Attention to the Unseen

The Associated Press reports: The price of a gallon of regular gasoline climbed 31 cents in the past week, spiking to an average of $4.48 per gallon Tuesday, according to AAA, hitting the wallets of drivers after rising 50% since the war with Iran began. The main reason drivers are paying more at the pump is because of the global energy crisis caused by the Iran war. The price of crude oil, which is the main ingredient in gasoline, has…

Read More Read More

Scott Anderson writes: America’s war with Iran has entered a calmer phase: diplomatic posturing, on-and-off-again negotiations and endless wrangling of a settlement. This, of course, is far preferable to the annihilation of Iranian civilization that President Trump was threatening just a few weeks ago. But it raises the question of just what has spurred this turnabout. The answer is rather straightforward. The American and Israeli bombing of Iran failed to provoke either a popular uprising against the regime in Tehran…

Read More Read More

The New York Times reports: Shipping companies said on Monday that President Trump’s offer to provide them safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz fell short of the sort of arrangements that would persuade them to make the trip. Mr. Trump said on Sunday that the United States would “guide” commercial vessels through the strait, which Iran has effectively closed since the war in the Persian Gulf started two months ago. But the president provided few details on how the…

Read More Read More

Eli Saslow writes: Their farm was called Butter Ridge, 326 acres of pastoral valleys and rolling hillsides just south of the New York State border. From his house at the top of the ridge, Brad’s father, Brian, could turn in every direction and see land that his family had once farmed. His grandfather Ivan Watson had run a large dairy operation just to the west, near the Susquehanna River. Ivan’s nine children had all gone on to become dairy farmers,…

Read More Read More

The New York Times reports: Iran’s supreme leader issued a rare statement on Thursday saying that the United States had no place in the future of the Persian Gulf region and making clear that his country planned to manage the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway going forward. In the defiant message, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei also vowed that Iran would retain its nuclear capabilities. The lengthy statement from the Iranian leader, who has not been seen in public since he was…

Read More Read More

Al Jazeera reports: Pakistan has opened six overland transit routes for goods destined for Iran, formalising a road corridor through its territory as thousands of containers remain stranded at Karachi port because of the United States blockade of Iranian ports and ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The Ministry of Commerce issued the Transit of Goods through Territory of Pakistan Order 2026 on April 25, bringing it into immediate effect. The order allows goods originating from third…

Read More Read More

CNN reports: At its linguistic core, the two-word phrase “demand destruction” feels severe, harsh, maybe even violent. In practice, that’s not far off: It means that the magnitude of a price shock can be so large, so persistent and so painful that spending behaviors shift – sometimes to the point where they permanently alter the course, the structure and the stability of a sector or an entire economy. Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency warned that in the wake…

Read More Read More