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Study. it has range. it has authority. it is -- the subtitle could be "how the world got this way." it really could be how we got to this, and i mean all of this that we're living with today. >> that is very kind of you to say. you have -- i mean, you reading the book is humbling to me, and i am thankful for that. i'm also humbled by those words. i did not intend to write a book about oil and gas. and i started off knowing nothing about oil and gas. i was trying to answer other questions about how we got to the world that we are in right now. and big questions about why we're in this fight bet...

We're in this fight between authoritarianism and democracy. and why russia took that wild swing auts. and why they're such a strange malignant actor internationally given that within our lifetime they've been a world straddling super power with communist satellite states all over the world and they were our equal in terms of world influence. trying to get answers to those questions, i ended up in an economics framework. i ended up looking at what's wrong with their economy and how weak that made them. when you combine their weakness and their ambition, you realize the ways they've tried on com...

We're in this fight between authoritarianism and democracy. and why russia took that wild swing auts. and why they're such a strange malignant actor internationally given that within our lifetime they've been a world straddling super power with communist satellite states all over the world and they were our equal in terms of world influence. trying to get answers to those questions, i ended up in an economics framework. i ended up looking at what's wrong with their economy and how weak that made them. when you combine their weakness and their ambition, you realize the ways they've tried on com...

People that he's bringing russia's world influence back. that he's bringing russia's prestige back. and the most important factor for that at this point is to show russians that he is at eye level with the united states. just as soviet leaders were during the cold war. so the russians are very much downplaying any specific agreements that might come out of this, any deliverables, so to speak. what they're talking about is most important is the very fact that these two presidents are meeting. >> last question for you, just concerning the indictment we saw handed up to a grand jury on friday. i ...

We can't have this nation default. it's hurting internationally. people are getting hurt. let the housework it's will. >> alan, is rome fiddling while the world is getting on with other stuff? in other words, china is looking at this saying increasingly this is ridiculous. this deamericanized the world while america burns in these guy's toying around with each other on a tiny pit of principle, we'll get on with the bigger danger which america hasn't faced with situations with the debt ceiling or, you know, with -- on debt issues. now they got a real alternative. >> i agree. not only that, we'r...