Welcome to us.

That's California for welcome to the March 2nd edition of National Review's Radio Free California Podcast.

I'm Will Swame, CEO of the California Policy Center. You can find my colleagues and me at California Policy Center.org, and you can find my friend host, David Bonson, right here. He's an economist, the host of the Capital Record podcast. He's author of the book full-time, work in the meaning of life. And of course, he's the founder of the eponymous investment firm, the Bonson Group.

Hello, David. Hello, Will. Good to be with you, my friend. You are a sweetheart to do this because I know you've had a hell of a day traveling. Where have you been and where are you now? Well, I was in New York City this morning and had a heck of a lot of meetings in New York and then jumped on a quick plane

to get to Asheville, North Carolina, where I speak at an event tomorrow a couple times before

jumping on the same plane to go to Nashville, not to be confused with Asheville, where I'll be at

my office in Nashville, Wednesday and Thursday,

and doing a large client event Thursday night where I'll be speaking before flying to Jekyll Island,

Georgia on Friday, where I'll be speaking at an event, a symposium on Saturday with some other luminaries far more distinguished than

I, before flying to Miami on Sunday, where I will be speaking at a very large financial

industry event before flying back to New York City on Monday. So that'll be my week, and I'm glad that all of our listeners now know my diary for the week.

Your itinerary.

Or as one of my cousins would call it, because she's from that part of the country.

Your itinery.

David, so you and I are recording Monday, and that means we're just a couple of days into the U.S. war with Iran, and we've got Israel on our side, and I think an increasing number of European countries.

But there really is a kind of a connection here to California.

I want to talk to you about oil, energy markets, you know, infinitely more about

this than I do. But I was intrigued that Gavin Newsom comes out with a, you know, a bold declaration

on X, right as the war is starting up. And he writes, the corrupt and repressive Iranian regime

must never have nuclear weapons.

The leadership of Iran must go.

And then, of course, he segues and says,

...