Speaker 1: And that's what matters. That the United States is in
essential market. And I don't think that until this came about.
You know, people realize how essential the United States relationship
is with these other nations right because people are beginning
to come to the table and negotiate better rates that
benefit the US.
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Speaker 3: Ever, And welcome. You are listening to the Financial Survival Network.
I'm your host, Carrie Leutz, and well, looking out there
at the landscape, we've got these tariffs, We've got massive
change occurring, not just in the United States but across
the world economic, technological, social upheaval, and trying to make
sense of it. I like to go and get a
variety of opinions. And we are joined by Gerson Gibbs,
senior managing partner of Belite Capital and a former financial
regulator who oversaw institutions like JP Morgan, Chase, Wells, Fargo,
and Ubs.
Speaker 4: Great to have you on Gerson.
Speaker 3: So you've been focusing in on tariffs and their impact
on markets, and I guess on the economy now that
we're really a few months into this disruptive course, what's
your overall assessment of what the country and the world
is going through now?
Speaker 1: Well, I believe that the country is going through the
transition that they were asking for, right. I think Trump
was nominated by the people, and you know, his approach
is a business approach, and I think that the transition
of it is a little rough, was a little rough
in the beginning, but I think that people are beginning
to understand his business approach, and I think he's doing
a decent job at showing how he approaches business.
Speaker 3: So, I mean, I used to be a major free trader,
believing that you let the markets work they work most efficiently.
But that was before like countries started weaponizing free trade
against the United States, causing a lot of damage, a
lot of dislocations, a lot of a lot of really
negative side effects of free trade. What's you're feeling about
free trade?
Speaker 1: No, I think free trade is what makes America America, right, However,
like you mentioned, a lot of countries began to take
advantage and once what was once something that made us
powerful was starting to hurt us because people were misusing
the free trade phrase that way, utilizing and just positioning
themselves in a way that harmed America.
Speaker 4: So I think that you know that the approach that.
Speaker 1: He has now is a pretty decent approach, and it
had to change because we were suffering because of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you, and I never
you know, I went to school. It was an economics
major for a while and until I really became disenchanted
with the economics department at Pace University, and I learned
that the free trade you know, Milton Friedman, free trade
benefits everyone. And then all of a sudden we're seeing, yeah,
well it's definitely benefiting some interest some people throughout the world,
but not the United States at this point. So point, though,
do you uh, do you try to at what point
is too much equalization or fairness?
Speaker 4: What time?
Speaker 3: At what point does it become unfairness?
Speaker 4: I think we got to the unfair point.
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, just looking at the data,
the United States was suffering, and again it could have
been because of things.
Speaker 4: That were there for a while and bubbled up.
Speaker 1: In the last administration, you know, and I think that again,
it needed to be changed. The country was already suffering.
We were seeing the impacts of trade. Our economy was suffering,
and we're seeing just based on the changes, a little
bit of uptick in the market. So you know, outside
of all things, his approach is in some way, shape
or form working a bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So America first, but really it's really the world
we're talking about, because the system that was in place
really became unsustainable, didn't it correct?
Speaker 4: Correct? Correct?
Speaker 1: It was just again I believe that because of the
relationship that America has with other nations, we see it.
Speaker 4: We see it a lot more.
Speaker 1: It's a lot more intense because of our strong relationships
with our allies, and trade has to be managed properly
or even though it's an ally, you can end up
suffering because of that relationship, in my opinion.
Speaker 3: All right, so you know, and this affects the entire world.
US is basically twenty twenty five percent of global consumption,
and they keep saying, well, it's only five percent of population.
Be that as it may, that twenty five percent population
rather consumption of the world's gdp uh makes makes the
US really an essential market, doesn't it? Exactly exactly?
Speaker 1: And that's and that's what matters, that the United States
is an essential market. And I don't think that until
this came about. You know, people realize how essential the
United States relationship is with these other nations, right because
people are beginning to come to the table and negotiate
better rates that benefit the US. So we were seeing
the importance and how these countries are trying to maneuver
the tariff phrase.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I see this also. Once upon a time,
trade agreements were left to diplomats, and diplomats went all
over the world, globe trotting to five star resorts, dining
at Michelin Star restaurants, and the wine flowed and they say,
it's very difficult. It's hard to come to these agreements. Now,
with AI, you basically feed the you train the thing
on international law, on tariffs, on logistics, and you put
the agreement in there. It analyzes, it tells you where
you're getting the short end of the stick, and tells
you what you need to do to change it. Can
of agreements in a matter of weeks, if not months.
So things have really changed, haven't they.
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Absolutely. AI had just changed the game tremendously. You know,
we saw it being used when Trump first came into
office and he worked with Elon and they were just
trying to utilize the AI systems to get information on
how America was utilizing their funding.
Speaker 4: And they found a lot of things out very quickly.
Speaker 1: You know, it's the same thing that's happening with these
trades and other nations. AI is something that's booming around
the world, and I think it's going to change business
for many many years to come.
