The global diesel shock is here

David Llewellyn-Smith

Friday 14 August 2026

The war newsflow was pretty grim.

Houthis hit Saudi’s Jizan refinery with two drones.
More than half of Yemen’s population does not have enough food to eat.
According to US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, the US may keep the blockade on Iran “indefinitely.”

But the clangour goes to Professor Pape.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.