Even if he chickens out, he has unleashed something that he cannot control.

There's no turning back.

This morning I am feeling pretty anxious about what awaits us all.

Hi and welcome to a special edition of The Rest is Money with me, Robert Pestan.

And with me, Steph McGovern.

Now, obviously, the major unrest in the Middle East is a huge political, huge humanitarian problem.

It's one that's still very much unfolding.

But what we want to do today is

focus on the economic side of all of this because it matters hugely what happens in that

region in terms of the global economy. So in this episode, we're going to explain why we're going to

look at the impact of oil prices and in turn what that means for energy prices, what that might do

to inflation, and from that, how central banks might react to all of this with things like rate

decisions. But Robert, first of all, should we just look at the market reactions? Obviously,

the markets have just opened tea air, stock markets. what's going on? Because it doesn't look great

this morning, does it?

Price action on markets is absolutely predictable.

So we are currently seeing the oil price up a little bit less than 10%.

It has been higher in trading overnight. That's the Brent crude

price. But, you know, that is a significant increase in the cost of energy. Gas prices up much more

than that. And obviously, particularly for Europe and the UK, a rise in gas prices.

I mean, I think the market price is currently near a 20% up.

So that is very significant.

...