E161: US strikes Houthis, market instability, Q1 rate cuts in doubt, Carta's major mishap, DEI

**Jason Calacanis** (0:00)
Nick, can you cue the tape?

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:01)
This is now the worst form of a shot. Oh my God.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:05)
Oh! I mean, the fact that he hit the rim is a miracle.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:09)
The most un-as-light, what is, oh God.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:13)
I wish we could get slow motion down that.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:16)
Oh, it's like the ball.

**David Friedberg** (0:18)
The ball is just moving forward.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:19)
Now look at his hand, look at the right hand, look.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:21)
Oh! Look at that, what is that about?

**David Sacks** (0:25)
One hand is.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:27)
I mean, that has nothing to do with basketball. It was the most unnatural basketball slash athletic movement I've seen.

**David Friedberg** (0:35)
Come on, wasn't that bad?

**Jason Calacanis** (0:39)
I mean, the lean forward too.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:41)
The lean forward, the kind of like sassy jump, you know, the sassy jump.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:46)
What are you saying when you say sassy?
All right, everybody. Welcome to the All In Podcast with me again, the chairman dictator Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, the sultan of science and the Rain Man himself, David Sack. Our first topic will go to our war correspondent. The US and its allies have struck Houthi targets in Yemen.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:28)
Sacks?

**David Sacks** (1:28)
Well, we talked about this two weeks ago on the show, and we talked about it as a escalatory risk in the Middle East back then, and I think that that is playing out now.
We fired, I don't know, maybe 100 rockets and missiles at Yemen last night. The purpose of this strike is to restore deterrence and I guess try and prevent the Houthis from attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea. But that deterrence is not working. I mean, there's already a new attack by the Houthis this morning of a commercial ship in the Red Sea. So I don't think this is going to have any impact other than to escalate the conflict in the Middle East and put us on a path to war with Iran, which is really where the neocons want to take us.
You've heard, obviously, the warmongers like Lindsey Graham are calling for that, but even Speaker Mike Johnson is talking about that. I think that's where this is all headed, is a larger war in the Middle East that features the US and Israel going to war with Iran. I think we should all be very concerned about that, actually.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:34)
But you have to be fair. It's not just the US, right?
It's now the US, the UK, Israel, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi against the Houthi rebels. That's a big alliance, and you've got to think that Iran will think very carefully about how close they want to get to the Houthis in the middle of all of this, because that's a huge armada, if you will, of countries that I don't think you really want to cross as a group.

**David Sacks** (3:04)
Well, I think Saudi Arabia and UAE are playing this very carefully, I think. They did not participate in the strikes. They did allow the US to fly overhead or to use its territory, but they released a statement calling for restraint and de-escalation. So I think they're very nervous about this blowing up into a wider regional war. I don't think they want that.
The allies who participated in the campaign of airstrikes were UK, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, and Bahrain. But I don't think they actually did anything. I don't think they contributed any assets. They just provided their names to this operation.
I'm provided some diplomatic cover.

**Jason Calacanis** (3:45)
Friedberg, any thoughts?

**David Friedberg** (3:46)
Well, Sacks, you posted a comment on Twitter, which I wanted to respond to, where you said China has the largest shipping volume through the Red Sea, and they're staying out of this conflict, letting the US do the dirty work. But the Houthis didn't attack Chinese ships. They specifically attacked Western ships. Isn't that correct? I mean, this is a very targeted, disruptive event that the Houthis have been undertaking for some time now.
And they're using these very interesting tactics with drones that can be very destructive and very hard to block. And doing it not at Chinese ships, but at a very targeted enemy.

**David Sacks** (4:22)
Right. Well, what the Houthis have said is that they're only attacking ships that are either Israeli or going to Israel. But in reality, they've attacked a much wider range than that.

**David Friedberg** (4:33)
But not Chinese.

**David Sacks** (4:34)
It may be true that they haven't attacked ships that are declaring themselves to be Chinese ships or Russian ships. However, there are more Chinese shipping containers on all of the ships that are going through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal than any other country.