As the war in Iran enters its second week, crude oil prices are climbing at a historic rate. Some analysts warn U.S. gas prices could reach to a new all-time high by the end of March.
Nicholas Mulder is a professor of history at Cornell University and studies the economic impacts of wars and sanctions.
Mulder says: “In economic terms, this is already the largest oil supply shock ever – as Gulf producers continue to reduce output and shut down production, we are seeing roughly three to four times as many barrels of oil lost as during the 1973 and 1979 oil crises.
“At the strategic level, the war against Iran is at risk of backfiring spectacularly against its initiators. It has brought about the very thing that the United States has long claimed to want to avoid: an effective Iranian blockade of the Hormuz Strait.
“Having undermined their own diplomatic credibility and unable to translate aerial dominance into strategic success, the U.S. and Israel face a debacle of their own making, akin to British and French overreach against Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis.”
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