Troops on the Ground in Iran as Escalation Inevitable? with David Woo

Interview recorded - 27th of March, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I have the pleasure of welcoming back David Woo. David is a top global macro strategist who challenges consensus, such as calling Trump’s 2016 election, the post-Covid rebound, and major macro inflection points before they happened. He is also the founder of David Woo Unbound and co-author of the upcoming book “Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” a geopolitical novel.During our conversation we spoke about the current conflict in the middle east, the first proxy war between the US & China, whether we could see boots on the ground, what this means for the economy and markets around the globe and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction1:44 - Current situation in the Middle East?3:14- Escalation to the gulf8:09 - Russia/Ukraine proxy war?10:57 - China’s options12:54 - Trying to TACO14:39 - Energy & Desalination bombing?18:36 - Political capital?21:20 - America first to global agenda22:42 - How would China react?23:40 - China losing energy security25:25 - Impact on US economy and markets?30:07 - US Hegemony to continue32:04 - One message to takeaway?David Woo is the Founder/CEO of David Woo Unbound, a new global forum devoted to promoting fact-based debates about markets, politics and economics.Until 2021, David was the Head of Global Rates, Foreign Exchange, and Emerging Market Fixed Income Strategy & Economic Research at Bank of America, where he managed the top ranked global macro strategy team on Wall Street. Previously, David was the Head of Global Currency Strategy at Barclays Capital and the Head of Local Markets Strategy for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Citigroup.David is known on Wall Street for his bold and out-of-consensus calls that includes the RMB devaluation in 2015 and Trump’s victory in 2016. He was also the first Wall Street analyst to initiate coverage on Bitcoin in 2013. Business Insider voted David as one of the 12 smartest people on Wall Street in 2016 and Bloomberg calls him one of the “most outspoken voice on Wall Street."David started his career at the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C.. He received his Ph.D in Economics from Columbia University.David Woo - Book - https://www.amazon.com/Merry-Go-Round-Broke-Down-Novel-Globalization/dp/B0GCX8Y6KT/Website - https://www.davidwoounbound.com/YouTube - @DavidWooUnbound Twitter - https://twitter.com/DavidwoounboundWTFinance - Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatseas-761066103/Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas