I’ll begin with a few confessions. The primary is that I see the world in shades of grey, and in a world the place increasingly more folks see solely black and white, that makes me an outlier. Thus, in case you are studying this publish anticipating me to publish a diatribe or a tribute to Trump, tariffs or Tesla, you might be more likely to be disillusioned. The second is that a lot of my work is within the micro world, the place I have a look at corporations and their values, and the work that I do on macro subjects or variables is to assist me in that pursuit. Thus, my estimates of fairness threat premiums, up to date each month, are usually not designed to make large statements about markets however extra to get inputs I have to worth corporations. That stated, to worth corporations right this moment, I’ve no alternative however to usher in the economics and politics of the world that these corporations inhabit. The issue with doing so, although, is that with Trump and tariffs on the one hand, and Mush and DOGE on the opposite, it’s simple to be reactive, and to let your political leanings drive your conclusions. That’s the reason I wish to step again and have a look at the 2 bigger forces which have introduced us to this second, with the primary being globalization, a motion that has formed economics and markets for a lot of the final 4 a long time, however that has now, for my part, crested and is dealing with pushback, and the opposite being disruption, initiated by expertise start-ups within the Nineteen Nineties, and prolonged to put waste to the established order in lots of companies within the a long time since, however now being introduced into the political/authorities area.
Globalization – The Rise, Results and Blowback
Globalization has taken completely different types by way of the ages, with some violent and poisonous variants, however the present model of globalization kicked into excessive gear within the Nineteen Eighties, remodeling each facet of our lives. I’m no historian, however on this part, I’ll begin with a really brief and private historical past of how globalization has performed out in my classroom, study its winners and losers, and finish with an evaluation of how the monetary disaster of 2008 precipitated the motion to crest and create a political and financial backlash that has led us to right this moment.
A Quick (Private) Historical past of Globalization
One of the best ways that I can consider illustrating the rise of globalization is to speak about the way it has made its presence felt in my classroom over the past 4 a long time. Once I began my educating journey on the College of California at Berkeley in 1984, enterprise schooling was dollar-centric, with enterprise colleges all over the world utilizing textbooks and instances written with US information and starring US corporations. My class had a sprinkling of European and Japanese college students however college students from a lot of the remainder of the world have been underrepresented. The businesses that they went to work for, after commencement, have been principally home in operations and in revenues, and multinationals have been extra the exception than the rule, with nearly all of them headquartered in the USA and Europe.
Right now, enterprise schooling, each by way of location and materials, has turn out to be world, with European and Asian enterprise colleges routinely making the highest enterprise faculty record, and sophistication supplies reflecting this development. My lessons at NYU usually have extra college students from outdoors the USA than from inside, and only a few will go to work for entities with a purely home focus. Many of those hiring corporations have provide chains that stretch the world over and promote their services and products in overseas markets. As companies have globalized, shoppers and buyers have had no alternative however to observe, and the issues we purchase (from meals to furnishings) and the businesses that we put money into all reflecting these world influences.
The Winners from Globalization
As shoppers, corporations and buyers have globalized, there have clearly been many who’ve benefited from its rise. With out claiming to be complete, right here is my record of the largest winners from globalization.
- China: The most important winner from globalization has been China, which has seen its financial and political energy surge over the past 4 a long time. Word that the rise has not been all happenstance, and China deserves credit score for benefiting from the alternatives provided by globalization, making itself first the hub for world manufacturing after which utilizing its rising wealth to construct its infrastructure and establishments. To get a measure of China’s rise, I have a look at its GDP, relative to GDP from the remainder of the world over the previous few a long time:
Supply: World Financial institution China’s share of world GDP elevated ten-fold between 1980 and 2023, and its centrality to world financial progress is measured within the desk beneath, the place I have a look at the proportion of the change in world GDP every decade has come from completely different components of the world:
Between 2010 and 2023, China accounted for nearly 38% of world financial progress, with solely the USA having a bigger share, although the winnings for the US have been on a bigger base and are extra attributable to the opposite world power (disruption) that I’ll spotlight within the subsequent part.
- Customers: Customers have benefited from globalization in some ways, beginning with extra merchandise to select from and infrequently at decrease costs than in pre-globalization days. From having the ability to eat no matter we wish to, anytime of the yr, to sporting attire that has turn out to be so low cost that it has turn out to be disposable, many people, no less than on the floor, have extra shopping for energy.
