Although the US administration will never admit it, there are no winners in the latest Persian Gulf hostilities. For there to be one, the other side would need to surrender unconditionally, and the Memorandum of Understanding agreed at the end of last week and due to be signed on Friday is anything but that.
Although there seemed a consensus on how the Bank of Japan would need react in this uncertain world, nonetheless, the raising of interest rates by 25-basis points to a full 1 percent, is the highest for 31 years. The move is to counter the current upcycle in inflation which had been dead and buried for over 2 decades, and oddly, its return has been something longed for by all manner of commentators and policy makers alike, because the economy was in dire need of an antidote to the haunting stagflation.
Nothing is straightforward, and even Franz Kafka could not have written a more grotesque novel. Yet, it seems increasingly plausible that the conflict that upended the global economy and the oil balance is slowly drawing to an eagerly awaited end. That much was reflected in last week's price action and the overnight sell-off, as the warring parties are expected to sign an agreement on Friday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
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