Speaker 3: So and yeah, we saw recently that DOGE had come
up with an AI tool to cut regulations and their
goal is to cut regulations by fifty percent by January twentieth.
You think that can be done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, With all of these super chips and all of
these companies and the money that's going into this technology,
I definitely think it could be done by that point.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, I think you're right, and I'm excited
to the prospect of seeing things like working better, seeing
the country working better. From your standpoint to your company,
you're really a regulatory guru. How's this going to affect
your business.
Speaker 1: Well, it already began to impact my business. Things as
simple as procedures and just efficiency. It's transitioned from paper
to electronic to now AI, and it just makes things
more efficient when new rules are put into effect.
Speaker 4: You know, I f I'm a rule books hundreds and
hundreds of pages long, right, so when a new.
Speaker 1: Rule is put into effect, it's pretty difficult for these
smaller broken dealers or even the bigger broken dealers to
stay abreast of things. And I think that AI changes landscape.
You know, you can type something in AI, what's the
new rules, incorporate these into the company's procedures, and it
could be done within seconds, you know, And before.
Speaker 4: That wasn't It took a couple of weeks just to.
Speaker 1: Go through things, certain reports, independent reports that are required.
Speaker 4: It completely changed the landscape.
Speaker 1: You can review contracts, you could analyze companies a bit differently,
so you can.
Speaker 4: Help gear your customers a lot better.
Speaker 1: So I think that the AI revolution has totally transitioned
my business.
Speaker 3: Mine too, because I've been a YouTube content creator as
they like to call us, for fifteen years and finally
I put all my numbers into the AI and it
told me that they've been basically sabotaging me, restricting the
distribution of my videos. And I'm not controversial at least,
I believe, you know, I believe in hard assets and
as well as traditional assets. I'm not like a threat here.
I'm not advocating anarchy. And yet in five minutes, the
AI was able to tell me what I knew deep
down for fifteen years that they were they put a
lid on my business. I mean, that's pretty amazing that
you could do that. And six of them, six different AIS,
including their own Gemini, came up with the same exact conclusion.
I mean, that's amazing, isn't it.
Speaker 1: That is amazing, And that's hard facts. You know, these
things are pulling from credible sources, right, So it just
changes you. It gives you a tool that you can
defend yourself with, defend your business with, and I think
that's the most important. If AI is utilized correctly, it
could change things for the good exactly.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm sure the military is using it extensively.
I think the entire government is kind of being taken
over or is experiencing an AI revolution, and I think
you're seeing it in your business on seeing it in mind,
and hopefully it'll be for the better. I think certainly
it's going to improve productivity and efficiency and that's the
cornerstone of economic growth in every country in the world.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I agree. I can't agree more so.
Speaker 3: What are you ever worried, though, that the AI is
going to kind of basically be so good it'll put
us out of jobs?
Speaker 4: Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: You know, it's computers, right, it's still things. A lot
of things in the world still require human touch, human knowledge,
human direction.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I believe that the human species to be more confident
in themselves and know that nothing can.
Speaker 4: Replace a human being.
Speaker 1: However, AI is just another tool that was given to us,
and it could help us just work differently, not work
the same. I would say, maybe some jobs wouldn't be applicable,
but I think through AI there will be new jobs
that will come into play and those older jobs would
be then replaced by those jobs.
Speaker 3: Couldn't agree with you more. I think it's a revolution
that's still unfolding. But it's so fast. You know, we've
both been around for a while. Have you ever seen
change happen this quickly in the world?
Speaker 1: Not everything is moving at warp speed, and I believe
we're just getting accustomed to a new speed, right. I
think things are moving faster, and as human beings, we
can we can definitely train ourselves to what's going on
and what's happening.
Speaker 4: Right, So I believe that.
Speaker 1: It's new, it's fast, but we will get accustomed to
it eventually.
Speaker 4: And we are getting accustomed to it. We're utilizing AI.
Speaker 1: You're utilizing it in your business, and I'm utilizing it
in mind.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, I think we'll leave it at that, Gerson,
How do we find you on the web? How do
we connect with you? And there's anybody out there, representatives,
companies who can use your service, where should they find you?
Speaker 1: Oh, you can find me at www dot Bellett E
E L I T E Capital c A P I
T A l dot com and all my information will
be located on the contact page.
Speaker 3: Excellent, And we've got a link to Bellett Capital in
the show notes of this interview on Financial Survival Network
dot com. Just go there, click it, take your right
to Gerson's site and while you're there, we just ask
you sign up for your free newsletter, like over seventy
thousand of you have, and we got a lot of
great info on there that will help you make decisions.
What's you're feeling out there? You're seeing the AI revolution,
How is it affecting you personally? I'd like to know,
And how do we make it so it doesn't make
human beings useless or superfluous? Gerson, It's about a pleasure.
Thank you so much for coming by. We'll talk to
you again soon.
Speaker 4: Thanks Kerry, talk so one.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to carry Letz's Financial Survival Network, your
solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to
Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network now more than ever,