, that should be performed over the next months, so actually in the next two years. And the bulk of the activities is really important, and some of them, some of those changes are really challenging for all market participants. Thanks a lot. So now.


My name is Francesca Etitia. I am a space debris engineer at the space debris office of the European Space Agency. I actually moved to the University of Southampton for a PhD on space debris already, so that was quite relevant. And during the PhD, I really had many opportunities, for example, to go to conferences and meeting experts from different fields and also to do a couple of visiting periods within ESA. And in this way, I was already able to start to get to know the office and what they work on, and this is how our collaboration started. I'm also part of the ESA delegation to the IADC, so Interagency Space Debris Coordination Committee, where actually we discuss which are the guidelines for space missions, but also we try to understand which is the efficacy of these measures. And finally, as I said, I've also been working on the development of metrics to assess different missions and the impact on the environment. And this is also maybe a new way of looking at sustainability and try to again do it in a quantifiable manner. Looking around for collaborations is definitely something that I would recommend. Another important piece of advice, maybe when you are starting in a new position, what I found that was very important for me was to have someone in the team, could be your supervisor, could be also a normal colleague, from whom you can get really honest feedback. And this, I think, is very valuable to understand how you can grow and what are the points where you need to improve. And I think it's very valuable to find someone that can tell you basically when you're wrong and how you can improve.


So we are back and we're definitely working towards some kind of sit down between me and Ben to entertain all of you. I mean, that's after all the purpose for which we live. But it should be a fun event. And I talked to Dave Rubin and I expect that it will happen sometime soon. All right, let's talk about Robert Reich. Now, Robert Reich is one of my favorite, favorite, in quotes, leftist intellectuals. He is well known. He was Bill Clinton's Labor Secretary. He is a sharp, smart guy. He is a professor at Berkeley. I think at the school of Kendrick's economics of governments over at Berkeley. He is a progressive, a leftist. But what I find interesting about Reich is that he knows what the heart of the argument really is. There's a op-ed of his that I think I did a show on, or at least I read from it in one of my shows, where he basically talks about CEO pay. And the whole op-ed, he basically says, you know, CEO is exceptional. And CEO pay is usually correlated with performance. And on and on and on he goes on all the economic reasons why CEO should be paid much more than anybody else. And he gives good arguments, all the right economic arguments. And then he says, and this is why I like him because he gets to the heart of it. He says, yeah, from an economic perspective, CEO should get as much as the market will pay and the market will pay a lot because there are a few CEOs who are any good in the competition and da, da, da, da, da. But, but morally, it's unacceptable. Morally, it's unthinkable. Morally, it's offensive. And therefore, we should have caps on CEO pay. So he's one of these guys. I'm sure he has the same view on minimum wage, even though he won't admit it. I think he's smart enough to know minimum wage doesn't make any sense that it's economically destructive and it actually hurts the people it's trying to help. But he will argue for it from a more perspective. It's a must. We have to do it. That's Robert Reich, right? He is a huge, one of these, one of the very prolific writer. He has written a lot about income inequality. That's a big issue. If he has, like most progressives, like most leftists, that is a big issue. Well, like most leftists, intellectuals, they realize that the enemy really on the right, or what they perceive as the right, is Ayn Rand. And that one of the ways, I think, to destroy the Ayn Rand brand is to affiliate it with the bad actions of the right, right? And in this case, he's trying to relate Ayn Rand to Donald Trump, which is an obvious leftist technique. They've been trying to do it for months and months and months. And he put out a video called Trump's Brand Is Ayn Rand. Now, those of you who've listened to the show know what I think about that. Donald Trump is one of the villains from Ayn Rand's novel. He has a crony, unthinking, unprincipled, thug. You know, in Secretary Tillerson's vocabulary, Amoran, not an Ayn Rand hero, but the left.  