# US-Iran Risks Hit Markets, Trump: Iran Has Just Days to Deal

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863437), 20 Feb 2026, 21 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/58e85be7-dbb5-4043-afed-af80014dc0b3/ce70b250-bc5c-431e-a11d-b3f7001f0166/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=27143354-63aa-4ac5-965d-af80014dc0d3

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Asian equities fell and oil rose to its highest level since August as escalating tensions in Iran weighed on sentiment. We get perspective from Paul Dobson, Bloomberg's Executive Editor for Asia Markets. Plus - The US military is stationing a vast array of forces in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, fighter jets and refueling tankers, with President Donald Trump saying that Iran had 10 to 15 days at most to strike a deal over its nuclear program. We heard from Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. She spoke to Bloomberg's Shery Ahn and Avril Hong. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Daybreak Asia podcast. I'm Doug Chrisner. Markets
[0:15] Speaker 2: are dealing with rising risk of a military confrontation between
[0:18] Speaker 2: the US and Iran. Earlier, President Trump said the next
[0:22] Speaker 2: ten days will tell whether there will be an accord
[0:24] Speaker 2: covering Iran's nuclear ambitions. In the meantime, the American military
[0:29] Speaker 2: is stationing a vast array of forces in the Middle East,
[0:33] Speaker 2: and The Wall Street Journal reported the President is weighing
[0:36] Speaker 2: an initial limited military strike to force Iran to meet
[0:40] Speaker 2: Trump's demands for a nuclear deal. Needless to say, a
[0:43] Speaker 2: potential war would put the flow of crude oil very
[0:46] Speaker 2: much at risk. The Mideast pumps about a third of
[0:49] Speaker 2: the world's crude oil supply. In New York trading, WTI
[0:53] Speaker 2: was up one point nine percent to sixty six forty three.
[0:56] Speaker 2: For a closer look, I'm joined by Bloomberg's Paul Dobson.
[0:59] Speaker 2: He is executive editor for Asia Markets. Paul joins from
[1:02] Speaker 2: our studios in Singapore. Thank you for being here. It
[1:06] Speaker 2: doesn't seem as though markets are terribly stressed about this situation.
[1:09] Speaker 2: Oil higher, Yeah, maybe concerns are a little contained. How
[1:13] Speaker 2: would you evaluate this situation.
[1:16] Speaker 3: I think that it's reasonable to say that based on
[1:20] Speaker 3: the broad macro picture right now, Doug. If you look
[1:23] Speaker 3: at brain crewde oil, it did close at the highest
[1:27] Speaker 3: level since last summer in trading yesterday. So there is
[1:32] Speaker 3: some risks starting to get priced into the energy markets
[1:36] Speaker 3: at least, But I think for broader macro it's hard
[1:39] Speaker 3: to discern or unpick the concerns over an Iran conflict
[1:44] Speaker 3: from the broader themes that are out there. What I
[1:48] Speaker 3: will say though, is that you know, just a little
[1:50] Speaker 3: bit kind of in the background there, We've had dollar
[1:53] Speaker 3: strength this week, which we haven't seen for a while.
[1:55] Speaker 3: It's best week in three months, and that talks to
[2:00] Speaker 3: the idea that the FED sounded much more hawkish in
[2:03] Speaker 3: the minutes than people had expected, but also to this
[2:06] Speaker 3: idea that you know, maybe the dollar fares a little
[2:08] Speaker 3: bit better when there's a little bit of risk and
[2:10] Speaker 3: stress out there in global markets.
[2:12] Speaker 2: So China remains on holiday today for Lunar New Year,
[2:15] Speaker 2: other jurisdictions are back online. Are you seeing any high
[2:20] Speaker 2: frequency data on levels of consumer spending, whether we're talking
[2:24] Speaker 2: about travel, restaurants, or merchandise, anything that would kind of
[2:27] Speaker 2: give us some insight into the level of consumer engagement
[2:32] Speaker 2: during the holiday.
