First of all, can I get a show of hands for people who this is their first Ron Paul Institute conference?

All right, that's great. A lot of you guys.

It makes me very happy to see that and I really appreciate you coming out.

I want to start with a couple of jokes. Who doesn't want to hear jokes on Saturday morning?

So, Donald Blinken, Anthony Blinken, his son, that's the joke. No, just kidding.

He was in Helsinki yesterday and here's what he had to say.

Today, Russia's economy is a shadow of what it was and a fraction of what it could have become

had put an invested in technology and innovation rather than weapons and war.

And the funny part, of course, is if you've been following the debt ceiling and the fact that we're going to add $4 trillion to the debt.

And the fact that Congress was walking hand in hand to approve an $886 billion military budget for next year.

We've already given $100 billion to Ukraine and according to the economist,

Russia has spent only $67 billion on the war in Ukraine.

And here's the second joke. Our illustrious Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Singapore and here's what he had to say.

The U.S. is doubling down on encircling China's military because there's no room for intimidation, bullying or coercion.

So look around everyone, look around at your neighbors, look around at people you're sitting with, people across the room.

You're the remnant that Dr. Paul talks about. You're making time on a busy Saturday and busy lives to come out and see us in Houston because you care about peace and prosperity and liberty and freedom.

You're making the time, you're the remnant. Now we, I selfishly choose speakers for these conferences because they're people who I want to hear and I hope that you want to hear as well.

And that's extremely important. But perhaps at least as important is for all of us to get together and get to know each other.

I said, oh, you know, of course we do. So this is what it's all about in addition to hopefully learning a thing or two is getting to know each other.

And that's why we of course have a half an hour coffee break later. Everyone needs a little bit of pick me up, but it's also a chance to share notes and visit with people.

So let me start with a couple of introductory remarks in terms of housekeeping.

I want to thank our sponsors for this conference. You'll see them. They have a little tag that says sponsors and they're sitting up in front.

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