So I think, I think the attempt here is not to make Trump look bad. The attempt here really is to make Ayn Rand look bad by association. And by the way, one of the reasons, I spent so much time attacking Trump and making clear to all of you that Trump has nothing to do with Ayn Rand is to prevent this kind of garbage, to prevent the destruction of the Ayn Rand brand by affiliating it with the likes of Donald Trump. So let's go, let's look at this video quickly. We're going to do this fairly quickly because there's just no, there's no meets to this video. But we'll look at parts of this video and I will respond as we go along. Here we go. Here is Robin Weisch. Donald Trump once said he identified with Ayn Rand's character, Howard Rourke. I don't think he ever quite said that. I think he enjoyed the fond head and liked Howard Rourke. But notice, you'll notice that this is the only reference actually linking Donald Trump and Ayn Rand. There is no argument in this video that Donald Trump has read a nonfiction that he agrees with philosophically that he has studied who ideas that anybody in Ayn Rand's universe thinks Donald Trump is a good guy. None of that exists. None of that exists. In the fountain head, an architect so upset that a housing project he designed didn't meet specifications, he had it dynamite it. He was upset that it didn't meet specifications. You guys do with that, which will now, oh, I haven't shown the video. Oh my God. All right, I'll show you the video because you got to see Robin. He's quite a character. All right, you see him now? I think so. All right. So here we go. I grew up reading Ayn Rand. It's inspired me so much that it's required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff. Notice that he so dishonest. He doesn't actually tell us that Paul Ryan repudiated Ayn Rand and declared himself a solid and committed, whoops, what did I do here? A solid and committed Catholic. So, but that doesn't make it. You just find one quote that Paul Ryan once said that he has everybody read Ayn Rand and that's it. I wish Paul Ryan was a real Ayn Rand accolade, but he's not and he doesn't claim he is. If you'd updated the quotes, but of course, nobody on the left is going to actually update a quote to give you the full story. They want to leave you with a particular impression. Now, no, Tillerson, Ryan, Pompeo, all these guys, yeah, they read a book. They liked the book. It might have been their favorite book, a novel. All right. What do we do about that? Now, I understand that the, let me try to share the screen again. For some reason, it's not screen-sharing properly. We're going to try this one more time and see if it'll work. Let's see. All right. Hopefully it'll work now. Founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick has described himself as a Rand follower. Before he was sacked, he applied many of her ideas to Uber's code of values and even used the cover art for Rand's book, The Fountainhead, as his Twitter avatar. So who is, so no, he chooses one businessman. He uses a businessman who's been obviously, you know, shown to be somewhat of a bad guy. He did found Uber and did change over a lot of our lives. I will add that. But his misbehaved, there's no question he's misbehaved. He chooses this one. Nobody else, no John Allison, no many, many of the other businessmen. Tittleston, for example, and the other businessmen he showed, they were great businessmen and there's no evidence where horrible businessmen as, you know, did horrible things like Travis is supposed to have done. He chooses one example, no other example. And he uses an example. Everybody's familiar in the negatives. Again, notice that just the plain sheer dishonesty of what he's doing, how he's picking his examples. He only picks the examples that are convenient, that fit his story. He even used the cover art for Rand's book, The Fountainhead, as his Twitter avatar. So who is Ion Rand and why does she matter? Ion Rand, best known for two highly popular novels, still widely read today. The Fountainhead, published in 1943 and Atlas shrugged in 1957, didn't believe there was a common good. She wrote that selfishness is a virtue, an altruism, an evil that destroys nations. Now, all of that is true, what he just said about Ion Rand. Now, of course, he is playing to an audience that is outraged. How can you not believe in the common good? Of course, we believe in the common good. The common good, we all know what that means. He'll never define it in the video. But we know what that means and the common good. I mean, that's obvious.  Everybody's for altruism. So he's playing to an audience. He doesn't really have to explain it. Now, he's going to try now to show how ridiculous that notion is. But even in his wording on putting it down, listen to this, listen to, you know, let me know what you think of this, you know, how he actually describes it. An altruism, an evil that destroys nations. When Rand offered these ideas, they seemed quaint, if not far-fetched. Quaint and far-fetched. Quaint and far-fetched. Wow. Is that what you felt when you had the Fountainhead or Atlas Shruggedo or the Virtue of Selfishness? You felt her ideas were quaint and far-fetched.  