‘An Unthinkable Scenario’
With the Strait of Hormuz pretty much closed, oil has soared above $100 a barrel and the repercussions are being felt throughout the global economy.
Good morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
The no-tax-on-overtime rule is complicated for both employees and employers.
Grasshopper Bank says it offers the quick decisions you’d expect from an alternative lender and the rates you’d expect from a traditional one.
Volkswagen wants to bypass its dealer network and sell directly to American consumers.
There’s something that consumers seem to prize more than fast, free shipping.
WAR IN IRAN
U.S. oil prices soared above $100 a barrel: “One week into President Trump’s war on Iran, the most severe shock to energy markets since the 1970s is cascading through the world economy. The disruption quickly fed into higher gasoline and diesel prices at the pump, and higher mortgage rates and borrowing costs for the U.S. government, endangering Trump’s economic priorities. To be sure, the U.S. has more shock absorbers this time around. Oil is a far smaller component of gross domestic product than it once was, and the U.S. has become a top energy exporter in its own right.”
“Appearing Sunday on Fox, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that ‘energy will flow soon’ through the Strait of Hormuz. He blamed the rise in prices on ‘the unknown that this could be some long, you know, drawn-out crisis. But it won’t be.’”
“But the impact will still reverberate, especially in Europe and Asia. For decades, the U.S. military and its allies have spent billions of dollars ensuring the Strait of Hormuz stays open. Just 21 miles across at its narrowest stretch, and flanked to the northeast by a sworn enemy of the West, the channel between Oman and Iran is a superhighway for about a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas.”
“‘In the whole written history of the strait, it has never been closed, ever,’ said JPMorgan Chase analyst Natasha Kaneva. ‘To me, it was not just the worst-case scenario. It was an unthinkable scenario.’” READ MORE
