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I'd just add that Putin took on his political rivals well before he took on the oligarchs, and the fates that befell his political rivals--like having their condos explode while they're still inside of them and then blaming it all on Chechen separatists--was probably enough to send a message to the oligarch community that they shouldn't get out of step with the new boss.

You can find the ideological flare in the tech bro oligarchs via their own writings and public statements, particularly with guys like Andreesen and Theil (Musk to a lesser degree as well). Musk's ideology has more to do with expanding the human footprint off of earth, but he believes himself a personal guiding force in that endeavor. That's ideological, not transactional. To the extent that these guys are transactional it's often in pursuit of their ideology. Short term tradeoffs for long term ideological advancement. But when transnationalism comes into conflict with ideology I expect these guys to take the short term financial pain in the name of keeping long term ideological aspirations alive and well. We saw a little bit of this with Musk and DOGE.

I don't think Trump's been responsive to the markets in any way that is long-term helpful, but he *has* been responsive to markets in the short term (walking back LibDay tariffs b/c of bond market, kicking CaMex tariffs down the road for the auto companies, delaying the TikTok ban, etc.).

Jun 6
at
5:15 PM

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