- World Establishments : Whereas the World Financial institution and the IMF predate the globalization shift, their energy has amped up, no less than in lots of rising markets, and the developed world has created its personal establishments and agreements (EU and NAFTA, to title simply two) making it simpler for companies and people to function outdoors their home borders. In parallel, Worldwide Industrial Courts have proliferated and been empowered to implement the legal guidelines of commerce, usually throughout borders.
- Monetary Markets (and their facilities): Over the previous few a long time, not solely have extra corporations been capable of record themselves on monetary markets, however these markets has turn out to be extra central to public coverage. In lots of instances, the market response to spending, tax or financial proposals has turn out to be the determinant on whether or not they get adopted or continued. As monetary markets have risen in worth and significance, the cities (New York, London, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Tokyo and Mumbai) the place these markets are centered have gained in significance and wealth, if not in livability, on the expense of the remainder of the world.
- Consultants: Now we have at all times seemed to specialists for steerage, however globalization has given rise to a brand new cadre of specialists, who’re positioned to establish what they imagine are the world’s greatest issues and provide their options in boards like Davos and Aspen, with the world’s coverage makers as their viewers.
The Losers from Globalization
When globalization was ascendant, its proponents underplayed its prices, however there have been losers, and that record would come with no less than the next:
- Japan and Europe: The graph that exhibits the rise of China from globalization additionally illustrates the fading of Japan and Europe over the interval, with the previous declining from 17.8% of world GDP in 1995 to three.96% in 2023 and the latter seeing its share dropping from 25.69% of world GDP in 1990 to 14.86%. You may see this drop off within the graph beneath:
Whereas not all progress from globalization is zero-sum, a good portion throughout this era was, with financial energy and wealth shifting from Europe and Japan to newly ascendant economies.
- Customers, on management: I listed shoppers as winners from globalization, and so they have been, on the size of alternative and price, however in addition they misplaced by way of management of the place their merchandise have been made, and by whom. To offer a simplistic instance, the shift from shopping for your greens, fish and meat from native farmers, fishermen and butchers to manufacturing unit farmers and supermarkets might have made the meals extra reasonably priced, but it surely has come at a price.
- Small companies: Whereas there are a number of different elements which have additionally contributed to the decline of small companies, globalization has been a significant contributor, as smaller companies now discover themselves competing in opposition to corporations who make their merchandise 1000’s of miles away, usually with very completely different price buildings and guidelines limiting them. Bigger companies not solely had extra energy to adapt to the challenges of globalization, however have discovered methods to learn from it, by transferring their manufacturing to the most cost effective and least restrictive locales. In one in every of my information updates for this yr, I pointed to the disappearance of the small agency impact, the place small corporations traditionally have earned increased returns than giant cap corporations, and globalization is a contributing issue.
- Blue-collar employees in developed markets: The flip aspect of the rise of China and different international locations as manufacturing hubs, with decrease prices of operation, has been the lack of manufacturing clout and jobs for the West, with manufacturing unit employees in the USA, UK and Europe bearing the brunt of the fee. Whereas the job losses diversified throughout sectors, with job abilities and unionization being figuring out elements, the highest line numbers inform the story. In the USA, the variety of manufacturing jobs peaked at shut to twenty million in 1979 and dropped to about 13 million in 2024, and manufacturing wages have lagged wage progress in different sectors for a lot of that interval.
- Democracy: In my opinion, globalization has weakened the ability of democracy the world over. The autumn of the Iron Curtain was greeted by optimists claiming the triumph of democracy over authoritarianism and the daybreak of a brand new age of democratic freedom. That promise has largely been dashed, partly as a result of the largest winners from the globalization sweepstakes weren’t paragons of free expression and selection, but in addition as a result of voters in democracies have been annoyed after they voted for change, and located that the insurance policies that adopted got here from a world script. The Economist, the newsmagazine, measures (albeit with their very own biases) democracy on the earth, and its findings in its most up-to-date replace are troubling.
Not solely does the world tilt extra authoritarian than democratic in 2024, the development line signifies that the world is turning into much less democratic over time. Whereas there are different forces (social media, expertise) at play that will clarify this shift as properly, the cynicism that globalization has created concerning the capability to create change at residence has undoubtedly contributed to the shift away from democracy.