[2:33] Speaker 3: That is definitely the thing to watch. I haven't seen
[2:36] Speaker 3: any of the data passing through as yet. And the concern,
[2:41] Speaker 3: of course is that the China is still stuck in
[2:45] Speaker 3: this kind of rout when it comes to consumer activity,
[2:49] Speaker 3: and not just in terms of consumer spending and enthusiasm,
[2:53] Speaker 3: but also the investment climate. So those are the two
[2:55] Speaker 3: things that are really kind of under that great amount
[2:59] Speaker 3: of pressure at the moment. People are paying down debt
[3:03] Speaker 3: rather than putting money into productive uses or indeed being
[3:08] Speaker 3: willing to spend it on new products. And while there
[3:14] Speaker 3: were little glimmers I think in the first couple of
[3:16] Speaker 3: months of the year, some good numbers from Apple in
[3:19] Speaker 3: terms of iPhone sales, some good numbers from Maltai in
[3:23] Speaker 3: terms of By Joe sales as well, so some alcoholic
[3:27] Speaker 3: drink enthusiasm at least, it does still feel like the
[3:31] Speaker 3: economy is waiting for that spark to ignite more spending
[3:35] Speaker 3: on while the authorities have promised us that that's what
[3:38] Speaker 3: they're working on. You know, everything that we've seen so
[3:41] Speaker 3: far has I wouldn't say failed, but has only had
[3:44] Speaker 3: a limited amount of enthusiasm, but behind it and hasn't
[3:47] Speaker 3: really sparked a kind of self fulfilling kind of build there.
[3:51] Speaker 2: I was reading that some of the big tech giants
[3:53] Speaker 2: in China, names like Ali Baba by Dance ten Cent,
[3:56] Speaker 2: reported huge gains during the holiday from there new AI offerings.
[4:01] Speaker 2: What do we know about what these companies are up
[4:03] Speaker 2: to regarding AI?
[4:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's becoming an increasingly competitive space in China,
[4:10] Speaker 3: with a bunch of new models getting launched. We also
[4:13] Speaker 3: had Japu, a newer company which has been on a
[4:16] Speaker 3: real tear as its model gains traction. And you know,
[4:20] Speaker 3: I kind of feel China's a little bit in some
[4:23] Speaker 3: ways where the US was maybe a year eighteen months ago,
[4:27] Speaker 3: not in terms of what the technology is doing, but
[4:29] Speaker 3: in terms of what the market is pricing for the technology.
[4:31] Speaker 3: And therefore there are people are seeing in the investment
[4:34] Speaker 3: side of things opportunities in the China tech companies that
[4:39] Speaker 3: are already fully priced in US markets, and so that
[4:43] Speaker 3: you know, makes China's stocks kind of interesting, and particularly
[4:47] Speaker 3: if they're getting an upswinging usage. The downside is that,
[4:51] Speaker 3: as I said, is highly competitive, and so all of
[4:54] Speaker 3: those companies have limited pricing power because they're all competing
[4:58] Speaker 3: against each other for the same type of customer in
[5:01] Speaker 3: the same amount of money or share of the pie.
[5:04] Speaker 3: So much as we've seen with electric vehicles, for example,
[5:07] Speaker 3: and particularly with online retail, you have that very face
[5:11] Speaker 3: competition which erodes profitability.
[5:14] Speaker 2: Maybe we can talk about the trade picture next, because
[5:18] Speaker 2: in the US the government reported that the deficit, the
[5:21] Speaker 2: trade deficit widened last year. This is the annual figure,
[5:24] Speaker 2: to more than nine hundred billion dollars. Obviously, the tariffs
[5:28] Speaker 2: are a major factor here, and I'm imagining they created
[5:33] Speaker 2: a lot of volatility when you look at the entire
[5:35] Speaker 2: twelve month period, because month to month the narrative seemed
[5:38] Speaker 2: to shift slightly. It was interesting that the deficit with
[5:42] Speaker 2: China shrank last year to the smallest in more than
[5:45] Speaker 2: two decades. But when you look at trade deficits with
[5:47] Speaker 2: countries like Mexico and Vietnam, they widened to record levels.
[5:52] Speaker 2: So there seems to be a real reorganization of global
[5:56] Speaker 2: trade flows as a result of these tariffs.
[6:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's absolutely been true, and obviously some of it
[6:03] Speaker 3: has been diversion, so using transit countries in terms of
[6:07] Speaker 3: the exports to the US from China, but some of
[6:10] Speaker 3: it has been you know, a bit of a shakeup
[6:12] Speaker 3: in the way that people are doing business, in the
[6:14] Speaker 3: way that money and goods are flowing around the world.
[6:17] Speaker 3: One thing that I thought was interesting as well is
[6:19] Speaker 3: that Taiwan actually overtook China in terms of dollars of
[6:22] Speaker 3: exports to the US last year based on those data.
