00:00Let's get into all of this tariff shenanigans that's been going on.
00:04How long do you have?
00:06Not very long, sadly. I wish we had longer.
00:10Let's start off with America's single biggest trading partner, the European Union.
00:15It says it is working to reach a trade deal with the US.
00:20But really, how complicated are these discussions?
00:24And as I mentioned earlier, are we just expecting this to go down to the wire?
00:30Man, I was really hoping you didn't ask me about this one because I'm baffled.
00:34I'm baffled that both the US and the Europeans are saying we're very close to a deal.
00:39And that talks seem to be kind of proceeding in a calm fashion.
00:42Because when this tariff war first broke out, there were really unkind words on both sides, right?
00:49Donald Trump said that the European Union was formed simply to screw America.
00:54That's a direct quote I'll have you know.
00:56So the EU has already let it be known that they drew up a list of retaliatory tariffs.
01:02So they weren't inclined to sort of genuflect to Donald Trump the way some other countries have.
01:07So I'm very surprised that things seem to be proceeding in an orderly manner.
01:12I think that things will be incredibly complex.
01:14Donald Trump likes to, you know, add complexity to these deals, you know, different tariffs for different industry groups, carve outs for various things.
01:23So we may get a deal, but, you know, beware of what Donald Trump calls a deal, right?
01:29We had that UK-US deal a couple of months ago.
01:34Some of those details are still being worked out.
01:37We may get some kind of memorandum of understanding, but keep in mind, when Donald Trump makes a deal, things are subject to change, right?
01:47So I think that whatever is on the table will not be anything that's very definite, again, subject to change.
01:54European markets believe something is at hand.
01:56The Germany's DAX index at a record high today, the UK FTSE 100 index at a record high, although the UK is not part of the EU trading bloc.
02:06But I can't help but wonder whether markets have got a little ahead of themselves.
02:11Let's see what the next couple of days bring.
02:13But I do think whatever comes out will be subject to great variability.
