For the third consecutive year, geopolitical specialist Jacob Shapiro kicked off the Next 5 Years Executive Conference in Fargo. Surprisingly, Shapiro said the U.S. is the source of the most geopolitical instability worldwide. “If Americans feel like the world is going to hell in a handbasket, look in a mirror because the world is giving us a reflection of what we are giving to it.” When historians look back on 2024, Shapiro doesn’t believe the focus will be on the U.S. elections. It will be on the Middle East. “As the result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a rag-tag group of Yemeni militants has shut down shipping on the Suez and the Red Sea and the much-vaunted U.S. Navy has not been able to do anything about it so we’re going around Africa.” That may work when crude oil is $70 a barrel, but Shapiro questions what would happen if oil is $110 a barrel and this situation persists. Finally, Shapiro advised farm families to look ahead to the next 25 years, to think like entrepreneurs and to monetize the carbon markets.