[6:27] Speaker 3: So that tells you one the humongous demand for the
[6:31] Speaker 3: technology that's coming out of Taiwan, particularly the chips, but
[6:34] Speaker 3: also the fact that China is looking to other markets,
[6:38] Speaker 3: and I think that, you know, that's been a very
[6:40] Speaker 3: clear secondary trend, the idea that China is still you know,
[6:43] Speaker 3: retaining a massive trade surplus, but it's not all going
[6:46] Speaker 3: to the US anymore. A lot more of it is
[6:48] Speaker 3: going into Europe and newer markets as well. So, just
[6:52] Speaker 3: as you said, the terriffs have changed the flows of goods,
[6:56] Speaker 3: but they haven't changed that overall picture of China as
[6:59] Speaker 3: a very big expert order in the US is a
[7:01] Speaker 3: very big importer.
[7:02] Speaker 2: Maybe we can talk a little bit about inflation in Japan,
[7:05] Speaker 2: because we had the CPI number this morning. Consumer prices
[7:10] Speaker 2: excluding fresh food up two percent from last January. That's
[7:13] Speaker 2: the smallest gain since January twenty twenty four. If you
[7:18] Speaker 2: strip out energy, we saw a gain of two point
[7:20] Speaker 2: six on an annual rate, and you and I both
[7:23] Speaker 2: know that that's still above the boj's target. What is
[7:26] Speaker 2: the path forward here for Japan Prime Minister Takeiichi? Trying
[7:30] Speaker 2: to stimulate the economy, but it's clear that inflation is
[7:33] Speaker 2: still a major issue.
[7:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, it is a major issue, and so Takaichi's plan
[7:39] Speaker 3: is partly to help the economy deal with the inflation
[7:43] Speaker 3: by reducing taxes that's the main goal, cutting VAT, which
[7:48] Speaker 3: is massively unpopular in Japan, and providing subsidies as well
[7:52] Speaker 3: to help people around it. So the inflation can stay
[7:57] Speaker 3: and wind its own way through the system, but people
[7:59] Speaker 3: will be ab or to manage it or deal with it.
[8:02] Speaker 3: The bigger question is part of that stimulus plan, how
[8:06] Speaker 3: much does Takaichi lean on the BOJ to try to
[8:09] Speaker 3: get them to be slow at raising interest rates. You know,
[8:12] Speaker 3: the BOJ has signaled that its intention is to carry
[8:15] Speaker 3: on hiking add a regular and pretty slow cadence. But
[8:19] Speaker 3: you know what it would really like to do is
[8:22] Speaker 3: to have interest rates firmly away from that floor that
[8:25] Speaker 3: they were stuck on for so very long. And also
[8:29] Speaker 3: it quite wants there to be some inflation in the economy,
[8:32] Speaker 3: so it doesn't want to snuff it out altogether, having
[8:35] Speaker 3: spent you know, decades of disinflation and deflation along the way.
[8:40] Speaker 3: So is that delicate balancing act. The market is still
[8:44] Speaker 3: expecting that the boj will continue to raise interest rates
[8:48] Speaker 3: over time, and you know that has pushed up yields
[8:52] Speaker 3: to a certain extent. But the market has also been
[8:54] Speaker 3: wary of inflation and that's been a major cause of
[8:58] Speaker 3: volatility at the back end of the yield. Right now,
[9:01] Speaker 3: we've had a pretty good rally in longer term Japanese
[9:03] Speaker 3: government bonds. I think partly on the idea that inflation
[9:06] Speaker 3: can be under control, and partly on the idea that
[9:09] Speaker 3: Takaichi will, with such a firm mandate, be able to
[9:13] Speaker 3: act with more authority, more decisively, in a more focus
[9:17] Speaker 3: in terms of the cash giveaways that she's doing and
[9:20] Speaker 3: the way that she funds them.
[9:21] Speaker 2: So, as you and I are speaking, I'm seeing weakness
[9:23] Speaker 2: in the Japanese equity market. Do you have a sense
[9:26] Speaker 2: of what accounts for the weakness today? If you look
[9:28] Speaker 2: at the internals.