I imagine that globalization has been a web plus for the worldwide financial system, however one purpose it’s in retreat is due to a refusal on the a part of its advocates to acknowledge its prices and the dismissal of opposition to any facet of globalization as nativist and ignorant.
The 2008 Disaster and its Aftermath
Coming into this century, the march of globalization appeared unstoppable, however the wave crested in 2008, with the monetary market disaster. That disaster uncovered the failures of the professional class, resulting in a lack of belief that has by no means been recovered. Whereas the preliminary public responses to the monetary disaster have been muted, the notion that the world was nonetheless being run by hidden (world) forces, unelected and largely unaccountable to anybody, has continued, and I imagine that it has performed a big position in British voters selecting Brexit, the rise of nationalist events in Europe, and within the elections of Donald Trump in the USA. Trump, an actual property developer with a number of worldwide properties, is an imperfect spokesperson of the anti-globalization motion, however it’s simple that he has tapped into, and benefited from, its anger. Whereas he was restrained by norms and custom in his first time period, these constraints appear to have loosened on this second go round, and he has weilded tariffs as a weapon and is open about his contempt for world organizations. Whereas economists are aghast on the spectacle, and the financial penalties are more likely to be damaging, it isn’t stunning {that a} portion of the general public, even perhaps a majority, are cheering Trump on.
To those that are nostalgic for a return to the previous occasions, I do not imagine that the globalization genie can return into the bottle, because it has permeated not solely each facet of enterprise, but in addition vital parts of our private lives. The world that may prevail, if a commerce battle performs out, will likely be very completely different than the one which existed earlier than globalization took off. China, the second largest financial system on the earth right this moment, will not be returning to its a lot smaller stature, pre-globalization, and given the dimensions of its inhabitants, it might be able to maintain its financial system and develop it, with a home market focus. Whereas buyers are being bought the India story, it’s value recognizing that India will face far more hostility from the remainder of the world, because it tries to develop, than China did throughout the previous few a long time. For Europe and Japan, a mixture of an growing older populations and sclerotic governments restrict the probabilities of restoration, and for the USA, the query is whether or not expertise can proceed to be its financial savior, particularly if world markets turn out to be tougher to entry.
Disruption – Origins and Extensions
On the earth of my youth, disruption was not used as a praise and disruptors have been consigned to the skin edges of society, labeled as troublemakers or worse. That has modified on this century, as expertise evangelists have used disruption as a sword to slay the established order and provide, no less than, of their telling, extra environment friendly and higher options.
The Disruptor Playbook
- Discover a enterprise to disrupt: The most effective companies to disrupt are giant (by way of {dollars} spent on their merchandise/providers), inefficient in how they make and promote these merchandise, and stuffed with dissatisfied gamers, the place nobody (or no less than only a few) is glad. For essentially the most half, these companies have made legacy decisions, which made sense on the time they have been made, have lengthy outlived their usefulness, however persist, as a result of methods and practices have been constructed round them, and adjustments are fought by the beneficiaries of those inefficient methods.
- Goal their weakest hyperlinks: Legacy companies have a mixture of services and products, and it’s inevitable that a few of these merchandise are providers have excessive margins and pay for different merchandise which are provided at or beneath price. Disruptors go after the previous, weaning away sad clients by providing them higher offers, and within the course of, leaving legacy companies with a much less worthwhile and viable product combine.
- Transfer rapidly and scale up: Pace is of the essence in disruption, since transferring rapidly places established order corporations at an obstacle, as these corporations not solely take extra time to reply, however should climate fights inside their organizations, usually pushed by politics and cash. With entry to vital capital from enterprise capital, personal fairness and even public buyers, disruptors can scale up rapidly, unencumbered by the necessity to have properly shaped enterprise fashions or present income no less than within the close to time period.
- Break guidelines, ask for permission later: One characteristic shared by disruptive fashions, albeit to various levels, has been a willingness to interrupt guidelines and norms, understanding totally properly that their established order rivals will likely be extra averse to doing so, and that the rule makers and regulators will take time to reply.
- There isn’t any various: By the point the regulators or authorized system catches up with the disrupters, they goal to have turn out to be so ascendant, and the established order so broken, that there isn’t any going again to the previous methods.
