Live August 18, 2026 | Yaron Brook Show (Season 12 - Episode 138) Tariffs; Meta; ABC; Russia; Economy; China AI; Publishing; Antitrust; Achievements| Yaron Brook Show Watch Now: https://www.youtube.com/live/_8rd9pSE4r0
"Trump just used a Great Depression-era tariff law to tax our closest ally 50% — on the trade deal he negotiated himself. Is economic self-harm now the plan?"
Trump just invoked Smoot-Hawley-era authority to hit Canada with 50% tariffs — an ally, not an enemy, retaliating against tariffs we started. Nobody wins. Everybody pays.
Today: Meta faces a $1 trillion lawsuit trying to make it liable for your kid's phone habits. ABC sues the FCC and I'm fully on their side. A Russian court just gave an opposition politician 11 years for a tweet — still think Putin's the good guy? The debt hit $40 trillion early, 30-year yields are at 2007 levels, and nobody in DC will say "spending cuts." Plus China's AI, a wild antitrust probe into a16z, and the best-hidden good news of the year: crime and even NYC rats are falling.
Timestamps: 1:50 – Trump's 50% Canada tariffs: has a tariff threat ever worked? 9:54 – Should Canada just quit negotiating and go free trade? 13:08 – Meta's $1 trillion lawsuit: who's really responsible for kids' phones? 21:54 – ABC vs. FCC: is Carr running a First Amendment shakedown? 24:47 – Russia jails a politician for 11 years over a tweet 35:15 – Debt hits $40T early — what happens when interest beats the Pentagon budget? 50:24 – Only 13% of fund managers beat the market — so why pay them? 1:00:48 – DOJ antitrust probe hits Trump's own VC allies 1:06:56 – Crime is at generational lows — so why does everyone think it's chaos?
🎙️ Live Q&A: • "Why do economists still defend tariffs if they're always a tax on us?" • "Doesn't Meta bear some blame for engineering addiction?" • "Is there a peaceful way out of the debt spiral?"
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Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.
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