Highlights
Maersk is the world second largest ocean container shipper. Once again, Maersk is diverting all container vessels from the Red Sea route to the much longer route around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, resulting in a huge increase of the cost of shipping. Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen continue to attack cargo vessels in the region to show their support for Hamas.
World power has always been decided by who controlled the world’s trade routes. That is why England had the most powerful navy in the world for centuries. In the first half of the 20th Century, the United States put-forth the world’s most powerful Navy and it still is. Yet, we are allowing a bunch of rough-shod bullies and bandits with rag-tag weapons to disrupt trillions of dollars’ worth of world trade every day. Very soon, there will be shortages of everything everywhere just as it was during COVID.
Tidbits
Iraq has decided to remove the US led international military coalition from the country after the US forces killed a terrorist leader in Baghdad who was directing attacks on US forces. Iraq will soon be recognized as an enemy of the USA. In the 1980’s, Iraq was the #1 buyer of USA wheat.