Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on Macro, Bitcoin, and the Big Picture Power Shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, April 15th, and today, well, we are talking some serious

geopolitics and their implication for markets. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying

the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive

deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show

notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. All right, friends, well, we have seen some fairly choppy markets over the weekend

and then coming into this week, and it seems like part of the answer at least is some of the

things going on in the wider world. Over the weekend, Iran launched an attack on Israel,

escalating the conflict in the Middle East to a new level. Hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles were used in an attempt to overwhelm

Israeli defenses, or at least to put on a big show of it. The Israeli military reported that

99% of projectiles were shot down, acknowledging the assistance of partners in the defense

operation. The attack was a retaliatory strike after Iran's embassy in Syria was destroyed

earlier this month. That attack caused seven casualties, including members of senior leadership

of the Iranian armed forces. Israel has not admitted that they were behind that attack,

but are widely assumed to have been. The show, of course, is not about geopolitics. It's not

about the situation in the Middle East. Although if anyone has a show in the Middle East

and wants to invite me on to talk about that, it's obviously a personal interest of

mine. What we're talking about is, of course, market implications. And the main thing on that

front is that this is a serious escalation. If you were on social media at all over the weekend,

you probably saw breathless coverage about how this was the start of World War III. And even if that's not the case, it does mark an important moment.

For their part, the White House has stated that it will not get involved in offensive operations against Iran, but has reaffirmed, quote, America's ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.

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