As military exchanges between Iranian-backed forces and U.S. and Saudi targets intensified across the Middle East, oil markets responded with the clarity they always do in moments of geopolitical fracture — pushing Brent crude to within reach of $100 a barrel for the first time in months. The price of energy, that most elemental measure of global stability, has become the world's most honest signal: a barometer not merely of supply and demand, but of how much uncertainty humanity is willing to absorb before institutions are forced to act. Central banks on three continents now find themselves n