[9:30] Speaker 3: I think that they've been having a pretty decent time
[9:33] Speaker 3: of it of late. I think the going into the
[9:38] Speaker 3: weekend with this Iran risk we were talking about, there
[9:44] Speaker 3: is maybe a little bit more caution more generally out
[9:48] Speaker 3: there right now. But I don't think that, you know,
[9:53] Speaker 3: that changes the slightly longer term picture, which is that
[9:57] Speaker 3: although although they sort of lost a little bit of momentum,
[10:01] Speaker 3: there's a lot of global interest sill in Japanese equities
[10:05] Speaker 3: and still quite a lot of money flowing in which
[10:08] Speaker 3: ought to be relatively supportive.
[10:11] Speaker 2: Is there anything else that you're looking at today as
[10:14] Speaker 2: we wrap up the trading week in Asia that has
[10:17] Speaker 2: the ability to impact markets in a significant way.
[10:22] Speaker 3: I think, you know, it's not a big impact for
[10:24] Speaker 3: Asian markets, but I do note the amount of interest
[10:28] Speaker 3: that there was in blue Oul and it's private credit
[10:31] Speaker 3: lending over the last twenty four hours. What it did
[10:35] Speaker 3: is sort of changed the way that it's allowing some
[10:37] Speaker 3: redemptions for some retailed investment products, and that has raddled
[10:42] Speaker 3: people quite a lot, because you know, they're thinking, is
[10:45] Speaker 3: this another sign that private credit isn't functioning the way
[10:49] Speaker 3: that we would like it too? That there's more risks
[10:51] Speaker 3: in that market space than the people are letting on. Essentially,
[10:55] Speaker 3: you know, is there something going on here that we
[10:57] Speaker 3: need to be worried about. And the market's already been
[11:00] Speaker 3: a bit nervous about private credit more generally because of
[11:03] Speaker 3: the amount of lending that there has been into the
[11:07] Speaker 3: sectors that have been damaged recently by the AI capability.
[11:13] Speaker 3: So thinking about financial services and thinking about insurance companies
[11:16] Speaker 3: and those kinds of things, right, and software and software
[11:20] Speaker 3: and software is a big one, that's right, And so
[11:23] Speaker 3: the amount of private lending that's been pushed in that
[11:26] Speaker 3: direction and whether those loans are still good. Essentially, now,
[11:31] Speaker 3: the private credit companies will all say, don't worry, they
[11:34] Speaker 3: have very low default records. They manage them my finances
[11:39] Speaker 3: very carefully. But you know, because it's so opaque, partly
[11:43] Speaker 3: the market is suspicious and nervous about this. And so
[11:45] Speaker 3: I think that that's why the stock performance of those
[11:48] Speaker 3: asset management companies, including Blue Oil, which fell I think
[11:51] Speaker 3: as much as ten percent before recovering a little bit
[11:53] Speaker 3: of the losses in trading in the US yesterday is
[11:56] Speaker 3: another thing that is worrying people, partly because of the
[12:00] Speaker 3: policity of information there.
[12:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a one point eight trillion dollar market, so
[12:04] Speaker 2: there may be a little bit of systemic risk too.
[12:07] Speaker 2: If they're in the future, becomes a greater difficulty. But
[12:11] Speaker 2: there's got to be a lot of concern if you're
[12:12] Speaker 2: an investor anytime you hear of a company restricting withdrawals
[12:17] Speaker 2: from a certain fund. And to your point, I think
[12:20] Speaker 2: that's what rattled the market today in regards to Blue
[12:24] Speaker 2: Owl Capital. Paul, thank you so much. Enjoy the weekend.
[12:27] Speaker 2: Paul Dobson is executive editor for Asia Markets, joining from
[12:31] Speaker 2: Singapore today here on the Daybreak Asia podcast. Welcome back
[12:42] Speaker 2: to the Daybreak Asia Podcast. I'm Doug Krisner, and as
[12:45] Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier, markets are very anxious over President Trump's
[12:49] Speaker 2: next move on Iran. The risk of a military confrontation
[12:53] Speaker 2: is high. There is already a vast array of American
[12:56] Speaker 2: forces stationed in the Middle East. This would include two
[13:00] Speaker 2: aircraft carriers, jet fighters and refueling tankers. And needless to say,
[13:05] Speaker 2: a potential conflict would put flows of Mid East oil
[13:08] Speaker 2: at risk. And that's where we begin our conversation with
[13:11] Speaker 2: Barbara Slaven. She is a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center.
[13:16] Speaker 2: Barbara spoke with Bloomberg TV host Cherry On and April Holm.
