Katie Martin

I think it was yesterday, which is Wednesday, because of this news that there were two super tankers full of Iraqi oil on its way to China that managed to pass through the Strait and didn't get blown up.

Yeah.

So...

Are people feeling a tiny bit more confident that maybe the ships can start heading through?

Yeah, two ships isn't going to cut it.

Okay.

Speaking of things being detached and attached, she says, shuffling her paper.

We have a story today saying that ships trapped in the Gulf are accumulating barnacles, algae and jellyfish because they're just trapped in this warm water going nowhere.

And that's the sort of thing that barnacles and jellyfish like.

Anyway, there are mechanical problems that can come as a result of this.

Are barnacles the next big macroeconomic risk that we need to worry about?

How worried are you about barnacles?

You can't be long or short yet.

That has to wait.

Yeah, but you get a lot of barnacles.

Oil tankers are very big.

But if you get enough barnacles, surely there could be a problem.

But are you simultaneously saying this isn't necessarily the biggest issue in the Strait of Hormuz at the moment?

We will check back on this prediction at a later date.

Maybe we could send the barnacles to attach themselves to the mines and this whole problem will go away.