He wants to ridicule and belittle. Really? This is intellectual conversation? Nah, not really. Anyone who lived through the prior half-century witnessed our interdependence through depression and war. And after the war, we used our seemingly boundless prosperity to finance all sorts of public. Now, by the way, our interdependency when it came to war, yeah, we kind of came together to fight the bad guys. But wasn't the war really a result of collectivism? Wasn't the war really a result of the common good? Didn't Hitler use the idea of the common good and the public interest in every one of his speeches? Isn't that what rallied the forces of darkness? Just as much as supposedly, according to him, it rallied the forces of good. And wasn't the Great Depression ultimately, he's a good enough economist to know this, a consequence of failed government policies, of the failure of the government to try to regulate and control the free market. Really? And healthcare system that is falling apart, Medicare, Medicare. This is what he's proud of. Good. We were living it. So of course there was a common good. So all of those are consequences of the common good. Really? Really, we gave opportunities to women out of recognition of the common good or out of recognition of the individual rights. We gave blacks the right to vote and did away with discrimination because of the common good or because they are individuals with inalienable rights, the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. No, it was the protection and the recognition of individual rights that led to the achievements, the real achievement, not the fake achievements, the real achievements. The prosperity of the 1950s is not some accident. It is a consequence of industry, of business, of wealth creation, of production, of productivity, of individuals making and building and creating. Not the common good. The common good didn't create the great industries of the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and the world in which we live in today. It's those self-interested businessmen. Now, there's a sense in which there's the common good, but it's not the sense he means it. It's a sense in which, if you understand what the common is, the common is a collection of individuals. And individuals, the good for individuals is to have their rights protected. So in a sense, the common good is to have rights protected. In a sense, the common good is freedom, but not the common good as the common, but the common as a collection of individuals. The common is what is good for every individual, and therefore is good for them all, is the protection of individual rights. All right, back to the video. Of course, there was a common good. We were living it, but then, starting? No, by the way, that he never defines the common good. Throughout the video, he never tells us what it actually is, other than all those social programs and taking credit for winning the war, for example, and a bunch of other things that he attributes to being motivated by common good. But he never defines what the common good is, because you can't define it. But then, starting in the late 1970s, Rand's views gain ground. She became the intellectual godmother of modern-day American conservatism. Don't we wish this utter selfishness, this contempt for the public, this win at... Contempt for the public? I know Rand didn't have contempt for the public, she had contempt for certain members of the public who deserve contempt, but notice this utter selfishness. Again, no definition, no attempt to argue, just use utter, and it appears on the screen in big red letters, this utter selfishness, evil, so clever propaganda. Selfishness, this contempt for the public, this win at any cost. Win at any cost? Did he read the fountain head? Does he now remember the scene in which Howard Walk walks away from doodles of money on the table, because the deal is not consistent with this autistic integrity, autistic integrity above money? But no, this is win at any cost. This is money at any cost. This is do whatever you can. This is his view, the culture's view, the world's view of selfishness. Selfishness as exploitative as you or some, as doing whatever it takes exploiting anybody and anything to achieve your goals. That's not Ayn Rand. That's not her selfishness. That has nothing to do with Ayn Rand. That's your fantasy, Robert Reich. How are they? Is it roding American life without adherence to a set of common? Let me just say something, because the left keeps doing this. The 1960s and 1970s were unmitigated disaster, inflation, stagnation, crime rates through the roof and ever increasing. At the end of the 1970s, America changed and Ayn Rand had a role in