Welcome to the Dividend Cafe weekly market commentary focused on dividends in your portfolio and dividends in your understanding of economic life.

Well, welcome to another dividend cafe, this time with my full investment committee, to my left day, to my right, Brian.

You guys know both of them.

I don't think we've been able to do this together in the studio since the beginning of the year.

And we're all here in Newport Beach together just in time to talk about Russia, going to war with Ukraine.

It's been a very volatile first quarter in markets. We obviously predicted exactly all of this. You know what's funny? Actually, we kind of did predict some of it,

right? Like a lot of the energy theme and the value overgrowth and the kind of frothiness and shiny

objects. A lot of those things that we talked about two and a half

months ago, they've been coming to fruition. But the military escalation in Russia, Ukraine,

and what that represents in commodity markets and otherwise, both geopolitically and

macroeconomically, that obviously couldn't have made the beginning of the year coverage.

So we're just going to sit here and have a little conversation for our Dividing Cafe listeners

and viewers.

And I'll start with you, Brian, with the caveat that none of us can exactly know, what is

your expectation for markets?

And I mean, in this case, U.S. equity markets, because obviously

Forex and commodities and rates could all be different.

U.S. equity markets out of the Russia-Ukraine situation, short term.

What do I think will happen after as we come through the skirmish?

Or the best case, what do you think the best case scenario is?

Well, you can answer that too.

Okay, so best case scenario, some sort of resolution has, you know, is found and conflict subsides

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