On a Thursday in late July 2026, the ancient calculus of conflict and commerce reasserted itself as Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping pushed Brent crude toward $100 a barrel, reminding the world how fragile the arteries of global energy remain. The strikes on Saudi tankers were not merely tactical provocations but signals of a wider contest — one in which Iran, American military pressure, and the chokepoints of the Strait of Hormuz all figure as variables in an equation no single actor controls. Markets, ever sensitive to the geometry of risk, responded with the familiar asymmetry of fear: so