The $100 Barrel Is a Symptom: This War Is Spreading, and No One May Be in Charge in Tehran to Stop It
Everyone is staring at oil crossing $100 a barrel, but that number is a fever reading, not the disease. The disease is a war that is metastasizing beyond the U.S. and Iran — Iranian missiles landing in Jordan, Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, a rebel offensive aimed at a critical maritime chokepoint — with growing evidence that the one government supposedly able to dial it back may not be capable of answering the phone.
Bottom Line
THE BOTTOM LINE: The $100 barrel is the market pricing in something scarier than a supply squeeze — a multi-front regional war where the proxies may be escalating on their own initiative and Iran's decapitated leadership may be unable to deliver de-escalation even if it wants to. Wars are easiest to stop when both sides have someone empowered to say yes. Right now, it's not clear Iran does.