changing America. I have no question in my mind that in spite of Ayn Rand's opposition to Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan would have never become president if not for Ayn Rand, if not for Atlas Shrug, if not for the resurrection of the term capitalism. Ayn Rand was integral to the changes that happened in the late 70s, but those changes were good. Those changes turned us around. Instead of an economy dying, instead of an economy stagnating, instead of an economy that was uncompetitive, instead of unemployment rates in the double digits, suddenly the economy started growing and growing fast with low price inflation. Standard of livings accelerated and went up. A quality of life today is a gazillion times better than it was in the 1970s. Just open up a CS catalog. Just the idea that you might open up a CS catalog because that's all you had in the 1970s versus the Amazon of today, the Amazon Donald Trump by the way hates, the Amazon of today. I mean, we are so much better off today than the 1970s. It is hard to imagine from a material sense. And America started falling apart in the late 1970s. America started declining in the 1970s. What were the 60s and 70s about? That's when the world decline happened. That's when the falling apart happened. And yet Ronald Reagan and the changes that happened in the 1980s put some bandages over the disaster that mostly the left, but also the right had created during the 60s and 70s. And yeah, there were only bandages and yeah, those bandages have been coming off over the last 20 years. But you're blaming the bandages for the coming apart, which you really should be blaming is all those policies you raved about the healthcare for the elderly that is bankrupting this country, the social programs that are institutionalizing huge segments of our population to poverty. It is your so-called achievements in the name of the common good that is what is unraveling America today, not deregulation and tax cuts and an emphasis, a renewed emphasis on American entrepreneurship. That's what has kept this country going for as long as it's gone. That's what's held it together for as long as it's held. You know, it's truly unraveling because of Obama and Trump, but really. Without adherence to a set of common notions about right and wrong, we're living in a jungle where only the strongest, cleverest and most unscrupulous get ahead. Notice the package deal. Strongest, cleverest, unscrupulous. And notice the examples he's going to give. All bad guys. All bad guys. And where everyone must be wary in order to survive. This is not a society. It's not even a civilization because there's no civility at its core. It's a disaster. In other words, we have to understand who Iron Rand is so we can reject her philosophy and dedicate ourselves to rebuilding the common good. Now, it would be great if he actually did that. If he actually tried to understand who Iron Rand was, even in the effort to reject her, that would be huge. That would be huge. I'd have a speck. But that's not what he's doing here. That's not what he's doing here. This is pure propaganda, nothing but propaganda. The idea of the common good was once widely understood and accepted in America. As what? I mean, after all, the US Constitution was designed for we, the people, seeking to promote the general welfare. By protecting individual rights.  Again, that's not Iron Rand. Yet today, you find growing evidence of its loss. CEOs who gouge their customers, loot their corporations and defraud investors. What about CEOs who create great value and improve our standard of living and quality of life and change the world for the better and make and allow millions of people all over the world to have jobs and actually have almost eliminated extreme poverty from the world? How about those CEOs? No, no, no. We're just going to choose one who's a creep. This is the shaker, or whatever his name is. The guy who did the pharmaceuticals, who was a creep. That's who we're going to choose. That is the representative of CEOs. Not the ones who actually exist, who actually make our lives dramatically better. No, we're going to find the one example who is truly a crook and we're going to package him with all of the CEOs. Let's keep going. Here's an accountant who looked the other way when corporate clients play fast and loose, who even collude with them to skirt the law. What about all the corporate accountants who actually help companies make more money, create more jobs, build more products? What about all the accountants that actually often, usually, if a company is committing fraud, let the government know because the government's not going to catch anybody. It's much more likely that accountants than anybody else. No. He doesn't even give an example here. He just assumes we all know because we loathe those accountants. Wall Street bankers who defraud customers. Wall Street