We Must Not Abandon Capitalism For Socialism | Jonathan Wellum

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

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Jonathan Wellum (0:26)

There's a reason why in the 20th century, there was somewhere between 80 to 100 million people died in communist countries, right?

It should not surprise you. When you think of just collectivism and top-down power, when you give unlimited power to the government, then some of the worst attributes and worst characteristics of the human being come out. And that's just the way history has demonstrated time and time again.

Adam Taggart (0:58)

Welcome to Thoughtful Money. I'm Thoughtful Money Founder and your host, Adam Taggart, welcoming you here for a discussion with Thoughtful Money's Canadian Financial Advisory Firm, the folks at ROCKLINC Investment Partners. I'm here talking to Jonathan Wellum, the Founder and CEO. Jonathan, how are you?

Jonathan Wellum (1:13)

I'm doing very well, Adam, and looking forward to our conversation.

Adam Taggart (1:17)

Thank you. It's wonderful to have you on here regularly. Not only the Canadians love it, because they get a little bit of taste of looking at the markets from a Canadian point of view, but the Americans love it because they get to see our own markets a bit through the eyes of an outsider, but not too far of an outsider. We still here, with this Thoughtful Money, look at the Canadians as our very good friends and brethren to the North.

Whatever ruffled feathers there have been over the past year or two, we know that we still love you guys, hopefully we can see past those to a day where we're even more united than we've been in the past.

Jonathan Wellum (1:54)

Yeah, likewise. I was just down into the US last week and enjoyed some visit there in North Carolina, South Carolina, and I love the US and lots of family in the US. So yeah, some of this political wrangling that goes on is very unfortunate, but I think the two countries are very much aligned to say the least, and there's some great opportunities going forward. So I think things will ultimately work out, and we just have to work through the politics.

Adam Taggart (2:19)

Speaking of that, and this is not what I was planning on talking with you about, but just since the topic came up here, I'm trying to think if this is, yeah. So I guess today, the US just announced a deal with Belarus, I think it is, around potash, which I believe is a big ingredient for fertilizer. And one of the big concerns about the U.S.'s war against Iran and the Gulf is that it's prevented a lot of fertilizer inputs from getting out of the Gulf, and that folks were worried about a worldwide food shortage as a result, and food price inflation and whatnot. How does it deal like, right now, there's a bunch of renewed tariff friction between the US and Canada, because I think what's happening is they're trying to get down to brass tacks so that we can get past all of this stuff. But right now, each side is saber rattling as loudly as it can.

Is this a big development, the fact that Canada might lose the US as a customer for Potash to new players like Belarus, or is this just all part of the smoke and posturing that one would expect during a tariff negotiation?

Jonathan Wellum (3:36)

I think it's largely smoke and mirrors. Now, Potash, which is in Saskatchewan, one of our provinces in the middle of the country, we have massive, massive reserves of Potash. I mean, just massive. And there's only about three major countries in the world. So you have Belarus, you also have Russia.

And that have the majority, I think it's 75% or more of the Potash. So it is fundamental to agriculture and to fertilizers. So I look, it's a fungible commodity. And so I think in my view, again, just my humble opinion here, Donald Trump is using this just to sort of thump around and make a lot of noise in part of the negotiation process. Belarus, as I understood it, came out and said they couldn't possibly make up for the supplies that come out of Canada because what comes out of Canada is huge, it's substantial. And so there's only a limited amount in the world. So I think it, again, I really favor most of the Trump policies. I love deregulation, I love lower taxation, bring capital in, reshoring. I think these are all wonderful policies and they are, I think, helping the United States to a large degree. But I think some of the comments that he makes are unhelpful. It's a bit petulant child in some cases. And again, if I were in the States, I'd vote for him. I'm a conservative to the core. I certainly wouldn't be leaning on the left and the woke side and what you see coming out of the other party.