Within the final three a long time, we now have seen this course of play out in business after business, from the retail enterprise (with Amazon), the music enterprise (with Apple iTunes first and Spotify later), the car enterprise (with Tesla) and promoting (with Google and Fb), to call only a few.
Disruption’s Winners and Losers
The plain winners from disruption are the disruptors, however since a lot of them scaled up with unformed enterprise fashions, the payoff is much less within the type of income, and extra by way of their market capitalizations, pushed by buyers dazzled by their potential. That had made the founders of those companies (Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg) not solely unbelievably rich, but in addition given them movie star standing, and created a number of winners for these within the ecosystem, together with the disruptors’ staff and buyers. As these disrupted companies prioritized scaling up over profitability, shoppers benefited as they obtained services and products, at bargain-basement costs, typically beneath price.
The clearest loser from disruption is the established order. As legacy corporations soften down, by way of profitability and worth, the harm is felt in concentric circles, with staff dealing with wage cuts and job losses, and buyers seeing write downs of their holdings The peripheral harm is to the regulatory buildings that govern these companies, because the rule breakers turned ascendant, leaving rule makers impotent and infrequently on the aspect traces. To the extent that these rules and guidelines have been designed to guard the setting and the general public, there are aspect prices for society as properly.
In brief, disruption might have been a web constructive for society, however there are casualties on its battlefield. Within the battle for the worldwide financial pie, the truth that a lot of the disruption has originated in the USA, aided each by entry to a capital and a larger tolerance for rule-breaking, has helped the USA keep and even develop its share of world GDP. In sensible phrases, this has manifested within the hovering market capitalizations of the largest expertise corporations, and it’s their presence that has allowed the USA to push back the decline in financial energy and market cap that you’ve seen in a lot of the remainder of the developed world.
Disruption goes macro
For a lot of its historical past, disruption has been restricted to the enterprise area and it has had solely restricted success when directed at systemic inefficiencies in much less business-driven settings. Well being care clearly meets all the standards for a superb disruption goal, consuming 20% of US GDP, with a number of sad constituencies (medical doctors, sufferers, hospitals and payers). Nonetheless, makes an attempt at disruption, whether or not or not it’s from Mark Cuban’s pharmaceutical start-up or from Google and Amazon’s well being care endeavors, have largely left the system intact. I’ve described schooling, on the faculty and school stage, as deserving of disruption for greater than 20 years, however however tries at on-line schooling, not a lot has modified at universities (but).
Can total governments be disrupted? In spite of everything, it’s laborious to seek out anybody who would describe authorities organizations and methods as environment friendly, and the record of sad gamers is a mile lengthy. The pioneers of presidency disruption have been in Latin America, with El Salvador and Argentina being their venues. Nayib Bukele, in El Salvador, and Javier Milei, in Argentina, haven’t simply pushed again in opposition to the norms, however have reveled in doing so, and so they have been undoubtedly aided by the truth that the governments in each international locations have been so damaged that a lot of their citizenry seen any change as enchancment. As we watch Elon Musk and DOGE transfer at hyper pace (by authorities requirements), break age-old methods and push guidelines and legal guidelines to breaking level, I see the disruption playbook at play, and I’m torn between two opposing views. On the one hand, it’s clear the US authorities has been damaged for many years and tinkering at its edges (which is what each administration has finished for the final forty years) has completed little to scale back the dysfunctionality of the system (and the deficits and debt that it creates). On the opposite, although, disrupting the US authorities will not be the identical as disrupting a enterprise, since there are hundreds of thousands of susceptible folks (social safety, Medicare and veteran care) whose lives relaxation on authorities checks, and a break in that course of that isn’t fastened rapidly may very well be catastrophic. There’s a center floor right here, and until DOGE finds it rapidly, this disruption story could have a lot of casualties.
Market and Micro Results
As I’ve wrestled with the barrage of reports tales in the previous few weeks, many with giant penalties for economies and markets, I preserve going again to what this implies for my micro pursuits, i.e., analyzing how corporations make choices on investing, financing and dividends and what the values of those corporations are. It’s nonetheless early in that course of, and there may be a lot that I nonetheless don’t know the reply to, however right here the methods I see this enjoying out.
