Ready to uncover the ripple effects of international conflicts on your business, particularly if you're dealing with the federal government? We, your hosts Spencer Bentley, Devon Florczak, and Terrell Cummings, break down the tension between China and Taiwan, exposing the potential repercussions on supply chains, trade, and even energy prices. Learn to navigate these complex issues and strategize for your business's future in these uncertain times.
Curious about the link between national security and the semiconductor industry? Let's unpick this intricate web, considering particularly how Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing impacts technology advancements globally. We also delve into the CHIPS Act by the Biden administration and its implications on the creation of a domestic semiconductor industry. Plus, we discuss the involvement of Chinese companies in Bitcoin mining operations in the US.
Finally, we draw your attention to the current Russo-Ukrainian war and the crucial role defense contractors are playing amidst this unrest. Discover the challenges these contractors face in manufacturing weapons, the COVID-19-induced hurdles in their supply chains and the potential opportunities that small businesses may have in this field. Equipped with these insights, you'll be able to see how contemporary conflicts and technological disruptions can directly or indirectly shape your business. Join us for this enlightening discussion and equip yourself with valuable tools to steer your business through these global conflicts.
Ready to uncover the ripple effects of international conflicts on your business, particularly if you're dealing with the federal government? We, your hosts Spencer Bentley, Devon Florczak, and Terrell Cummings, break down the tension between China and Taiwan, exposing the potential repercussions on supply chains, trade, and even energy prices. Learn to navigate these complex issues and strategize for your business's future in these uncertain times.
Curious about the link between national security and the semiconductor industry? Let's unpick this intricate web, considering particularly how Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing impacts technology advancements globally. We also delve into the CHIPS Act by the Biden administration and its implications on the creation of a domestic semiconductor industry. Plus, we discuss the involvement of Chinese companies in Bitcoin mining operations in the US.
Finally, we draw your attention to the current Russo-Ukrainian war and the crucial role defense contractors are playing amidst this unrest. Discover the challenges these contractors face in manufacturing weapons, the COVID-19-induced hurdles in their supply chains and the potential opportunities that small businesses may have in this field. Equipped with these insights, you'll be able to see how contemporary conflicts and technological disruptions can directly or indirectly shape your business. Join us for this enlightening discussion and equip yourself with valuable tools to steer your business through these global conflicts.
Hello and welcome back to the Country Intelligence Report. We are your hosts, spencer Bentley, devon Florczak and Terrell Cummings. This week we are going to be building upon the topic that we covered in our last episode about the impact of international conflicts on businesses. The last episode we focused on how conflicts can have a direct impact on businesses doing or dealing with the federal government, specifically management consulting firms like the Country Intelligence Group. This week we thought we'd expand the scope to discuss how some contemporary conflicts and developments in technology or recent disruptions to everyday life, how they may have a direct or indirect impact on businesses, small businesses, businesses that do dealings with the federal government. We're going to have a little bit of a different structure this week. The three of us came with different topics that we thought were interesting to cover and will be sort of holding an open forum to discuss our thoughts on these issues, how they may impact different relevant businesses and how we think small businesses should be thinking and framing these issues when they're sort of conceptualizing how to move forward and how to plan for the future. I will get the conversation started. I'll start with a conflict that I've been really fascinated with the past few years. It's been sort of at the forefront of American policy in a number of ways. That is, the conflict between, or the potential conflict between, the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. This is a unique conflict or a unique issue. I should stop saying conflict, because it's not an all out hot war just yet. This is a unique issue because it's incredibly important, it's incredibly relevant, but it's not something that's on, I think, the minds of the everyday American, especially with the wars still raging in Ukraine, the conflict between Israel and Hamas that's playing out, this one sort of gets put on the back burner of the news cycle. But for foreign policy officials, national security officials, the Taiwan-Chinese issue is something that I think is up there with the most consequential in the world today, simply because of the potential fallout and how that could have a very, very direct impact on the global economy and specifically the US economy.
Speaker 1:You know, right off the bat, one of the issues that I see as being really, really pressing and we'll come back to this in a number of ways, but it's the potential supply chain disruption. If we don't know, taiwan is a critical global hub of semiconductors, a critical global manufacturer of semiconductors. This power pretty much every piece of consumer technology that has become vital for everyday life, especially here in the States. We're talking computers, we're talking cell phones. That's just the consumer level technology. It obviously extends to the utility level technology and on up the value chain for everyday products and services that we have come to rely on as a society and as an economy. This is one thing that has a very direct impact on small businesses. Obviously they rely on electronics and technology components for the products and services that they supply. So supply chain disruption by an all out conflict can be devastating in a number of ways. Different things we'll go down the list here and then I'll open it up for the team.
