🇺🇸🇮🇷 Prof. Steve Hanke: Washington is losing every escalation with Iran

The Strait of Hormuz is becoming a rather unforgiving scoreboard for the Iran war.

Oil flows averaged roughly 6.7 million barrels per day over the past week, nearly 60% below pre-war levels, according to tanker-tracking data cited during our discussion with Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke.

Washington says its tanker-protection operation is keeping enormous volumes moving.

Hanke isn't buying it.

He says the tracking data he follows shows traffic remains dramatically below Washington's claims, with some days seeing only 4 or 5 ships pass through the Strait.

Meanwhile, diesel keeps climbing. And Hanke expects it to go higher.

His explanation is brutally simple: every time Washington escalates, Iran responds harder, leaving the U.S. worse off than before.

“We lose every one of these escalations.”

First came the air campaign. Then one blockade. Then another.

Now Washington is locked into repeated tit-for-tat exchanges while Iran retains leverage over the Strait it did not possess before the war.

Hanke's conclusion: not only is the strategy failing to break Iran, it is strengthening Tehran's regional position while forcing the rest of the world to absorb the energy bill.

@WeTheBrandon @steve_hanke