In markets
There are two key inputs which are market-driven which have an effect on the values of each firm. The primary is interest charges, throughout the maturity spectrum, since their gyrations will play out throughout the market. Within the graph beneath, I have a look at US treasury charges and the way they’ve moved for the reason that Trump election in early November:
The ten-year US treasury price has declined from 4.55% on Election Day (November 5) to 4.27% on March 13, 2025, however since that treasury price is pushed of expectations about inflation and actual financial progress, Trump supporters will attribute the decline to markets anticipating a drop in inflation in a Trump administration and Trump critics suggesting that the speed drop is an indicator of a slowing financial system and even perhaps a recession. The yield curve has flattened out, with the 10-year price staying increased than the 2-year price, pushing that very flawed sign of financial recession into impartial territory.
The opposite quantity that I observe is the fairness threat premium, which no less than in my telling, is a forward-looking quantity backed out of the market and the receptacle for the greed and concern in markets. Within the desk beneath, I present my estimates of the implied fairness threat premium for the S&P 500 at the beginning of each month, since January 2024, and on March 14, 2025.
The fairness threat premium at the beginning of March was at 4.35%, surprisingly near the 4.28% on Election Day, however that quantity has jumped to 4.68% within the first two weeks of March, indicating that uncertainty about tariffs and the financial system is undercutting the resilience that the market has proven up to now this yr. In my opinion, the pathway that the fairness threat premium takes for the remainder of the yr would be the key driver in whether or not equities stage off, proceed to say no or make a comeback. If fairness threat premiums proceed to march upwards, pushed by elevated uncertainty and the potential for commerce wars, inventory costs will drop, even when the financial system escapes a recession, and including a recession, with the harm it is going to create to anticipated earnings, will solely make it worse. In one of many first posts I wrote this yr, I checked out US equities, and valued the S&P 500 at 5262, placing it about 12% beneath the index stage (5882) at the beginning of the yr. Even with the drawdown in costs that we now have seen by way of March 10, the index stays above my estimated worth, and whereas that worth mirrored what I noticed at the beginning of the yr, what has occurred in the previous few weeks has lowered the honest worth, not raised it.
In corporations
Adjustments in rates of interest and threat premiums will have an effect on the valuations of all corporations, however assuming that the tariff bulletins and authorities spending cuts will play out over the foreseeable future, there will likely be disparate results throughout corporations. I’ll draw on a well-known construction, the place I hint the worth of an organization to its key drivers:
By narrowing our focus to the drivers of worth, we will have a look at how firm publicity to commerce wars and DOGE will play out:
1. Income progress: On the income progress entrance, corporations that derive most or all of their revenues domestically will profit and corporations which are depending on overseas gross sales will likely be harm by tariff wars. To evaluate how that publicity varies throughout sectors, I have a look at the proportion of revenues s in every sector that corporations within the S&P 500 get from overseas markets:
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| Primarily based on revenues in 2023 |
Collectively, about 28% of the revenues, in 2023, of the businesses within the S&P 500 got here from overseas markets, however expertise corporations are most uncovered (with 59% of revenues coming from outdoors the nation) and utilities least uncovered (simply 2%) to overseas income publicity. It is usually value noting that the bigger market cap corporations of the S&P 500 have a better overseas market income publicity than smaller market cap corporations. On the DOGE entrance, the makes an attempt to chop prices are seemingly tol hit wholesome care and protection, the 2 companies which are most depending on the federal government spending, most immediately, with inexperienced vitality, a more moderen entrant into the federal government spending sweepstakes, additionally on the chopping block.
2. Working margins: An organization that will get all of its revenues from the home markets can nonetheless be uncovered to commerce wars, if its manufacturing or provide chains is about in different international locations. The info on this entrance is much much less seen or reported than income information and would require extra company-level analysis. It is usually seemingly that if the makes an attempt to convey manufacturing again to the USA come to fruition, wages for US employees will enhance, no less than in the long term, pushing up prices for corporations. In brief, a tariff battle will decrease the working margins for a lot of corporations, with the dimensions of the decline relying on their revenues,
3. Reinvestment: To the extent that corporations are altering their choices on the place to construct their subsequent manufacturing services, on account of tariff fears or in hope of presidency largesse, there needs to be an impact on reinvest, with a rise in reinvestment (decrease gross sales to capital ratios) at companies the place this transfer will create funding prices. Trying throughout companies, this impact is more likely to be extra intense at manufacturing corporations, the place transferring manufacturing is dearer and troublesome to do, that at expertise or service corporations.
