This is Macro Voices, the free weekly financial podcast targeting professional finance,

high net worth individuals, family offices, and other sophisticated investors.

Macrovoices is all about the brightest minds in the world of finance

and macroeconomics telling it like it is, bullish or bearish, no holds barred. Now, here are

your hosts, Eric Townsend and Patrick Suresna. Macrovoices Episode 534 was produced on May 28th,

2026. I'm Eric Townsend. Another week has passed and the

Strait of Hormuz is still effectively closed. A few dozen ships got through this week, but we're still

well below 10% of normal traffic levels. And I don't think we're any closer to a deal than we were a week ago

when oil prices were $8 closer to a deal than we were a week ago when oil prices were

$8 higher and a deal was supposedly just hours away. The key to this is Iran's high-enriched uranium,

which could be enriched to weapons grade in just a few weeks with operable centrifuges, something Iran may or may not still have.

President Trump has from the start of this conflict said that this was the main thing the U.S.

simply will not negotiate on. However, never once since the beginning of this conflict has any

Iranian official indicated any willingness

whatsoever to negotiate by one inch on Iran's position that it will not allow that high-enriched uranium

to leave Iran under any circumstance. So neither side is willing to negotiate at all on the central issue

that has prolonged this war for three full months as of today. To break this down and make

sense of it, we've got another macrovoices double header lined up for you. We try and seek out

experts with contrasting views,

so by popular listener request, I'm delighted to welcome back best-selling author Dr. Pippa Melmgren.

Pippa is much more optimistic than I am, both about how long it will take to bring a close to this

war and how resilient the global economy can be to the straight remaining closed,

...