bankers, the only example he's giving is Booney Madoff. Booney Madoff. Yes. What about all those Wall Street bankers who saw the internet before any of us did and invested it and created the wonderful products and goods that we have today? What about those evil Wall Street bankers who funded Apple so that Apple could go and create all the products that Robert Rice is using? What about Google and YouTube that he's using here to promote his propaganda? What about all the wonderful goods and products and dramatically increased standard of living that Wall Street has made possible? But no. All there is to represent Wall Street is Booney Madoff. And publicists who choose not to see that a powerful movie mogul they depend on is sexually harassing and abusing young women. Politicians who take donations really bribes from wealthy donors and corporations. He's using that right here. I wish he'd use Dodd and Frank. Dodd and Frank who got millions of dollars from Freddie and Fannie, Fannie Mac Fannie Mae and who were single-handedly publicly more responsible for the financial crisis than any individuals. Why aren't they on this list? Why is it all Republicans and why is it only the NRA? Now I'm against all corruption. I think this is absurd that this kind of money, you know, I see too many politicians going into politics poor and coming out rich. But give me a break. Give me a break. Right? What about all the money funneled in from unions? What about all the money funneled in from your favorite causes, Robert Reich, right? Now I'm not going to use those. I'm just going to use, this is propaganda after all. I'm only going to use the ones that fit my story. Their patrons want or shudder the government when they don't get the partisan results they seek.  Einwand would be against politicians lying, fuses to put his financial holdings into a blind trust. Einwand would probably be against that as well. And then personally profits off his office and foments racial and ethnic conflict. Certainly Einwand would be have been opposed to that. The common good consists of our shared values about that we don't have any shared values. I don't have any shared values with Robert Reich. I don't have any shared values with a lot of people. What does the common good mean? Which values? What are the values? How do we decide them? Which common? The common that you like or the common that I like? Which group? The common good only leads to one thing as Einwand beautifully articulated. It leads to gang warfare. It leads to pressure group politics. It leads to exactly the kind of corruption that Reich has been complaining about. That's the consequence of elevating the common good above the interests of the individual, above the rights of the individual. We owe one another as citizens who are bound together in the same society. A concern for the common good. Keeping the common good in mind is a moral attitude. It recognizes that we're all in it together. But if there is no common good, there is no society. All right. If there's no common good, there's no society. Notice the book that he's pitching. I've seen he's got a bunch of talks on the common good. If there's no common good, there's no society. Nope. I mean, not by your definition of common good. By your definition of common good, what you get is the corrupt society we have today. By your definition of common good, what you get is World War II. By your definition of common good, we get all the disasters of history. The only appropriate way to use common good is in the context of protecting the individuals that compose the so-called common. There is no other way to do it. All right. Well, that's Robert Reich. Good music. That is Robert Reich and not very impressive, shallow, superficial, propaganda. And when you see somebody like that, you know he's lying because he knows better.  He's not that ignorant. And it's sad that this is the quality of the criticism. I mean, I'm waiting. I'm looking. I'm hoping to find somebody who can actually debate using facts, using truth, and debate actual positions that I ran had, not make them up, not create them, not invent them, and not skew reality so badly as to the one guy we caught on Wall Street versus the hundreds who are doing a good job, the one CEO who is mean and corrupt and nasty versus the hundreds of thousands that do a fantastic job and all in the name of the wrong thing. So I'm looking. I'm looking for a reasonable, rational critic who actually engage in a rational, thoughtful, facts-oriented debate. I have a feeling it's not going to be Robert Reich, although I have challenged him to debate. And here, hereby I challenge Robert Reich. I challenge you to debate me. Debate me on anything in that video. Debate me on the common good. Debate me on Iran. Debate me on inequality. Debate me on the virtual business CEOs and finance. Anything on that video, I would be happy to debate you.