Speaker 1:But there's obviously the potential trade disruptions that can happen. We have a strategy of I'm not sure what the exact term for it is, but being sort of selectively obtuse on Taiwan as a country. We don't officially recognize it, but we still unofficially understand that it's there and it's a critical trade partner for the United States. It's a critical part of the Western economy but due to, obviously, disputes between Taiwan and China on the legitimacy of Taiwan, which they question as a fact of national policy in China, we don't officially recognize it. But the trade disruptions that can occur are significant Obviously the semiconductor, but also the impact that could have all around the world because, as we've seen with COVID and I'm sure we'll touch on later when one link in the chain is broken, it has untold effects on the entire global economy.
Speaker 1:The financial markets, the geopolitical tensions that can come from an all out war can have devastating impacts on the financial markets. Here in the States, small businesses seeking to secure financing or engage in international transactions may face some difficulties unfavorable exchange rates, higher costs of capital, things like that. Energy prices obviously you know the blanking on the name, but there is a very crucial maritime route that is sort of directly in the periphery of Taiwan. Critical shipping routes for energy resources oil, natural gas and this conflict, a potential conflict, could disrupt the flow of those resources. Small businesses that are reliant on energy intensive operations like manufacturing or transportation could face pretty substantial increase in costs for those critical inputs, and the list goes on and on. There are different economic ripples. There are different psychological ripples that could happen. Psychological impacts like consumer confidence.
Speaker 1:If the I'll anchor this in the semiconductor, because it's such a broad conversation, but I think that's the one that's, that's the product that is most consequential, if you know, we lose the hub of semiconductor manufacturing, that will have a very, very tangible impact on the quality of the technology that we utilize. It will take a huge step backwards when you talk about processing power in computers. When we talk about increases in functionality for, like our cell phones, your iPhone, that's heavily reliant on semiconductors. You know, being able to have these have this sense that we've become accustomed to as consumers in the United States, that technology will always continue to increase and increase in power, increase in usability increase. You know it will have a very direct impact on that and that we'll no longer be able to develop these increases. Or, if we do, it will take a very painful concerted effort to build a semiconductor manufacturing base domestically which has all types of pain points that will it will, you know, obviously come in contact with, if and when that needs to happen.
Speaker 1:So many different issues that could occur to, you know become a, you know, a top of mind issue for the average American. Should this, you know, cold war go hot between Taiwan and China, and that's not even getting into the fact that obviously we will need to intercede as a country militarily should something happen. Because we have that, we have sort of a pact with a lot of the Asian countries around Taiwan, korea, japan. That is essentially a deterrence pact. You know, if China shows aggression we will step in and that is sure to happen if and when they pursue Taiwan, as a lot of policymakers believe that they will. So a lot of information there. But I'm interested in, in you know, hearing your guys thoughts on this and you know how this may sort of tie into our whole theme of small businesses protecting themselves and and being knowledgeable about world affairs as they're playing out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think something that's interesting about this topic is that American companies involvement in supporting Taiwan based companies. You know, in the shortage you know specifically I believe the video is the main company is helping out the Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company throughout the shortage here, and you know that's. It's interesting because for a few reasons, and the main one that I think it is is because you know, could one day China view an American based company helping out you know a main Taiwan based company as an act of war or you know escalating something further in the region. You know what happens if we do get to that point. You know where business does sort of push. You know tensions and you know the backbone, I think, of Nvidia is.
Speaker 2:You know there's a lot of probably smaller companies that work with Nvidia as well. You know, similar to how you know with the large DoD defense contractors, you know small businesses are called. You know suppliers to them. So you know a lot of these large companies are built on the backbone of, you know smaller manufacturing companies that you know make some of these smaller chips and you know support. You know the industry as a whole. So yeah, I think it's very interesting.
Speaker 2:You know for one, you know what does stuff like this mean for the greater, you know political sphere you know involving? You know a potential. You know Cold War right now, I mean American companies get involved with. You know international companies. And then what does it mean, you know again, for, like those smaller companies that are, you know, supporting the American-based company right now. You know for us who are pretty separated from it.
