Play Stupid Games, Win ...

 ... stupid prizes. West's economies are paraded for what they are--low industry, high speculation ... well, Ponzi schemes. 

The legendary derivatives trading team at Vitol Group, the world’s largest oil trader, has reportedly lost hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars on oil bets that went very wrong as the war in the Middle East roiled global markets and trapped physical supply at the Strait of Hormuz. Vitol’s star trader Yaoyao Liu found himself on the wrong side of bets on crude and fuel prices at the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, as prices soared in the worst disruption of global oil supply in history, the Wall Street Journal reports, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter. Liu’s trades are reportedly a closely-guarded secret not only on the market but also within Vitol itself.

Derivatives, a euphemism for speculation, which modern West's capital is and real economy are as removed from each-other as Milky Way is removed from Andromeda. As American Way of War is removed from actual war. Now they are doing betting, instead of studying markets and real conditions and outputs. The result is predictable. E.g. 

That's Urals in ... futures. Hm. Physical oil, of course, is much more expensive. The "model" is collapsing. 

Modi Is Under Fire ...

 ... one of the MPs in India's Parliament accuses Modi of kneeling before Israel while Khamenei became a martyr. 

The timing (and essence) of Modi's visit to Israel couldn't have been worse. And that is to put it mildly. 

Now to some "dawning" of the reality on those who thought they knew. Yeah, "paper" everything is a derivative enabler for speculation and manipulation. 

The oil futures paper market is likely underestimating the massive supply disruption that a closed Strait of Hormuz is creating in physical crude and fuel supply globally. Crude futures prices briefly spiked early this week to $119 per barrel, before retreating to the $90s and trading at $100 a barrel early on Friday in Asian trade. However, the premium of physical Dubai crude has surged to $38 per barrel over its paper equivalent, according to data compiled by Reuters columnist Clyde Russell. The wide gap between paper and physical prices suggests that supply is being immediately choked off. But traders on the paper market appear to believe that the record-high emergency stocks release and the U.S. Administration’s scrambling to calm the markets with comments that the war will end soon would ease the upward pressure on oil prices.

I want to reiterate--average "trader" on any paper market is nothing but a product (at best) of some MBA program from Ivy League degree mill and knows nothing about real world and how it operates. It is a crowd ready to buy any political BS as long as it serves short term speculation and profit. I will reiterate--the US doesn't have strategic intelligence and strategic forecasting as a craft in principle. What passes for both is an academic and ideological fraud.