00:00The main problem of Europe is frankly its weakness. I'll give you a couple of examples.
00:06A few years ago, the EU proudly announced its AI Act to the world, the first major regulation of
00:14artificial intelligence. But the problem is we hardly have any AI companies to speak of. So we've
00:21become really good at regulating industries we don't have. Look at the top 10 most valuable
00:25companies in Europe. You'll see some important companies like ASML in the Netherlands, some
00:32Novo Nordisk, some former companies. But it's mostly big fashion. It's Louis Vuitton, it's Dior.
00:39I like to say that we've become the continent of handbags instead of hardware. So if you really
00:46believe that this liberal social democratic model is the way we should rule the world, then it would
00:52be quite nice if you also have the power to back it up. And the reality right now is that indeed
00:57thousands of young men are dying in the trenches in Ukraine. And we're quite dependent on Daddy Trump,
01:03as my fellow Dutchman Mark Rutte, you know, the current head of NATO would say it. And that's an
01:09embarrassing and painful position to be in. But it is the reality. But I imagine that someone from your
01:15background also has qualms about the about the pivot in European budgets towards more military
01:22funding, which is because of Ukraine and in the face of what's happening with Russia. So how do you
01:28square that? I don't have those qualms. The only thing I worried about is that we're mainly spending
01:32that money to buy more American weapons while we should have those industries ourselves. So you think
01:36if Europe manufactures weapons rather than handbags, that's a better place for Europe to be in? Absolutely, yeah.
01:41Yeah, yeah.
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