Simon Henderson is the Baker Senior Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute, specializing in energy matters and the conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
Articles & Testimony
Energy markets are sophisticated enough to absorb small amounts of bad news and presidential tweets, but they don't like protracted uncertainty.
For those of us who watch the oil market, there’s a nagging feeling that prices are ready to explode. Who’s to blame? Top of the list is Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who warned the United States that conflict with the Islamic Republic would be “the mother of all wars,” then seemed to endorse, rather than contradict, Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz. Rouhani’s words prompted President Trump to tweet his own warning, in capital letters. Unsurprisingly, oil prices were up Monday but, at the time of this writing, had fallen below last Friday's close. For those perplexed by the functioning of oil markets, here are a few guidelines to work out what is important...
