(Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
When you elect incompetent vulgarians who view relationships as zero-sum games of domination, then don’t be surprised when you get Donald Trump, who decided to follow up his failed trade war with an even more disastrous war with Iran.
Unlike the Bush Administration, Trump and his minions haven’t even bothered to create and sell a plausible lie to the American public that justifies daily war crimes, the deaths of US soldiers, and the increasing waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.
There’s no exit strategy because, clearly, there was no strategy in the first place.
The assumption that Iran would simply bend the knee and cry, “Uncle,” was spectacularly wrong. Not only has leadership succeeded to Khameini’s more hardline son, but Iran is now committed to bleeding the world to ensure the regime’s long-term survival.
But don’t worry!
Trump has assured the world that this “excursion” will end very soon - maybe, probably, inshallah. The short-term surge in gas prices and the massive disruption and uncertainty caused by the war will soon be replaced by Trump statues in the Middle East and Iranians dancing to YMCA.
Except that the markets, and the evidence of our eyes and ears, are telling a different story.
The Strait of Hormuz is choked, oil prices have skyrocketed, our allies are embattled, grocery prices remain high, and from recent memory, we know that wars are easy to start and very hard to end. If anything, this is just the beginning of a volatile rollercoaster.
University of Michigan Economics Professor Justin Wolfers joins The Left Hook for his monthly ECON 101 session, explaining how the markets are responding to this illegal war, and his long-term predictions as to how this war will impact the US economy and its global standing and relationships with our former allies.
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Thank you Caro Henry, Mandy Ohman, Dixiane Hallaj, Leah Anderson, Lalisa, and many others for tuning into my live video with Justin Wolfers! Join me for my next live video in the app.
