President Trump is pairing his Iran blockade with a sales pitch: Countries squeezed by the Strait of Hormuz — especially China — should buy more oil from the U.S. instead.
Why it matters: The U.S. rise to become the world's largest oil and gas producer — and largest exporter of liquefied natural gas — provides geopolitical leverage that Trump is attempting to wield.
It increasingly looks as if the inflation problem that emerged five years ago wasn't a one-off event, but the defining economic challenge of the decade — and Americans don't like it one bit.
The big picture: Price pressures were already reaccelerating in the last few months, and that was before the U.S.–Israeli attack on Iran disrupted global energy supplies.
