This morning I found myself thinking about the Strait of Hormuz and the rising cost of fuel.
The narrative being repeated over and over is pretty simple:
Iran closed the Strait, oil prices went up, and now consumers are paying the price.
In that narrative, Iran becomes the villain—holding the world hostage.
But something about that didn’t sit quite right with me.
So I paused and asked a different question:
Who is actually benefiting from higher oil prices?
Because whenever prices go up across an entire global system, somebody is making more money.
And when I started thinking about it that way, the picture began to shift.
Oil producers are selling the same product at higher prices.
Energy companies are reporting higher revenues.
Traders are making money on volatility.
Meanwhile, consumers are paying more at the pump.
So now I’m left wondering:
Is this really a story about one country holding the world hostage…
or is it a story about a global system that has made itself vulnerable to a single narrow passage of water?
It made me think of something I’ve come to believe over time:
The real problem is often not the disruption…
but the system that makes the disruption so powerful.
After thinking about this more and doing some basic research, I wrote an article on my Conservation Lifestyles publication on Substack. If you are interested in reading it:
