Bart Russell Anderson

In the American streaming series “Bosch,” the main character, a police detective named Harry Bosch, kills two bad guys in a plane who are trying to kill him. He then goes to the cockpit holding a pistol taken from one of the dead men. The pilot looks at him and says, “You kill me, you kill yourself.” Bosch says, “I’m a f–king cop, asshole.” The plane lands safely and the pilot is taken into custody.

Shortly before the war with Iran began, I wrote that the seeming complacency among government officials and financial market participants was based on two assumptions which I argued were unlikely to turn out to be true: 1) President Donald Trump would make a last-minute deal with the Iranians and declare victory and 2) even if Trump didn’t make such a deal, the Iranians would not do all the things which they threatened to do if attacked.

Governments around the world are desperate to bring down oil prices in the wake of a cutoff of about one-fifth of the world’s supply due to the Iran war. Here are some of the moves we’ve seen so far: The International Energy Agency, a consortium of 32 countries which coordinate energy policy and emergency readiness, called an emergency meeting to discuss release of strategic petroleum reserves to ease prices.