4. Failure threat: Since 2008, the US authorities has implicitly, if not explicitly, made clear its choice for stepping in to assist corporations from failing, particularly in the event that they have been bigger and the price of failure was perceived as excessive. It’s not clear what the Trump administration’s views are on bailing out corporations in bother, however might preliminary learn is that authorities is much less more likely to soar in as a capital supplier of final resort.
The corporate the place you might be seeing the interaction between economics and politics play out most visibly proper now’s Tesla, an organization that has had a rollercoaster historical past with the market. In 2024, its inventory soared, particularly so after the election, but it surely has now given up nearly of its good points, nearly solely due to its (or extra exactly, Elon Musk’s) political connections. I revisited my Tesla valuation from January 2024, after I valued the inventory at $182, triggering a purchase in my portfolio when the inventory value dropped to $170. Within the intervening yr, there have been three developments which have affected the Tesla narrative:
- A rethiinking the “electrical vehicles are inevitable” story: For the previous few years, it has turn out to be typical knowledge that electrical vehicles will ultimately displace fuel vehicles, and the query has been extra about when that will occur, relatively than whether or not. In 2024, you noticed second ideas on that narrative, as hybrids made a comeback, and the environmental penalties of getting hundreds of thousands of electrical vehicles on the street got here into focus. To the extent that Tesla’s worth has come from an assumption that the electrical automobile market will likely be big, this impacts finish revenues and worth.
- The rise of BYD as a competitor for electrical vehicles: Since its founding, Tesla has dominated the electrical automobile enterprise, and legacy automobile makers have struggled to maintain up with it. in 2024, BYD, the Chinese language electrical automobile firm, bought extra electrical vehicles than Tesla for the primary time in historical past, and it’s clearly beating Tesla not simply in China, however in most Asian markets and even in Europe, with decrease costs and extra decisions. Put merely, it looks like Tesla has its first actual competitor within the electrical automobile enterprise.
- The politicization of the Tesla story: There was a backlash constructing from those that don’t like Musk’s political stances and it’s spilling over into Tesla’s gross sales, in Europe and the USA. So long as Musk stays on the heart of the information cycle, that is more likely to proceed, and there may be the added concern, even for Tesla shareholders who agree with Musk’s politics, that he’s too distracted now to offer path to the corporate.
These developments have made me extra cautious than I used to be final yr on the top sport for Tesla. Whereas I do imagine that Tesla will likely be one of many lead gamers within the electrical automobile market, the pathway to a dominant market share of the electrical automobile market has turn out to be rockier, and it appears seemingly that the electrical automobile market will bifurcate right into a lower-priced and a premium market, with BYD main within the first (decrease priced) market, particularly in a lot of Asia, and Tesla holding its personal within the premium automobile market, with a transparent benefit in the USA. I stay skeptical that any of the legacy auto corporations, however the cash that they’ve spend on electrical vehicles and the standard of those vehicles, will problem the newcomers on this turf. My up to date valuation for Tesla is beneath:
My estimate of worth for Tesla stands at about $150 a share, about $30 lower than my worth final yr, and about $70 beneath its inventory value. As an investor, I’ve been cautious of taking a place in BYD, due to its Chinese language origins and the presence of Beijing as a participant in its story, however on condition that Tesla is now a political play, it might be time to open the door to the BYD funding, however that should wait for one more publish.
Whereas it’s simple responsible market uncertainty on Trump, tariffs and commerce wars for the second, the reality is that the forces which have led us right here have been constructing for years, each in our political and financial arenas. In brief, even when the tariffs stop to be entrance web page information, and the fears of an instantaneous commerce battle ease, the underlying forces of anti-globalization that gave rise to them will proceed to play out in world commerce and markets. For buyers, that may require a shift away from the massive cap expertise corporations which have been the market leaders within the final 20 years again to smaller cap corporations with a extra home focus. It’s going to additionally require an acceptance of the truth that politics and macroeconomic elements will play a bigger position in your organization assessments, and create an even bigger wild card on whether or not investments in these corporations will repay.
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