Oil, banks and arms make huge profit from the war on Iran

Big Oil, Big Banks and arms companies are profiting massively from the war on Iran.

Iran War — Oil

While most people face higher bills, oil giants are making a lot of money. Shell has reported its first quarterly profits. They are up £982 million on the year before. That’s after BP, which actually doubled its profit for the same period. Further, the French giant TotalEnergies had its profits increase by almost a third.

The price of oil has jumped partly because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Yet the UK only gets around 2% of its oil via that route. It’s the market that is raising the price due to companies selling it at the highest price they can, which is very high because of the disruption.

Big oil profits underscore the need to move away from fossil fuels and volatile international markets. Instead, the UK should bring in a publicly owned Green New Deal.

Banks

Big Banks are also profiteering from the war. The Big Six banks — Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and JP Morgan — all saw huge profits in the first quarter, at around £36 billion. That’s up £12 billion on the average from the year before.

In the UK, Lloyds Bank has increased profits by more than 30% over the same period. Barclays also saw increased profit before tax.

Arms

As well as big banks and oil, arms companies are expecting to cash it in. BAE systems expects increased profits this year and Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman had their highest orders as of the first quarter.

Function of war on Iran

War has long been profitable for the ruling class. Indeed, the US DOJ is investigating £1.9 billion in insider trading from the Trump regime over the war on Iran, Forbes reports.

The oligarchy use war to justify their position in power, because they aren’t actually improving people’s lives.

Featured image via FreePress

By James Wright

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