THE NEW YORK TIMES: Countries already walloped by a breakdown of the international trading order, war in Ukraine and chaotic U.S. policymaking are facing potentially lasting economic damage.

Bombs are exploding in Iran and the Middle East, but the fallout is rattling households and businesses in neighborhoods all over the globe.

In Kansas, home buyers saw 30-year mortgage rates edge above 6 percent this week. In Western India, families mourning the death of a loved one discovered that gas-fired crematories had been temporarily closed.

In Hanoi, Vietnam, gas station owners posted “sold out” signs. In Kenya, tea growers and traders worried their exports to Iran would rot on the dock. And across the United States, Canada, Europe, Britain and Mexico, farmers blanched at the surge in fertilizer costs.

The widening war in Iran has delivered a stunning punch to a worldwide economy that has already been walloped by a breakdown of the international trading order, war in Ukraine and President Trump’s chaotic policymaking.

“This really is the big one,” David Goldwyn, a former U.S. diplomat and U.S. Energy Department official, said of the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important choke point for oil. It is the emergency scenario everyone feared, he said.

Cargo deliveries have been stranded, shipping charges have increased and insurance premiums have skyrocketed. Yes, the price of gas at the pump is affected. But so is the price of food, medicine, airplane tickets, electricity, cooking oil, semiconductors and more.

A drawn-out war between the United States and Iran could have “catastrophic consequences” for the world’s oil market and the global economy, Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil and gas company, warned this week.

Yet even if the war, which began on Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel struck Iran, wraps up relatively quickly, this latest upheaval is sending consumers, workers and employers on another unnerving and unpredictable ride. » | Patricia Cohen | Patricia Cohen is the global economics correspondent in London.| Thursday, March 12, 2026

One can but wonder what all the members of Trump’s fan club have to say for themselves now! The king of dealmaking is not looking so clever now, is he? His magic touch looks pretty elusive to me. — © Mark Alexander

Saudi Arabia and UAE Defence Strategy Against Iranian Missile Strikes

Mar 12, 2026 | As Iran continues to attack its Gulf neighbours could the strikes turn into a wider war? Who might be drawn in? And with Iran hitting friends as well as foes, how will this war reshape the Middle East and its relationship with the US?

Rutger Bregman, Historian, Called Out Billionaires Face to Face in Davos

He explains all in Switzerland.

Why America Is Losing the War with Iran (w/ John Mearsheimer) | The Chris Hedges Report

March 12, 2026

Elect a know-nothing fool, expect geopolitical chaos! – © Mark Alexander

Wolff Responds: "Iran! Underappreciated Aspects" Dated March 11, 2026

March 11, 2026 | Today’s Wolff Responds: Professor Wolff explores the unexplored reasons for the United States’ attack on Iran.

‘The Shine Has Been Taken Off’: Dubai Faces Existential Threat as Foreigners Flee Conflict

THE GUARDIAN: Tens of thousands of residents and tourists have left UAE since the US and Israel started bombing Iran two weeks ago, leaving beach bars, malls and hotels eerily empty

In the playground of the rich, nobody wanted this war. For decades, Dubai built itself up as a sanctuary of unadulterated consumerism visited by tourists the world over.

But now, the city in the United Arab Emirates faces an existential threat, as the war between the US and Israel and Iran has shaken the foundations of the “Dubai dream” that so many foreigners had bought into.

The UAE has borne the brunt of more than two-thirds of Iran’s strikes; the state targeted in part, say analysts, for its deep military and intelligence partnerships with western powers, and Dubai’s reputation as a favoured centre for global finance and western holidays.

“The shine has definitely been taken off,” said John Trudinger, a British resident of Dubai for 16 years, who is a headteacher at an Emirati school in Dubai. He employs more than 100 teachers from the UK and said most have been so “deeply traumatised and really struggling to cope” with the sudden arrival of war in Dubai that they have left and won’t come back.

They are among the tens of thousands of residents and tourists that have fled Dubai since the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran almost two weeks ago. The city’s large population of migrant workers largely don’t have that privilege. » | Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Dubai | Wednesday, March 11, 2026

How Trump’s War With Iran Changed the World in a Week

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The conflict is reshaping travel patterns, energy dependencies, living costs, trade routes and diplomatic alliances.

Since President Trump launched a new war with Iran, he has portrayed it as a shock-and-awe assault with few lasting consequences, especially for Americans. On Monday in Florida, he called it a “brief disruption.”

Experts say it is rapidly becoming something else entirely: a jolt to the global security order and economy that far exceeds those delivered by other recent conflicts in the Middle East.

Mr. Trump’s war, now nearly two weeks old, is already reshaping travel patterns, energy dependencies, living costs, trade routes and strategic partnerships. Countries typically shielded from regional conflict, like Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates, have faced retaliatory Iranian fire. The fallout could disrupt midterm elections in the United States, tilt the war calculus in Ukraine and force China into a major economic pivot.

Those effects may compound if Mr. Trump presses ahead with the war, particularly if Iran escalates its counterattacks and blocks ship traffic through the critical oil passage of the Strait of Hormuz. Some economists are already invoking a dreaded memory for any U.S. president — the specter of oil-shock-induced stagflation, with growth stalling and prices roaring upward. » | Jim Tankersley | Reporting from Berlin, Washington and London’s Heathrow Airport | Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Why Crypto Isn’t Cool Anymore | The Economist

Bitcoin is down. “The vibes are off. The buzz has moved to AI.”