[13:19] Speaker 1: Give us a little bit of perspective of how significant
[13:22] Speaker 1: these moves are by the United States. So cent forces
[13:26] Speaker 1: around the Iran we're hearing is a first time that
[13:28] Speaker 1: we have such a massive force since the Iraq War.
[13:32] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's frankly very worrisome. I don't understand what the
[13:37] Speaker 4: emergency is that requires the United States to contemplate military
[13:41] Speaker 4: action against Iran. The country is at its weakest in
[13:45] Speaker 4: many ways. It's nuclear and other facilities were hit last June,
[13:49] Speaker 4: as you know by Israel and the United States. Its
[13:52] Speaker 4: currency is extremely weak. It's just coming off very significant
[13:58] Speaker 4: protests which were repressed brutally. It does seem as though
[14:03] Speaker 4: this is some sort of play to try to overthrow
[14:05] Speaker 4: the regime, which President Trump has mentioned as one of
[14:08] Speaker 4: his goals. But you cannot conduct regime change with airstrikes.
[14:15] Speaker 4: If there is something more to this plan, I'm certainly
[14:17] Speaker 4: not aware of it. It's causing a lot of consternation
[14:21] Speaker 4: in the United States, frankly, a lot of political opposition,
[14:25] Speaker 4: certainly among Democrats and also among Republicans. To some extent,
[14:30] Speaker 4: Trump has not asked for any congressional authorization. He's given
[14:33] Speaker 4: no explanation for why Iran is suddenly such a threat
[14:37] Speaker 4: to US interests.
[14:40] Speaker 1: Barbara, you mentioned the target of attacks on around back
[14:43] Speaker 1: in June, but of course we've also had the drog
[14:45] Speaker 1: trafficking boats also being attacked, not to mention, of course,
[14:48] Speaker 1: the extraction of Nicolas, Madora and Venezuela. How much boulder
[14:52] Speaker 1: is the US foreign policy towards these regimes getting recently,
[14:57] Speaker 1: and what are the risks of this new approach.
[15:01] Speaker 4: Yeah, this is not what President Trump campaigned on. He
[15:05] Speaker 4: didn't campaign on foreign adventures and regime change. It's really strange.
[15:10] Speaker 4: It's as though he's channeled George W. Bush in some way. Again,
[15:16] Speaker 4: I'm not privy to his personal thinking. He obviously believes
[15:20] Speaker 4: that this is a strategy that can bring results. But
[15:23] Speaker 4: we just had a very perfunctory session of talks in
[15:27] Speaker 4: Geneva between President Trump's envoys and the Iranians. There was
[15:32] Speaker 4: some talk about future negotiations and the Iranians promising to
[15:38] Speaker 4: come forward with some concrete proposals, but the positions of
[15:42] Speaker 4: the two sides seems very far apart. In the past.
[15:46] Speaker 4: Of course, we've had US strikes while negotiations were supposedly
[15:50] Speaker 4: still ongoing. So there's a lot of nervousness frankly, that
[15:54] Speaker 4: we might see strikes as soon as this weekend, when
[15:56] Speaker 4: all of these forces will be in place. The other factor,
[16:01] Speaker 4: of course, is the Israeli factor. What are they hoping
[16:03] Speaker 4: to get from this? Will they join in? Do they
[16:06] Speaker 4: want to hit Iranian missile positions perhaps, which is a
[16:10] Speaker 4: key concern for them. Again, very very little explanation, very
[16:14] Speaker 4: little daylight. And this is really infuriating to people who
[16:19] Speaker 4: thought President Trump would concentrate on domestic issues and particularly
[16:23] Speaker 4: the US economy.
[16:26] Speaker 5: And to your point about not having congressional approval. Of course,
[16:30] Speaker 5: this was also the case with Venezuela. But I wonder,
[16:33] Speaker 5: given this backdrop, what is your sense of the extent
[16:37] Speaker 5: in which there could still be a sort of deal
[16:40] Speaker 5: on the nuclear program between the US and Iran.
[16:44] Speaker 4: Well, that means that President Trump will have to accept
[16:48] Speaker 4: something less than what he has suggested. The Iranians are
[16:51] Speaker 4: perfectly willing to postpone to stave off suspend uranium enrichment
[16:57] Speaker 4: for a number of years. They're willing to send out
[17:01] Speaker 4: or dilute highly enriched uranium stockpiles, which they still possess,
[17:05] Speaker 4: but they are not willing to say that they will
[17:07] Speaker 4: never enrich uranium on Iranian soil. They believe this is
[17:11] Speaker 4: their right. They also have ruled out any talks on
[17:15] Speaker 4: their missiles or on their relationship with regional partners, which
[17:19] Speaker 4: have also been mentioned as demands on the part of
[17:22] Speaker 4: President Trump. He's also talked about regime change in a
[17:25] Speaker 4: very cavalier fashion and suggested that would be a wonderful outcome.
