Late 2026 — far from now

Despite the profound changes in the global economy caused by the Iran War, the world continues to play with normalcy. Stepping into the future, George Grundy looks back at this period of strange social cognitive dissonance.

WHEN WE LOOK BACK, April 2026 seems like a fleeting illusion, a moment from earlier times when we toyed with normalcy, as if we didn’t know how profoundly things had changed.

American markets were in this situation record highsDespite the wave of oil supply disruptions swept away worldwide. The supermarket shelves were still full and we drove our gas-guzzling cars and made our plans. holidays without any care.

It was a time of weird social cognitive dissonance and delusion, where we knew the Strait of Hormuz was closed and what that meant, but we chose to live our best lives while we still could. However, the Bosphorus, which carries approximately 25 percent of the world’s oil, remained stubbornly closed day by day. Each day meant another 20 million barrels of oil were withdrawn from the world economy, and the crisis became increasingly severe.

The poorer countries of Southeast Asia were first in line, but soon Anthony Albanese We were solemnly announcing it on our television screens report As our oil refining process, diesel first, then all fuels supplier countries They themselves dried up.

By the end of May the Australian economy had essentially reached a level. StopThe few remaining liquid resources were prioritized for the police, army, healthcare and food production. Every item on the supermarket shelf was picked and packagedor delivered using machines running on diesel fuel, so naturally prices roseleader panic buying and scarcity.

So shelves were emptied, major supermarkets introduced daily limits and had to put guards on their doors. Channel Seven ran stories about fights breaking out in corridors, as did Coles. dead During COVID.

As a rich country, Australia got by. This country has already produced three times There was as much food as we consumed, so even when fertilizer was in short supply there was plenty of food. But price increases hit vulnerable groups the hardest, especially when many businesses closed their doors while the economy came to a complete halt. The government stepped in to stop this trend evacuation Number of people currently facing the cost of living crisis and now I can’t pay rent or mortgage. However, crimes also increased to do.

It was in the developing world that the real damage was felt. Poorer Asian and African countries have seen fuel shortages turn into food shortages; This led to social unrest and for some war with their neighbors.

For example in Sudan already had 33 million people were displaced or faced acute hunger and famine. In the end, there was a loss of approx. one third The greatest damage was done by the world’s dung, which drowned on the wrong side of the Strait of Hormuz.

Almost half Much of India’s imported fertilizer has been cut off by the war, and the subsequent low crop yields have affected almost all of the country’s approximately 1.5 billion mouths to feed. As has often happened throughout human history, famine led to war, and war led to more crippling famine.

Financially it was chaos. By April 2026, a huge 45 percent A large portion of the rising Dow Jones index capitalization consisted of AI-related stocks, so things were poised to move quickly when the market turned downwards. Maybe we were all too old to remember that. 1973 oil shock (just because seven percent taking the world oil market offline), almost two years The market was expected to crash, but it did and by the end of 1974 it was down over 45 percent (ASX crashed) almost 60 percent).

After all, Trump’s attack on Iran beginning The collapse of the dollar, the world’s reserve currency. USA was already 39 trillion dollars debt. Trump added 3.5 trillion dollars He reached this figure in the fourteen months he was in power, which meant that he had a budget deficit of over $250 billion every month. The situation became untenable as interest rates rose and the US economy fell into a deep recession.

By the summer, Trump faced an unprecedented situation. There were confirmation numbers crashedThis is largely due to Americans’ anger over record increases in grocery and gas prices. Trump’s numbers fall below historic record low 22 percent (held by Harry S. Truman) and across America, ‘There is no king‘ their walks grew bigger and bigger.

Trump responded as he always does, denouncing the protesters as paid agitators and communists. Finally there came a point when the unrest became so widespread that Trump Insurrection Actas it has been for a long time threatened to doAll hell broke loose when active duty personnel trained in the art of war rather than keeping the peace opened fire on crowds in Boston.

Trump attempted to declare martial law, causing some cabinet members to resign, and by the time of the midterm elections in November the country was close to a state of civil war.

All this turmoil and misery happened as a knock-on effect of America’s wildly reckless decision to attack Iran. The consequences for the world were both predictable and widespread. guessbut Trump personally the most hawkish when that fateful decision was made.

It was Trump who caused this global chaos. Never took responsibility course. The rest of us suffered the consequences.

Looking back, April seems like a completely different time. Past, they sayIt is a foreign country.