Nicole Lapin

Absolutely.

Lauren, I have such...

Fun to have you here and just talk nerdy for the last hour.

We end all of our episodes, as you know, by asking our guests for a final investing tip that listeners can take straight to the bank.

You've given us so many already, but is there one final one?

I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money real.

I want to talk about what's happening between the U.S., Israel, and Iran, because what's going on in the Middle East right now is going to hit your wallet hard.

The U.S.

and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on Saturday, February 28th, and the operation killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran for the last three decades.

His defense minister, the commander of the revolutionary

Guard and dozens of other senior officials were also killed.

Iran has since fired back with waves of missiles and drones targeting U.S.

bases across the region and Israeli cities.

This is the biggest military event the Middle East has seen in a generation, and it has implications for the global economy that we need to know right now.

But first, let's unwind the chain reaction that got us here.

The U.S.

and Iran have been locked in a standoff over Iran's nuclear program for decades now.

The real modern flashpoint came in 2018 when President Trump pulled the U.S.

out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which had capped Iran's uranium enrichment at a low-grade civilian grade, which is under 4%.