How do we go to the grass place? Good point, I'm just standing in the middle of the water. So we're at this truck stop, but I was telling you about yesterday, it's a little tiny little truck stop. And they got this weird creepy little open area right behind the truck stop here.   Wow. Just thinking to myself, man, this is a creepy place at night. It's a good place to die, you know? This is where people take people when they kill them and hide the body. It's like a train yard over there. I don't know.  My truck is just right over there on the other side of these long bushes and grasses. Oh, I'm still waking up. How was your night everybody? You guys sleep good? If you're on the other side of the world, have you had a good day? You get a lot done at work. Hope you didn't slack off all day. Just kidding, I know you didn't. Oh, that's a good idea. I need a tower like that at my house. Yeah. So I'm putting a tower on top of my house right with a cell booster. There's no cell service there or very, very, very little because there's so many trees and bush. So I'm gonna put the tower on top of the house and it'll go above the trees and I'm putting the cell receiver or whatever you call it at the top of the tower. Why is there something on my ear? It's weird. Felt like there was a bug crawling in there. Yeah, so hopefully I'll get a good cell signal inside my house then. These will be happy. You'll have all the room to run around. You'll have friends next door. That's gonna get annoying, I know.  No one does that. So they probably just tied them up when I was there.  They get carried away, they start playing and before you know it, they're two miles away, stuck in a hole or something or say I'll have to figure something out about that so that they stay on the yard. That's what it's called, Phillips 66.  That's where we're at. So we're gonna go deliver our freight right now. We've already got a reload going straight back home. The load's going to Edmonton I think but I'm taking it home and then once I get home, I'm going to Flutterfair. I just got a little bit excited there. All right guys, I'll go deliver this freight and I'll see you after. This is kind of a shady area of town here. I'll show you where I was but just in case they watch my videos, I probably shouldn't. This is where I'm delivering in Kansas City. It's a little bit shady here. You know I was talking about that creepy, shady area behind the truck stop there? It just got shadier and shadier. Not freight or anything, I guess broad daylight but this isn't exactly the neighborhood I would want to be in at night. Remember last night I was saying that I might come right to the customer and sleep here in the truck on the street right where I am right now and I'm glad I didn't. Really glad I didn't. I think I mentioned that last night too.  The customer is in a sketchy area and then you end up getting your truck vandalized or worse during the night. I don't want that but it's probably, maybe it's not that bad of an area just because I'm not familiar with it. I don't know what it would be like at night. I can't really judge it. That's why I don't want to show it to you. I can't judge it, right? But just first impression. So they told me to wait out on the street and they were going to come get me and then we're going to get unloaded and then I got to go about 45 miles to my next pickup. And once I am loaded, I just head straight back and I'm taking about a day and a little bit to get back so probably about a full day today. I'll be back tomorrow sometime. Oh, it's tomorrow, Tuesday. Well, that's good. Then I'll be, oh, I'll be home a long time, Wednesday. And I leave on Thursday but Wednesday I have appointments at the bank to do some signing and stuff. So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday afternoon I can leave again. So we're just going to hang out here in the truck and chill and wait for them to come get us. Okay, we are unloaded. We're empty. We're nice and light. I feel light as a feather after getting all that heavy weight off me. I just feel like going really fast all of a sudden but we won't. Speed limit to Sedalia, Missouri. Not too sure where it is, but Mandy does. So follow on her advice and head it that way.  It's going to take us home. We should get a long ways home today. We should get really close to home and it'll just be a short drive tomorrow. And that'll be that. Time to move towards Sedalia, Missouri. So the state fair is in town here in Sedalia, Missouri. Well, I'm curious. What happens at a state fair? Is it like a fair in Canada? Is it sort of like the Calgary Stampede or is it more like the Red River exhibition? I know those mean absolutely nothing to you living down here. The Calgary Stampede, there's like amusement rides.  