FOX Business host Larry Kudlow analyzes US actions in the Middle East on ‘Kudlow.’
The blockade of the United States Army on Iranian ports is effective, and actually prevents Iran from selling any oil or receiving any money. Losing $400 or $500 million a day means you are in a business with no future. You will not meet the payroll. No retirement accounts. There are no health benefits either. And your employees and their families and friends are very angry. They did not sign this crazy Islamism, which leads to the destruction of their country. Think about it, that’s how revolutionaries start.
And despite President Trump’s iron backbone in finally being blocked, he praises Treasury Secretary Scott Besent for his crackdown on Economic Fury. My sources tell me that the Ministry of Finance has been closing all those Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bank accounts in places like Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. These generals have stolen and stolen from Iran for decades and decades so that they and their children can live a high life outside of Iran. That’s what dictators and tyrants always do. Yet many, if not most, of these Iranian offshore bank accounts were set up by Mr. Bessent.
So there are no dollars available in Iran. Most importantly: no dollars go into Iran. This is the suspension of banks. It is also imported snow. And sources tell me that the secretary is ready to punish any country that facilitates any trade or financial flow on behalf of Iran. If they do, they will be kicked out of the American economic system. It released the Swift accounting ledger and the New York Fed commercial thread. So we salute Mr. Bessent by keeping the money burning as part of the war effort.
Israel special ops veteran Aaron Cohen and Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen discuss the impact of the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on Iran’s government and economy on ‘Kudlow.’
Now, as bad as it got in Iran, the other side of the coin is that the Trump-Besent economic policies are keeping the American economy in excellent shape. Dollar-a-gallon gasoline did not stop significant consumer spending. Productivity is alive. Look at ISM and S&P Global PMIs. Private sector employment has exceeded all expectations. The unemployment rate is low at 4.3 percent.
If you look at short-term energy price increases, the inflation rate is probably closer to 2.5 percent, and you can bet Kevin Warsh will lower it when he takes over. Weekly and monthly jobless claims continue to grow. And profits, the mother’s milk of goods and the foundation of the economy, are booming.
Productivity is high. Labor costs are low. And the business makes good money to grow, build new factories, and pay overtime and tips without tax. And stock markets are at or near record highs across the board. America is a great economic machine of free market capitalism, supported by a president who believes in rewarding success, not punishing it. And it pushes for free and fair trade.
Finally, one reason for America’s economic success during the war is simple: we have oil. There’s a lot of it. “Drill, baby, drill” by Mr. Trump in the last decade was just brilliant. We don’t need their oil, we have our own oil. And almost the whole world comes to us because they need fuel and we are a reliable supplier. Just think about it.