Epstein Conspiracy: All the Proof We Need

Feb 10, 2026 | The Epstein files - and the cover-up - reveal all we need to know. Call a friend. Start organizing. Get educated. Let’s put this primitive “predatory phase” of humanity behind us.

We know what to do. We know how to feed, house, clothe, and care for all of us on this miraculous floating orb in outer space.

The Billionaire Crime Ring

Feb 17, 2026 | The Epstein files coverup. The environmental toxicity crisis. The cost of life crisis. Permanent war. Masked stormtroopers. Corrupt politics. One global crime syndicate. A crime so big you can't see it. Or the billionaires who run it. Learn the tools. Take back our economy. Take back our future.

Our so-called democratic leaders have just allowed THIS SHIT to happen! They haven’t had the SPUNK to do ANYTHING about it! The West needs CHANGE, BIG CHANGE. SOON! Kick the MORONS out of office and let the grown-ups take the reins. But we must make sure that these grown-ups have SPUNK. Lots of it! — © Mark Alexander

Steve Rosenberg: In Russia, Who's Criticising Donald Trump...and Who Isn't?

Mar 11, 2026 | One of today's Russian papers writes that Donald Trump “needs help extricating himself from the poisoned political web spun from his arrogance & recklessness. Putin’s political trump cards have multiplied due to the miscalculations of his US counterpart”

The Economics of a Dying Empire (w/ Richard Wolff) | The Chris Hedges Report

Apr 9, 2025 | Professor Richard Wolff dissects the erratic and unpredictable nature of the Trump administration's economic policy, and how it signals the decline of American Empire.

Steve Rosenberg: Russian Paper on Donald Trump: "The 'Peace President' Has Lost His Mind."

March 10, 2026

Peter Thiel and Praxis: The Billionaire Plan to Create the Fourth Reich

December 23, 2025

Peter Schiff: Iran War Creates Chaos in the World Economy

Mar 6, 2026 | Peter Schiff is the CEO of Euro Pacific Asset Management and the host of the Peter Schiff Show. Schiff explains why the war against Iran creates chaos in an already fragile US economy, and sends shockwaves through energy markets.

What Could Replace the Dollar? | The Economist

Listen to this explainer.

‘We Just Don’t Know’ How High Gas Prices Will Go as Iran War Continues Warns Utilita Chair

Mar 9, 2026 | “It's going to be a white knuckle ride”

Utilita chair Derek Lickorish MBE tells Times Radio “we just don’t know” how high gas prices will go as long as the war in the Middle East continues.


WIKIPEDIA: Utilita Energy »

Gas Prices Continue to Surge in U.S., Rising 14% in a Week

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Soaring oil prices suggest that more increases could be in store for American drivers. Diesel, jet fuel, and other refined products are also becoming much more expensive.

The price of gas in the United States reached an average of $3.41 per gallon on Saturday, a day after crude oil prices soared to levels not seen since 2023 as the spillover from the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran continued.

That gain means gasoline has jumped 14 percent in the past week, according to data from the AAA motor club. The prices recorded Saturday were the highest for gasoline since 2024.

The suddenly rising energy costs — everything from jet fuel to diesel for trucks and tractors is more expensive — are rooted in supplies of crude oil coming from the Persian Gulf. The tankers that normally carry oil out of the region are not sailing, cutting the world off from about one-fifth of its oil supply.

That’s led to a surge in oil prices globally. By Friday, the U.S. crude benchmark, called West Texas Intermediate, had climbed more than 35 percent for the week, to settle at $90.90 a barrel, with much of that gain coming on Friday alone. The last time crude was trading at those levels, gasoline in the United States was above $3.80 a gallon, the data from AAA shows. » | Emmett Lindner | Saturday, March 7, 2026

Truth To Power: Trump Exposed: What Really Happened with Iran

Mar 7, 2026 | Trump's reasons for starting his war on Iran have changed almost by the hour. Nuclear weapons. Missiles. Imminent attacks. Each justification contradicted by his own intelligence services, his own Pentagon, and basic facts. So forget what he says. Let's follow the money instead. Who really benefits from this war? The answers are shocking, documented, and hiding in plain sight.

Trump is a F*****G LIAR, and an UNSCRUPULOUS ONE at that! He is also a CRUEL CRIMINAL who understands NO GEOPOLITICS. The man should be in prison, not in the White House. — © Mark Alexander

U.S. Employers Cut Jobs in Sign of a Shakier Economy

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A weaker-than-expected report for February showed a decline of 92,000 jobs, and a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent.

Job growth fizzled in February, a sign of unexpected weakness in the labor market.

Employers cut 92,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent. The job losses cut across nearly all major sectors, including health care, which was weighed down by a nurses strike in California.

The report dimmed the picture of the labor market and all but shut down the prospect of a resurgence in growth after an anemic year of hiring that was weighed down by economic uncertainty. Many economists had forecast that employers would shake off their reluctance to hire this year.

Here’s what else to know: Live Updates » | Sydney Ember | Friday, March 6, 2026