Ezra Klein

We seem to have been caught flat-footed by it.

What makes it hard for the U.S.

to reopen the strait by itself?

Tell me about how the deprivation of this oil and natural gas compounds as it goes on.

I mean, something I am seeing a lot of discussion from energy analysts is like,

If it's another week, well, maybe that's higher prices, but not a huge deal.

But there seems to be a sense that as it compounds, that the effects on the global economy are non-linear, that the economy is sort of working through reserves it currently has, but things can spiral into a very different kind of situation.

You understand the way energy flows through the economy in a way I don't.

So talk me through that compounding and how this might change, you know, if it goes on another two weeks, another month, another two months.

So people might have heard President Trump say the U.S.

is a winner when oil prices go higher because we're the world's biggest oil producer now.

Is that true?

Is this good for us?

Which means that the issue is that if you're a working class in the U.S.

and you're filling up your car at the gas station, you're paying a lot of money.

Whereas there are people who either own or are invested in U.S.

energy companies who are making a lot of money.

I want to hold for a minute on the price here, because there is a disconnect between the price and the conversation I'm seeing among energy and military analysts that I don't entirely understand.

As you mentioned, the price of a barrel of oil, or at least in the measure we tend to use, is a bit over 100 at the moment we're speaking.

But if you just looked at the chart and you had no narrative...