How much leverage does Iran really have over oil trade?

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4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Oil markets went into a state of panic after the United States launched strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, stoking fears that Iran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran’s control over the key oil trade route may not be the economic weapon many think it is. We’ll explain. And, several provisions in the Republicans’ reconciliation bill haven’t made it through the so-called “Byrd Bath” and risk being axed from the legislation. Plus, did you know killer whales aren’t really whales?

Here’s everything we talked about today:

"Capitol agenda: How Johnson may block an Iran rebuke" from Politico
"11 days until July 4: Byrd Bath and policy fights on deck" from Punchbowl News
"Senate parliamentarian rejects GOP attempt to authorize states to conduct immigration enforcement" from The Hill
"G.O.P. Can’t Include Limits on Trump Lawsuits in Megabill, Senate Parliamentarian Rules" from The New York Times
"Iran Has an Oil Card to Play. So Does the U.S." from The Wall Street Journal
"The largest digital camera ever built has released its first shots of the universe" from AP News
"Vera C Rubin Observatory first images" from BBC Sky at Night Magazine
"Killer whales seen grooming each other with kelp in first for marine tool use" from The Guardian

Got a question for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.
0:13.0	Hi, and I'm Marie McRais. Thank you for joining us, everyone. It is Monday, June 23rd.
0:18.2	Today we're going to do some news, then some much-needed smiles. Why don't we start
0:22.3	with the news? I mean, there's really one huge story. Obviously, the U.S. strikes on Iranian
0:28.6	nuclear facilities over the weekend, which was just a huge development of the United States
0:34.5	stepping into this war between Israel and Iran. And now Donald Trump is talking about regime change.
0:42.3	Members of Congress are pushing for certain members of Congress, mostly Democrats, but a couple of Republicans, pushing for a vote on the War Powers Act or trying to basically say that, you know, they want to
0:56.1	deauthorize actions in Iran. But I'm sure everybody's been hearing about it all weekend.
1:03.3	I have to say, I was really stunned that he actually did it. I don't know about you.
1:10.7	Oh, same. I was, yeah, I was kind of,
1:13.3	I was on this like semi-remote island over the weekend and didn't really have internet access.
1:18.5	And then I got an update. And I, yeah, I couldn't believe it at first. I thought that.
1:24.3	Yeah, it was a lot to wrap my head around and then just been consuming news ever since.
1:28.4	You know, I'm just trying to make sense of it.
1:30.5	Yeah, I see your news item is focused on that. So why don't you go first?
1:33.5	Yeah, I'll start first. So right now, I just want to add some context.
1:37.9	Some of the panicked headlines we're seeing right now around global oil trade.
1:42.0	You know, what's going to happen? Should we be freaking out? Will we see
1:44.8	oil prices go up? Let me first take a step back. So analysts are saying that one way Iran could
1:51.6	retaliate is by closing off the straight of Hermuz. That is a very crucial trade route, more than
1:56.8	a fifth of the world's oil supply passes through it each day. Now, a couple things. So
2:02.3	Iran's parliament supports closing it. But, but, but, but, but some important context,
	...

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