Analysis of Texas Governor Election and Economic Impact by Chamath and Friedberg (Part 4)

Gina Hinjosa, this is the new governor elect of Texas. So frankly, it's a race I wasn't even paying attention to because I don't think anyone. Yeah, we assume Abbott was gonna win, gonna win. A very successful three term governor in Texas, presided over an economic boom. That's why we moved to this state. And we thought, I mean, honestly, I think it was the biggest shocker of the whole night. Anyway, so I started watching some interviews with her to kind of catch up on what I had obviously missed. And I watched one interview she did with the New York Times where the interviewer kept trying to draw her out on social issues, like, let's call it woke issues, identity politics. And she said, listen, I'm not participating in your culture war. And then she laid out the case for economic populism as she saw it, and then she connected it to data centers, which is that the reason why data centers are bad is because they are making your utility bills go up, right? You're paying more for electricity and the data centers are using up your water. I think that's why the data center issue was resonant, is because, I mean, there is anxiety about AI and the potential job loss that could come from that. But I think the big reason why people hate the data center so much is they perceive that it's driving up their utility bills and the oligarchs are getting rich off the data centers while they're paying more, which goes to the oligarchs are getting tax breaks and you're getting higher utilities, which goes to Chamat's point of people feel they're unheard and they're going to take the only action they can, which is going to the voting booth. Friedberg. So, Friedberg, you've heard my breakdown. You heard chamat's breakdown, and then Sachs with a little bit of a rebuttal there. Let's do an alternate history here. Friedberg, if the war had not started, what would the midterms have looked like? And then what do you think happens in the next 18 months of Trump's presidency? Is there a way to turn around his legacy? And if there is a way, what two or three pieces of advice would you give this administration to focus on in their remaining 18 to 24 months of power? I kind of agree with the notion that the AI data center hysteria and the hatred for the Iran war are both rooted in this idea that you haven't solved my economic problems first. So I don't think that they're the primary. I think that they're a reflection of the consequence of not focusing on my issues first. My economic.