It’s an odd feature of life in the west how major news events just seem to slip off into the distance so quickly and are forgotten by most. Somehow, already, the situation with Iran is not even close to the top of my news and social media feeds. It has regressed to a back burner.
Despite the US news cycle being replaced by other fleeting amusements, relations with Iran are even further off the rails this week than last week.
I remain of the position that any outbreak of war with Iran would result in many uncontrollable events that could easily spiral out of control, spike the price of oil, and really give a weak global economy and a towering pile of global debt a swift kick to the lower back.
As a further reminder, there’s less and less showing up on the Bull’s side of the ledger to support the all-important US equity markets remaining elevated, let alone moving higher.
Here’s a handy graphic from BCA research illustrating that point nicely:
(Source)
In other words, it wouldn’t take much to swamp that lonely Bull case, and a spike in oil prices would prove to be just too much to bear.
I also doubt that the Chinese trade dispute has been helped along in a positive direction be the Iranian scuffle. All it shows the Chinese is that the US cannot be bargained with, treatied with, or dealt with in a straightforward manner. If and when it suits the US, it will do what it wants, and how it wants, laws, conventions, and history be damned.
I concur with Tulsi Gabbard’s summary assessment of how we got here at all:
The only quibble I might have is that I seriously doubt Trump initiated any of this. Trump is very much beholden to Zionist causes, and seems to have many more Likud and Neocon voices in his ear on a daily basis than he does sane, or moderate voices.
Further, Iran has been a simmering event across every administration of the past 18 years. Under GW Bush’s reign, we had plenty of aborted attempts to draw Iran into a war, and I warned about each one back then. The same was true under Obama.
by davefairtex 
