Markets 
There’s a whiff of optimism in the air following President Trump’s decision to blockade Iran’s oil and money in order to bankrupt them and starve the regime out of power. Of course, Democrats oppose everything the president does, so they’re not on board.
Yet the financial markets are looking much better, as stock markets have gained nine straight days, and are now ahead of where they were just before the war started. It’s a good sign. Indeed, the S&P is almost back at its record close of nearly 7,000. And the Dow is an easy sand wedge from its prior 50,000 high. Oil markets are dipping below $100 a barrel. Interest rates are calm. No spiking up from inflation fears. In fact, excluding war-time energy, the consumer price index and producer price index came in relatively soft and even benign.
The war is nearly over. For all we know, the war may be over right now. Mr. Trump’s blockade gambit was brilliant. The Iranians are stuck in a deep deep fox hole. They’ve been crushed militarily, and now they are about to be crushed in economic and financial terms once and for all. There is still combat — that never stopped — but there is growing support for the economic and financial war, which will finish Iran off.
Mr. Trump is going to win this war. Make no mistake about that. And his collaboration with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does indeed resemble FDR and Churchill during World War II, slaying the fascist regimes. Today, it’s the terrorist regime, Iran.
And make no mistake about it, one way or another, Iran will not only be defeated, but will lose all of its nuclear capabilities, and it will never be the same state that it once was. Mr. Trump is standing firm. No nuclear enrichment, in five years, or 20 years, or ever. Dismantle all major nuclear enrichment facilities. Retrieve highly enriched uranium. End funding for terrorist proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis. And fully open the Strait of Hormuz, charging no tolls for passage.
The Iranians never counted on an American president who literally keeps turning up new trump cards. In this case, an oil and money blockade. Whoever is running the Iranian regime right now, does not understand that Mr. Trump is different than other recent American presidents. He is a brilliant strategist and tactician. Most of all he’s tough. Very tough. He won’t allow them to string him along, or play him. He’s always open to diplomacy, but diplomacy does not mean appeasement. He has made it abundantly clear that there is no backsliding on nuclear weapons, terrorism, oil or Hormuz blackmail. Financial markets are bullish on Trump.
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