Speaker 2:You know Spencer, like you said, you know this does have a greater impact on you know technology prices as a whole. You know semi-conductors are, you know pretty much in everything from you know your laptop to your phone, your car, to. You know the cloud computing services that are. You know, supporting this podcast. You know things like that, you know it's everywhere and I think you know, if you look at it that way, that's to me a threat to national security as a whole, because you know if prices go ballistic or items like this, you won't be able to, you know, do certain things affordably and you know effectively, you know you could be shut off a market because of you know the prices to sort of compete in it. So, yeah, I think there's just a lot of sort of things to consider and I feel like it's very complicated, very quickly.
Speaker 1:It does. Yeah, and I feel like this is the rare international issue that has direct domestic relevance because of that semiconductor issue and because of how reliant we've become as a culture on technology that utilizes these semiconductors. And, you know, this is also one of those issues that I think will have a very long tail and extend throughout most of the developed world, because, you know, the United States is not the only country that is heavily reliant on this Most of Western Europe, you're talking about. Most of Asia you're talking about, you know, south America, you know they touch pretty much every point in the globe. It's very difficult for a small business to detangle their risk from something like this and because, especially with the push towards a digital first presence for nearly every consumer-based you know, a consumer-good-based company, it's incredibly difficult to shield yourself from this type of fallout that could occur here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that makes me question you know, should the United States as a government, you know, build stockpiles of? You know crucial items like you know just basic semiconductors? You know we do that with oil, you know we do that with. You know livestock. You know farm equipment. You know we do that with. You know certain items already. You know when do we expand to? You know more technologically based items and sort of create our own sort of stockpile, and you know be able to draw from that when you know things do get a little bit crazy, you know if needed.
Speaker 3:Well, we do the government, taking into account the cost of doing that as well, like, is it the cost it's going to be? I mean, I'm sure the thing about that, you know, is just less expensive to do that versus you know. Obviously the conflict's happening, so you think about that as well, and so that I see where you come from with it. But you know, would it be more burdened to purchase more or purchase more? So I'm going to actually just so I'm going to conduct myself from Taiwan and then stock it versus us being faction of ourselves, or what's going to be the best way to go about that. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know. You can even just look at COVID and just look at computer prices and GPU prices then and you know how all of those sort of increase three or four times full very quickly. And good thing now is that you know those prices have come down and you know, despite tensions, it seems like things are kind of normal. You know, in that sort of market right now, yeah, but what happens if we do get into an environment where that sort of market lasts for you know longer than you know a year and a half, what that's lasting for five years, and I think that'd be very detrimental, you know eventually to you know a lot of companies, a lot of people here in America.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and you know, just for clarity, there was, and we'll move on after this, but the Biden administration did sign in to affect the CHIPS Act, the creating helpful incentives to produce semiconductors for America Act, which does help prioritize the funding for research and development of semiconductors. I think they have this exact issue and conflict in mind when doing that. The caveat is, you know, it's not as simple as just creating a factory. You need the technical know-how, you need one that the human capital base. Who is going to run this? And how are we going to ensure that the chips that we make are the chips that are needed for all of these firms that rely so heavily on them? Quality control, things like that.
Speaker 1:And then, on top of all of that, even if we do, you know, just the fact of creating a factory for semiconductors takes a very, very high degree of technological know-how in and of itself, not to mention all the domestic politics that go along with it. So it's not a magic wand by any means. It's looking to show up this issue as a national security priority, but you know, any impact to the semiconductor base in Taiwan will have pretty detrimental and far reaching and immediate blowback and impact to the developed world Interesting. It's something to ponder on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, and something that is semi-related to the semiconductor industry as a whole is cryptocurrency, and you know blockchain technology and those sort of things, because you know a lot of blockchains are supported by ASIC miners it's actually specific and gray circuit miners, so you know those support Bitcoin mining. Gpus support, more so, alternative cryptocurrency mining, such as Ethereum. Ethereum is switching away from it, though, but there's a bunch of others that are powered by. You know farms and farms of GPUs as a whole, and that's also a concern, just in general, with you know, semiconductor shortages. Taking a look at, you know where a lot of these technologies are being used and people are starting to question. You know, is it really a good thing that? You know we have farms that are terawatts big? You know supporting cryptocurrency mining or supporting AI research. You know we all saw the numbers that are there that are currently powering the research for chat GPT. You know that's a lot of computing power there, and you know I think you know eventually, as you know, if, hopefully, if prices of you know these things don't skyrocket, I'm sure that narrative will always be there of people wondering. You know, where do we want to spend our computing power and being able to prioritize. You know what is, you know, a good spending of computing power versus, like, what's a bad spending computing power, but I think it's kind of interesting. You know in general as well. You know as, especially as you know, we move forward and you know things might just get more expensive.