[17:30] Speaker 4: But again, I fail to see how attacking Iran now
[17:33] Speaker 4: will bring about that regime change. It could bring about
[17:36] Speaker 4: more chaos, It could bring about some civil strife, maybe
[17:40] Speaker 4: more protests. But the Iranian government has been preparing for
[17:45] Speaker 4: a long time now and expecting frankly new Israelian American strikes,
[17:50] Speaker 4: and I'm sure they have plans for pretty much whatever
[17:53] Speaker 4: Trump is contemplating.
[17:57] Speaker 5: Barbar on those issues on regional force. Can you also
[18:00] Speaker 5: talk to us about how things have changed between Iran
[18:04] Speaker 5: and some of its proxies in the past year, how
[18:08] Speaker 5: much has its influence shifted.
[18:11] Speaker 4: Iran is certainly much weaker than it was a couple
[18:13] Speaker 4: of years ago, primarily because of the blows struck against
[18:17] Speaker 4: Hezbollah in Lebanon and also the fall of the Asad
[18:20] Speaker 4: regime in Syria a couple of years ago. But Iran
[18:24] Speaker 4: still has relationships with the Hooties in Yemen, which can
[18:27] Speaker 4: disrupt shipping in the Red Sea. It has relationships with
[18:32] Speaker 4: militias in Iraq which may be called upon to attack
[18:37] Speaker 4: US basis US personnel still in Iraq. It is not
[18:43] Speaker 4: without resources, and I think this is an extremely dangerous
[18:47] Speaker 4: situation where escalation can certainly happen rather suddenly. The US
[18:53] Speaker 4: has thirty to forty thousand personnel stationed at bases in
[18:57] Speaker 4: some eight countries in the region. Them can be reached
[19:01] Speaker 4: by Iranian missiles and rockets. The US has, of course
[19:06] Speaker 4: means of defending these places. But I think what we've
[19:09] Speaker 4: seen in the past is that Iranian retaliation has been
[19:12] Speaker 4: telegraphed and pro forma. No Americans have been killed, and
[19:16] Speaker 4: I don't feel as confident that that can be the
[19:20] Speaker 4: case this time. I think the Iranian regime may feel
[19:23] Speaker 4: that its back is to the wall and it may
[19:25] Speaker 4: simply let fly with whatever it has. Trump has been
[19:30] Speaker 4: lucky in these military adventures of his He's not lost
[19:34] Speaker 4: American lives If that changes, that's really going to affect
[19:38] Speaker 4: his status in the United States. We have midterm elections coming.
[19:43] Speaker 4: I just I'm trying to imagine what he is thinking now.
[19:48] Speaker 4: Maybe there is some deal that still can be reached.
[19:50] Speaker 4: Of course, he's perfectly capable of declaring victory even if
[19:55] Speaker 4: the deal is not much of an improvement on previous
[19:58] Speaker 4: agreements with the Iranians. But if so, why all of
[20:02] Speaker 4: this amassing of American military power, Why these threats, What's
[20:06] Speaker 4: the strategy, what's the goal? We are, frankly all rather
[20:11] Speaker 4: confused here.
[20:12] Speaker 2: That was Barbara Slaven, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimpson Center,
[20:15] Speaker 2: speaking with Bloomberg TV host Sherry On in April Hong,
[20:19] Speaker 2: bringing you their conversation here on the Daybreak Asia podcast.
[20:24] Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Bloomberg Daybreak
[20:27] Speaker 2: Asia Edition podcast. Each weekday, we look at the story
[20:31] Speaker 2: shaping markets, finance, and geopolitics in the Asia Pacific. You
[20:35] Speaker 2: can find us on Apple, Spotify, the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel,
[20:40] Speaker 2: or anywhere else you listen. Join us again tomorrow for
[20:43] Speaker 2: insight on the market moves from Hong Kong to Singapore
[20:47] Speaker 2: and Australia. I'm Doug Chrisner, and this is Bloomberg.

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