The cold logic of the oil market dictates that crisis usually equals profit. That’s because a crisis in oil usually means a supply crisis, as some large producing country becomes embroiled in war or civil unrest or sanctions or some other geopolitical mess. The country currently occupying the unenviable position of being the likeliest source of a supply shock …

  In Sydney last weekend, Vice President Mike Pence hailed the close economic ties linking the U.S. and Australia. In fact, currently America’s chief export to the Antipodes seems to be bad ideas. Last week, on the same day President Donald Trump took aim at the H-1B visa program in the U.S., Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull abolished Australia’s own skilled-worker …

  The US navy flotilla is sailing towards Korean peninsula, the nuclear-powered USS Michigan, one of four Ohio-class guided-missile submarines capable of launching cruise missiles, arrived at the South Korean port of Busan, and US forces have begun installing THAAD, a missile-defense system in South Korea. Such military equipment build up is the ominous indicator of possible catastrophic events. Tensions …