Welcome to the Bullwork Podcast. I'm Charlie Sykes. One of the most interesting pieces that I read this week was in the Financial Times with a headline,

Wall Street's Bargain with Trump. And again, this is in the Financial Times,

and it begins with this paragraph. The Financial Times, same publication,

had only nice things to say about Benito Mussolini in a June 1933 supplement entitled,

the Renaissance of Italy, fascism, gift of order and progress,

trains were running on time,

investment was humming, and friction between capital and labor was a thing of the past. The country had been remodeled rather

than remade under the vigorous architecture of its illustrious Prime Minister,

Signior Mussolini wrote the F.T.'s special correspondent.

And that was written by F.T's Financial Times, U.S. National Editor and columnist at the Financial Times,

Ed Luce.

Ed, welcome to the podcast.

Charlie, it's a delight to be with you.

That's what any of your editors say, really, hey, thank you, Ed, for reminding us of our history.

I mean...

It was ominous silence from my editors. Nobody objected to me including

that, but it wasn't the most glorious chapter of the Financial Times, the prism through which we see the world, let's put it that way.

Well, you connect the dots to say that what's happening right now is also a reminder that it is incredibly

naive to assume that the Titans of business are going to be

bulwarks of democracy.

I mean this was, I think one of the fondest fantasies of the resistance for some time was that the financial leads to Wall Street would, in our

moment of peril, would mount the barricades to defend democracy and our culture, and that was always

...