Speaker 2:But yeah, back to you know cryptocurrency and blockchain. You know, I think, that there are some national security concerns right now, for a few reasons, you know. The first one is you know America and you know the DoD as well. You know which a lot of the federal industries are worried about. You know where people's money are being held If you are involved in cryptocurrency. You know we all saw the survey that went out regarding asking people if you have any crypto on. You know foreign exchanges. You know, because obviously that wouldn't be ideal, especially when there are cryptocurrency exchanges that are based in Thomas out here in the United States. But in addition to that, something that I'm kind of interested in is more so on the Bitcoin mining side, and I'm not sure if you guys know this, but in 2021, china banned Bitcoin mining. This is the second time they did this, so they did in 2017 as well.
Speaker 1:I was not aware of that.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I had to cough there. Yeah, so they pretty much banned you know Bitcoin mining and it's, you know, kind of seen as like a meme almost, because you know, like I said, they did in 2017 and the ban only lasts, like, I think, six months. So if you were kind of joking like, oh well, you know, here comes China. You know banning, you know Bitcoin mining again, but you know, both times have led to an increase in mining operations increasing here in America and America right now is becoming more prevalent on the Bitcoin mining scene and I think you know, eventually this could lead to some tensions between China and America. You know, whether or not you know America expects this or not. You know, especially because you know China could be seen, as you know, losing power. You know, on the main cryptocurrency, and you know I'm not sure if that'd be a cause for war or not. You know what that might lead to. But you know what do you guys think?
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, this is. This is a complicated one because there are so many different interests at stake when you talk about cryptocurrency. You know it's, I think, for the most part, many national governments with a few exceptions, I believe, in South America but many national governments have taken an adversarial stance to cryptocurrency just because of the potential destabilization, obviously, of their own domestic currency. That could occur if more you know, if a significant portion of the citizens adopt that as a means of a means of payment. But I think that it would be foolish for national governments to not adopt this technology and not adopt cryptocurrency on some level, not allow it some space to thrive, because, you know, if it, absent a government presence, you know it can metastasize into something that is really truly a threat. You know, for in order for governments to have some semblance of control, which is difficult with blockchain technology but in order for governments to have some semblance of control, they have to be involved in some way and they have to sort of take a national security stance, I think, on the involvement of governments in crypto. So, yeah, you know it's. I think it's going to require an ongoing sort of cost benefit analysis for governments, for the United States government for the Chinese government on how much to allow and to what degree you integrate this technology into the system.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I think one of the big drawbacks is or one of the big complications, I should say is the tax structure and how and if crypto can be taxed, into what degree. And you know how to collect it, and you know there's always the ongoing issue of liquidation of crypto. You know how do you get the money out and then what role does the government play in that, and so you know it's. This is an incredibly complex issue, wicked problem. I don't know. I don't know how this evolves. I think maybe the underlying thread could be sort of an international recognition that the base technology of blockchain is really the pearl of all of this and needs to be better understood and better adopted in terms of crypto. Yeah, this is, I think, something that's very hard to predict.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's really intriguing too, because a lot of the companies that make these ASICs you know the machines that sort of back Bitcoin mining are from China. You know the main one is Bitmain. You know they're based out of China and it's sort of ironic because when the ban happened, a lot of their stock was then just being pushed to here in the United States at a discount as well, because you know they had all the stock of new machines that are coming out there, stockpile of older machines as well. Plus, you know the combination of you know a lot of new farms opening up in Texas. You know Wyoming. I think Arizona are the big states for that. So I think it's interesting. You know for that and you know. In addition, you know our government is definitely aware of it because there's an article in 2022 about how the Committee on Foreign Investment, the CFIUS they're essentially responsible for monitoring foreign investments with potential national security implications they discovered that there were 12 Bitcoin mining operations in multiple US states Arkansas, there's some here in Ohio, texas, et cetera. There's one actually that's in Wyoming. That's very close to the Air Force base out there and there are some concerns about you know the implications of these. You know Chinese owned operations being here, you know, versus not being in China and you know being able to, you know, be facilitated out here without you know much. You know, not knowledge of the US government, but you know oversight. So I think it's, you know, very interesting in what's going on here and it's probably something that you know our government needs to focus on more. So, you know, especially, as you know, blockchain technology becomes more prevalent.
