Donald Trump’s options to cool oil prices are sorely limited

ON MARCH 9th Donald Trump declared that the third Gulf war, now in its second week, was “pretty well complete”. With Iran’s military capacity “wiped out”, America’s president averred, Operation Epic Fury would end “very soon”. “If needed”, America would escort vessels through the blocked Strait of Hormuz and offer political-risk insurance to any tanker operating in the Gulf. To Iran, he issued a new threat: stop holding global energy markets to ransom or Uncle Sam will bomb your power plants and other “important targets”.