You know, a rodeo. It's huge, huge. 1,000, 100,000 people there, at least. I don't know how many people go there. In Manitoba, we have the Red River exhibition where it's mostly just amusement rides. As your turn signals mean, you'd like to turn. Anyways, off topic. So what happens at a state fair down here in Missouri? How many of you go to the state fair? You know, I was here all up at the state fair. Now I don't know if that's true or not, but cable guy, he's funny. You'll find every redneck and there are 20 cousins there. But why do you go to the state fair? What brings you in? What draws you in? What lured you in? Ton of people, there are police everywhere.  That's why I'm wondering if they have horse races. Yeah, let me know down in the comment section. Let me know what state you're talking about. And then let me know what happens at that state fair and how often is it? Like once a year or is it all summer? Is it all year round? I don't know. Let me know. Look how nice and mowed the truck stop is. A little windy over here, but apparently they have a McDonald's here. Oh, it's right out your diesel. Where do you want to go, buddy? Want to go down here? I don't want to go to the long grass, man. I'd like that. Good boy, that is his bush. That's a very nice bush diesel. Good choice. I would have picked the same one. Grasshopper just landed on his nose. That's funny. So we are in Higginsville, Missouri. We're finally all ready to go. Ready to rock. Took all day to get unloaded and re-loaded. And now we're letting diesel drain himself and then we're gonna go inside and get something to eat. Probably not at McDonald's, but maybe. You never know. I haven't had McDonald's in a very long time. Don't judge me. Then we're gonna get on the highway and I've got some new music that I've been trying out. And I want to try it out in the next scene a little bit. I want to show you the road a little bit. I know a lot of you like that. A lot of you like that sped up sort of tour version. So we're going to be leaving Higginsville and going through Kansas City and headed up north on the I-29 towards Canada. All right, diesel. You want to drive for a little bit, man? Because I'm tired. All right, maybe you could have slept longer, man. Wish I could. Wish I could. Okay guys, let's get back on the road. All right, so we went inside. We decided to go with the subway sandwich again. For one, I like subway. And two, it's better than McDonald's. Those are the only two options I have in here today. We need to go to Walmart. I'll do it eventually. Probably do it after this trip.  So no point in stocking up my truck when I'm not gonna be in my truck for the next weekend anyways. So we'll do it after. Whoa, it is gonna be good. I got that pulled pork. It was so good yesterday. I had to try it again today. It's delicious. If you guys try it yet, I think it's called the Applewood pulled pork sub at Subway. If you haven't yet and you're going to buy a subway, try it out. I think it's only in the States though because I couldn't find it in Canada. I'd probably come to Canada later. That's how I usually have it. It's close time. Should I go in 35? No, I'm pretty sure it's beautiful. What is it? 27 Celsius. Sunny, partly cloudy. 24 kilometers on I-29 North. I love that. That's what she said, right? I-29 North, her who fixed my truck. It's riding so smooth. I guess the real reason I'm so happy that it's fixed now is if it wasn't the tires that was causing my truck to shake and vibrate, we're talking big money to figure out what it was. It was just the tires because if it's the transmission or the engine, it costs big money to do all kinds of tests to figure out what's shaking. So the shake stays away. Let's hope it doesn't come back. Let's hope we killed it for good. We're 1,300 kilometers away. That's 13 hours of driving. Hit stop at the rest area. Very nice rest area it is too. Isn't it diesel? Isn't it? All right guys, what's up with your ear again? Why does it do that sometimes? Man, why does it do that? I like the highway management. All the kids are doing it. And all the way on the area is this way. Ah, that's a cool thing to do. All right then. Well, I just heard the terrible news about Robin Williams. I know this is a week late for you guys and I don't mean to pick up again for you, but I just literally heard the news he was found dead in his home. They're saying it's looking like a suicide. I'm hoping by the time that this video right now that I'm making is published and airs and it wasn't, I'd like to think that he didn't go out that way. He struggled with a lot of things in his life. Williams is like my number one, one of my number one