Looks like the war with Iran is cooking off

[putnam6]

Short vid on the Russian LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz that was attacked & went kaboom in Mediterranean




Geolocation of an Israeli airstrike on a building at Hadi Hassan Nasrallah Street in Beirut's southern suburbs, 33.850181, 35.516117.



The seeming appearance of the Strait of Hormuz "closing" was not any particular decision by either side of the belligerents. The pattern is the result of Adam Smith's theory of the  "invisible hand" of the market that made this happen.

Hundreds of Ship owners, and their few dozen Insurance providers, and an even smaller list of key experts on special panels, mostly in London or New York, etc, all collectively made hundreds of decisions that resulted in ships taking a pause while their War Risk Insurance policies were cancelled, re-evaluated, re-priced and re-signed... at higher rates.  Thousands of small risk-reward decisions were made across the world.  All manifesting into what we currently see from the cool animated AIS data from MarineTraffic.

Dire Strait: Strait of Hormuz



An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, usually referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is a book by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith. Published on 9 March 1776, it offers one of the first accounts of what builds nations' wealth. It has become a fundamental work in classical economics, and been described as "the first formulation of a comprehensive system of political economy". Reflecting upon economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Smith introduced key concepts such as the division of labour, productivity, free markets and the role prices play in resource allocation.

The Wealth Of Nations

3,200 ships caught up in Hormuz paralysis


The US Navy and government are now the protectors of global shipping. So, what does it mean to fly an American flag versus that of Panama, Liberia or the Marshall Islands?
The spice must flow...




Marco after they tell him he’s in charge of the London ship insurance market now.




On February 28, the US sent B-2 Spirits. You send B-2s when the enemy’s air defenses are intact and you need to penetrate undetected. Four B-2s dropped 160,000 pounds of bunker-busting ordnance on hardened underground facilities in the opening wave.

On March 2, the US sent B-1 Lancers. The B-1 is a supersonic bomber. Faster than the B-2 but not stealth. You send B-1s when air defenses have been degraded enough that speed, not invisibility, is sufficient to survive.

On March 3, the US sent B-52s. The B-52 is a 70-year-old subsonic aircraft. It is not stealth. It is not fast. It has a radar cross-section the size of a barn. It flies at 650 miles per hour at 50,000 feet and it is visible to every radar system on earth.

You send B-52s when there is nothing much left to shoot them down.


Following the success of B-52 sorties over Iran, the USS Constitution is preparing to offload Marines following shore bombardment.





March 2nd, the sun setting over the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln as Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets were readied for another round of strike sorties on Iran.

Like a daily snap shot of the theater and the theatrics, its perfect