When Donald Trump’s political obituary comes to be written, none of his colorful phrases over the years will seem quite as outrageous as his remark in June, when the Consumer Prices Index hit 4.2 percent: “I love the inflation.” He later claimed that he meant he loved the inflation figures because they weren’t as high as they could have been. But that isn’t going to wash: he had scorned the very people who had voted for him, and for whom inflation is a very big deal, by dismissing inflation as something unimportant. 

He won’t be making the same mistake, presumably, now that oil prices have hit $100 a barrel once more, for the first time since July. Until recently it was possible to believe that the worst was over, that the US and Iran would do a lasting deal, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen for good and that the oil would start flowing again. That is now looking a forlorn........

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