Speaker 2:On the flip side, you know, from away from the mining part, there are more contracts being awarded for blockchain technology. You know, for example, the back. I think two years ago, toronto Defense awarded a company called Simba Chain to essentially build a blockchain-based system for securing sensitive R&D data on behalf of the DOD, you know. So there are things being awarded like that, and that's also related to another project called Elimata, which stands for Authenticity Ledgered for Audible Military Enclave Data Across. So essentially, what it's doing is sort of ties into that blockchain where essentially, they're looking to document this data and sort of track how it changes in a more, you know, open source way for the government, which I think is interesting.
Speaker 2:But, you know, I still don't think that there's enough research being done in this area. I also don't think that there's enough money being awarded in this area as well. Like the Simba Chain said that the contract award was only $200,000. I'm not sure what they're doing with that $200,000 because even, as we know, the best software developers, that's probably like one annual salary right there. So you know, in general, I think you know the government as a whole needs to get more serious about you know what's going on with, you know, mining operations in relation to that. You know how do we deploy blockchain technology to actually be, you know, used in a good way. You know, across the government as well. You know it's something that we need to embrace and, you know, actually take a look into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's honestly shocking. That $200,000 figure is that's wow, that's shocking.
Speaker 2:That's pretty much close to no investment whatsoever, especially when you look at all these different crypto exchanges that have billions and billions of dollars and resources and people call them war, trust and money, and the government's handing out pennies on the dollar here to sort of look into these things.
Speaker 1:Well, that's fascinating. Disheartening, but fascinating. Hopefully these type of conversations will help illuminate those in charge that more substantial action needs to be taken. But, terrell, I know you had an interesting point here on COVID and I think we're all sort of, for better or worse, very intimately knowledgeable about the impact that COVID has had. But I think it's we'd be remiss if we didn't obviously include this on the list of potential disruptors.
Speaker 3:And that might have been, might have been Devin as far as that, because we were kind of discussing I don't know we would run out of time here, but we're kind of discussing supply chain impacts that took place after COVID and whatnot there and so you know, like everything slowed down I think almost came to a halt. As far as supply chain, there's plenty of supply chain issues out there and, like my kind of top I was going to kind of go into we can get to another time was going to be kind of the conflict taking place over in the Russo, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and how US defense contractors, us defense businesses, were affected by that, you know, and that kind of. There's kind of long list things that kind of goes on along with that. But the fact that the US was giving aid to the Ukraine, you know multiple times and whatnot they're up for potentially trying to do so again 61.4 billion dollars given aid to Ukraine as far as provide them with munitions what Maria went on and military assistance as well as far as doing that. So there's there's that initial kind of issue or conflict the fact that on the political side not everybody in the House of Representatives agrees will go on this route as far as doing that. So that's a tough thing as far as now necessarily wanting to provide them aid at this point in time because they feel they've already done so in the past, don't necessarily want to do so in the future, but they from there, that's already taken place, the money's already been given.
Speaker 3:Defense contractors have been able to try to kind of jump on that and be able to go out there and try to, you know, manufacture these. We'll say, for instance, stingray missiles that are manufactured. But you think about it, they haven't been orders for these stingray missiles that are in stockpiles. They haven't orders for them for 18 years. So defense contractors are running into some issues, you know, starting out with even finding the people hiring individuals to, or the personnel to manufacture them. Make sure they have the appropriate security clearances, seeing they have find enough engineers to be a part of this process, or find enough skilled delivery part of the process or dealing with high turnover. If they do get past that, then there's a spotting spot, changing issues that's taking place right now that stem back from COVID as far as doing that, and then once that happens that's the case, you know then it's still the parts of the stingray of the stingray excuse me, stingray missile where you know they may not have all the parts from 18, 20 years ago. There may be differences there. So that's the kind of you'll think about that as well, as far as the whole process. But that's something where Even the things took place before these, these different I would say I Guess the money I was giving them body US.
