Iran Just Held the World's Oil Hostage

Dear Reader,

IRAN JUST MADE ITS MOVE. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. And now Tehran is demanding the United States pay for war damages before they let a single tanker through.

Twenty percent of the world's oil moves through that strait. Gold is sitting near $4,330 an ounce. Silver is pushing $65. And the Fed is sweating bullets heading into Jackson Hole with rate-hike pressure building.

CNN calls this a diplomatic standoff. I call it the oldest empire move in history.

Inside today's issue:

• The Hormuz Squeeze: Why Iran thinks it has the winning hand right now.
• The Debt Clock Never Sleeps: $39.5 trillion and climbing. The interest bill alone is over $1 trillion a year.
• Gold up 30% in a year. Silver up 40%. The market already knows something.
• Gas prices are skyrocketing right now. Here's what to do...

Here is what Tehran actually said this weekend. Iran's Supreme National Security Council issued a statement demanding the U.S. lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, pay compensation for war damage, and release frozen Iranian assets before they reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Translation: Iran is using a chokepoint that handles 20% of global oil as a bargaining chip against the most indebted nation in human history.

I have been studying history for 50 years. This pattern has a name. It is called leverage. And right now, Iran has it.

Reuters reported it. AP confirmed it. CBS ran it on the evening news Sunday. But here is what none of them are asking: what does America actually have to offer in return? A country running a $1.37 trillion deficit this fiscal year alone. A Fed that cannot decide whether to hike or hold. A debt load at $39.5 trillion and growing by the minute.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it plainly: the Strait is not just an economic waterway. It is power. They intend to leverage it.

Meanwhile, gold quietly hit $4,399 last Thursday. Silver touched $65 yesterday. The market is not waiting for permission to tell you what is happening. It is already voting.

But before I get to the number that every American should be staring at right now, take a look at what our friend Porter Stansberry is tracking. It connects directly to everything I'm about to show you.

But first — our friend Porter Stansberry has been tracking something that connects directly to this story. Take a look:

SPONSORED: PORTER & CO

Now. About that number.

The U.S. national debt sits at $39.5 trillion. Interest payments on that debt crossed $1 trillion for the first time this year. That is not a forecast. That is the Treasury's own data.

My rich dad taught me one rule about negotiation: never negotiate from a position of need. When you owe $39.5 trillion and you need oil to flow through a strait you do not control, you are negotiating from need. Iran knows this. Every central banker in Beijing and Riyadh knows this.

This is not new. This is what happens at the end of every empire cycle. Rome faced it. Britain faced it. The U.S. is facing it now.

The question is not whether the dollar weakens. The question is: what are you holding when it does?

Gold up 30% in the last year. Silver up 40%. These are not accidents. The smart money has been moving quietly for two years. I started buying gold at $300 an ounce. I have been saying for decades that real assets protect you when paper promises fail.

The Strait of Hormuz is the mirror. It is showing you exactly what happens when debt-financed power meets geographic reality. Iran does not need a missile to win this round. It just needs to wait.

DO NOT WAIT. Stack real assets. Gold. Silver. Real estate outside the system. Things governments cannot print.

To your freedom,

Robert Kiyosaki

Author, Rich Dad Poor Dad

P.S. The book Hedge Fund Market Wizards profiles some of the greatest traders alive. And our friend Larry Benedict has his own chapter. Now this former hedge fund manager is turning to oil, and he says the market conditions forming right now are some of the best he's seen in 40 years. Watch the free presentation here.