favorite actors. It was always him and Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey is still with us today when I'm filming this, so I got one favorite left, but I grew up with Robin Williams like in Jumanji, in Mrs. Doubtfire. There's so many good movies that I love with Robin Williams in it. If you told me about any movie that I didn't think was very good and you wanted me to go watch it, all you had to say was Robin Williams was in it. I'd be there. Still to this day, if I heard Robin Williams was in something, I'd be there. Seems like surreal or like not real that he's gone. Well, it's that time of day. We're at a rest area just south of Sioux City on the I-29 northbound. And we're gonna hang out here for the night and get a good night's rest. We're nine hours from home, so we'll be able to get home tomorrow. We'll probably be home tomorrow afternoon, then. Oh, I don't know if you can see that in the video. You can't really. Stars are kind of beautiful today. A lot of light pollution also, it's hard to see them. I can't wait to move. Did you know that tomorrow, I can say that the day after tomorrow, I fly away the vlogger bird. I'm gonna be on a plane in the sky, man. Like I was saying yesterday, did I? Did I cut that out? No, I think I left it in there. I've never actually been on a passenger plane before. I have flown a Cessna, but I've never been on a passenger plane. I'm really excited about it. How's you can tell? I keep talking about it. Diesel, enough talking. You need to do some business, man. Why are we on the concrete, man? You can't go on the concrete. Man, get in the grass there, man. Get in the grass there. God, a boy. Good boy. Oh, wait, oh. Okay. I gotta stop the flow before you start walking, Diesel. He gets it all over himself. Oh, so it was a good day. It was a really good day. I can't really complain. I have nothing to complain about. Beautiful weather. Beautiful. Like when we were going through Kansas City there. It's just perfect. You know, it's been a beautiful, clear night. The moon is out over there. You guys see that full moon? Yesterday? I guess it was over a week ago for you. It's amazing. I love summer. I say this every day, pretty much, but I love summer nights. Hey, Diesel, you want this post? Oh, Diesel found something. Hey, what you find, man? What you find? What is it? What is it? Diesel, hey, leave it. Let me see it. Now you scared it into the shadow, look for a little guy. Hey, little guy. Anyone come over here and play. What is it? Diesel, leave him alone, man.  Let him go. Hello, frog. What's your name? No, Diesel, we don't eat the frogs. I just want to play with him, man. Dude, you're like 100 times his size. You're going to squish him. Look at him. I want that frog, man. I don't know if he wants to eat him or play with him. Right now he just wants to stare at him. What is that, Diesel? What is it? I don't know where he went. Oh, man, you cannot have the frog, man. He really wants a frog. We will let the frog live. It's your lucky day, frog. You always do that, Diesel. You always go the opposite way that the leash is going. Does your dog do that, too? You know, you're like holding the leash with your left hand, but he insists on walking on your right side every time. Okay, Diesel, there's a flower here just for you. Just for you, man. Do it. Yeah. That's your flower, man. Watch, that flower is going to be blooming like it's never bloomed before. Give it a couple of days. You can thank Diesel for that. Good boy. Yeah, man, just do it my part, man. Just trying to keep everything beautiful, man. Yeah, so, Diesel, can I please just walk? You're being really rowdy tonight. Really rowdy. That frog just got them all riled up. Speaking of frogs, I saw a documentary the other day on these huge toads that they got out in Australia. They weren't, no, is it Australia? Yeah, I think it's Australia. They had these huge freaking toads there, and they're not native to Australia, right? They were brought there to try and eat some kind of beetle, but it failed and now they're taking over one part of the island. Massive suckers. Like, they're huge.   Right, Diesel? Well, we're gonna end the vlog here, guys. You know what to do. There's a lot of links down below, like I was saying before, to past videos of mine. Go check them out for a little bit more. Chuck or Josh, if you want to. There's also a lot of other links down there. Just go to the description box and see what's all there. There's a bunch of new stuff. I'll talk to you tomorrow, just like every other single day at 4 a.m. central time, right here. Say goodbye, Diesel. Say goodbye. Oh, why didn't you let me throw you the frog, man? I'm upset. I'm upset, man. This is my mad face.