Speaker 3:You know everybody thought that. You know right, these defense contracts will jump on this. We'll make a lot of money off rough rip on that. But they're not necessarily able to make the money off that right away Just because there's these different issues along the way. So defense contractors are going into that. They're probably not making as much money right now. So thought they would, or you're not gonna.
Speaker 3:The global economy is not gonna see the effect on it from it right away, like they originally thought. It's gonna take some time. It's announced to the point where you have stockpiles are down. You know neighboring countries of Ukraine, their stockpiles are down, so more orders are coming in. So it isn't gonna stop anytime soon.
Speaker 3:But as far as figuring out the process of being able to meet the demand, that may just take a Take a few moments to figure out.
Speaker 3:Basically, you know, whether they decide to, not whether whether the Pentagon decides to go through the process and have manufacturers there in Europe and partner with them.
Speaker 3:Even they do that.
Speaker 3:There's certain rules that the United States government has for doing business, united States government and how they go about things as far as giving out the specs on the different. You know, we this is that they're creating, as far as that, and who they're giving them to, who they're selling to or whether it be the other, is a whole process goes long as that. And so having those manufacturers in another country, I think that that raises another set of issues where versus where, they're being manufactured here, united States, or the contracts done here in the United States. So that's just something that's coming down the line. You know it's gonna happen one way or another. It's just a matter of how it's going to be. I guess I'll call it governor's right not the right term to use but there's gonna have to be a process in place for it and it's, you know, do the contractors. I think they will be able to find a place out there for it. It's just all things gonna necessarily be quick wins Right away, but I said we can get into the whole conversation another time.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's a great point. I think that this, the, the Russo-Ukrainian war, really highlighted the limits of our manufacturing capabilities and that the, the issues that come along with Contract awarding, things like that, really highlighted over the last couple of years that this conflict's been ongoing. And you know again, these, these holes in our, our sort of national security Ecosphere are Not really highlighted until they're they're they're shown to be a liability. And by the time it's exposed as a liability, you're already a few years behind in making that up. So, like you said, there's definitely going to be opportunities for Contractors, especially those in the manufacturing arms, armament Sort of sector, to to make this money, but the spinning up of that that is going to be a, I think, an ongoing process and it would be a years-long process for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and luckily, you know a lot of people complain that the government sometimes moves too slow, but Sometimes some could say they they move too quick or just fast enough, especially when you know they made sure that you know Things like the Defense Production Act, you know sort of Reenvision to, you know be able to shore up some of these supply chain.
Speaker 2:You know issues when you know government was able to, to grant loans to, to be able to produce some of these things. You know in the meantime in the United States that were, you know, definitely needed when, when some of those shortages were happening, god you know, during COVID, or even things like you know Semiconductors or you know electronics were were involved in this as well. So you know, I think that you know Not gonna say you know the government's doing a bad job always, but you know I think the government does do a good job and moving quickly on some of these things and being able to use, you know, actual, you know defense acts more related to the DoD, to sort of get work going and you know fun things are actually needed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think ultimately this, this will be a boon for for contractors. If we're just talking about real terms here, obviously you know Nobody wants a conflict, nobody wants a war, but In terms of you know opportunities, opportunities for small businesses in the defense field, from armament to technology technology to on, on down the line to consulting, and you know management and operations, even Things like recruiting, all of these things you know. You know, for better or worse, become opportunities for for businesses, for small businesses. It may take a little bit for them to get spun up but, like you said, devin, with the utilization of you know these wartime acts instead of you know going through the long political process of being codified by Congress and things like that, that helps speed up the process. But even with a fully optimized, sped up process in a democracy it's still going to take a little bit of time For things to get wound up. But once they get going it will present, I think, a Sort of a generational opportunity for a lot of small businesses To to stake their claim in the national security market. So Definitely something interesting, I think, a great way to sort of cap off the discussion and win a little longer.
Speaker 1:We'll probably break this up into two different segments, but fascinating topics that I think we all have A real stake in as as as entrepreneurs, as executives, as as Stakeholders in the national security business. So it's it's important that we stay up to date on all of these topics and at country intelligence report, we will continue to touch upon them and help you stay informed. So, for all of us here, thank you for listening. We will speak to you next time. Thank you for listening to the country intelligence report. Please like and subscribe to stay on top of the latest developments with the show. More information on the country intelligence group Please visit our website at wwwcountryintelcom. You can also be found across multiple social media platforms at country intel.