Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to stop all energy exports from the Middle East in response to the American blockade, declaring that oil and gas will leave the region “either for everyone or for no one.” Hours earlier, U.S. Central Command said American forces had struck dozens of targets overnight and then resumed hitting Iran in daylight — an unusual escalation.
Brent crude traded above $85 a barrel on Wednesday, more than 15% above its pre-war price and still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the conflict.
Where the fighting is now
Among the targets was Greater Tunb Island, a strategic position inside the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM said the strike hit Iranian defense and missile sites. Iran seized Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa in 1971 from territory that became the United Arab Emirates, which has sought them back ever since. Analysts have suggested that whoever holds those islands can effectively control the strait.
A second strike hit a barracks for Iran’s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Sistan and Baluchestan province. Iranian state television reported at least 13 missiles fired and seven dead, including conscripts and career soldiers. Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said more than 30 people have been killed in recent days.
Why the strait still isn’t open
This is day 135 of a crisis that began February 28. In peacetime, roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade moves through Hormuz — the Congressional Research Service puts it near 27% of maritime crude and petroleum products.
During the interim deal, some ships began moving through a route near Oman overseen by the U.S. military and outside Tehran’s control. In recent days Iran attacked vessels using that corridor, and the exchanges resumed. Washington has threatened to reopen the strait by force. Experts say that would require a far larger armada, if not tens of thousands of ground troops.
Mediation is fraying. Oman, struck by Iran on July 12, has not withdrawn as mediator but has a credibility problem. Qatar, which hosted the most recent technical talks, was also struck. Pakistan’s track has been inactive since early July, and the Islamabad memorandum signed June 17 is functionally suspended. The 60-day nuclear window expires August 17 with no substantive discussion held.
The bill
The International Monetary Fund issued the warning that ought to concern anyone running a business with a supply chain. Economists Azim Sadikov and Jean-Marc Natal wrote that the world’s buffer has shrunk — spare capacity deployed, demand compressed, inventories drawn down. Unless inventories are replenished, they wrote, “the world will start from a weaker position when the next shock comes.”
That is the part most coverage misses. Oil at $85 is survivable. Oil at $85 with no cushion left is a different animal.
The costs are already in the system. War-risk insurance premiums for the strait went from 0.125% of a ship’s insured value per transit to between 0.2% and 0.4% — roughly a quarter-million-dollar increase for a very large crude carrier. Iran has reportedly charged tolls as high as $2 million per ship for passage. The International Maritime Organization reported some 20,000 mariners and 2,000 ships stranded in the Gulf in April.
What it means at the register
Oil is the headline. Fertilizer may matter more. Up to 30% of internationally traded fertilizer normally transits Hormuz, with the Gulf accounting for roughly 30% to 35% of global urea exports and 20% to 30% of ammonia. Fertilizer prices feed grain prices, which feed food prices — on a lag of months, not days. Pharmaceutical shipments have been disrupted as well.
Regular gasoline averaged $3.88 a gallon nationally in recent days, about 70 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA. Every delivery route, every landscaping truck, every distributor in the tri-state area is paying that spread.
The politics
Rising prices are a direct problem for President Trump and Republicans hoping to hold Congress in November. The Joint Chiefs of Staff warned him before the February strikes that Iran might close the strait. He dismissed it, telling his team Iran would capitulate — and that if it didn’t, the U.S. military could reopen the waterway.
Four and a half months later, it hasn’t.
JBizNews Desk | New York © JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.
More American Businesses Are Now Inherited Than Bought, Bank of America Study Finds
For the first time in the survey’s history, wealthy Americans are more likely to have inherited their business than to have bought it, according to the 2026 Study of Wealthy Americans released June 17 by Bank of America Private Bank. Its president, Katy Knox, said the Great Wealth Transfer is “not simply a transfer of assets” but a shift in how families engage with what they own.
The reversal is fast. In 2026, 23% of business owners surveyed said they inherited their company, against 11% who purchased it. Two years ago, the inherited figure was 11%. In 2022, it was 5% inherited against 28% purchased.
That is a complete flip in four years.
The number behind the number
Cerulli Associates estimates $124 trillion will change hands in the United States over the next 25 years, with annual transfers from the Baby Boomer generation reaching nearly $5 trillion by 2048. That projection was $84 trillion as recently as 2021 — a 48% revision upward. Millennials and Generation X, roughly ages 30 to 61, are expected to inherit close to $18 trillion in the next decade alone.
Most of it goes to women. The Bank of America Institute estimates close to $100 trillion of the total will end up with women — $47 trillion to younger generations as inherited wealth, $54 trillion to surviving spouses, of whom 95% are expected to be women.
Why businesses are staying in the family
Two forces are pushing the same direction.
The first is that companies are staying private longer. Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok, citing University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter, has noted the median age at which companies go public has climbed since 2022, when the Federal Reserve began raising rates. A boom in private capital lets large firms raise billions without ever ringing the bell. Private companies are harder to cash out of — so they get handed down instead.
The second is tax. The current structure rewards holding assets until death rather than selling during life. The study found a notable portion of owners have no plans to transition out at all, while the majority intend to eventually pass ownership to family heirs.
The gap that should worry every family business
Here is the finding with teeth: 78% of respondents said succession planning matters. Only 20% have a fully documented plan.
That is the whole story for the tri-state’s family-owned distributors, contractors, retailers, medical practices and real estate holdings. An entire generation of owners intends to hand the business to their children and has not written down how. Family involvement in these companies has already increased since 2024 across senior and middle management roles — the transition is happening whether the paperwork exists or not.
Among the ultra-wealthy, 79% involve advisors in estate conversations with heirs. Only 36% believe their heirs are very prepared to receive an inheritance, and 61% worry that family wealth will damage their children’s motivation. Their remedies: backing heirs’ own ventures (51%), writing provisions into trusts (41%), and simply not telling the kids the full number.
What the heirs will do with it
They will not invest like their parents. Among ultra-high-net-worth respondents with $25 million or more, 77% say private markets offer better opportunity than public ones. Among younger investors, 67% doubt stocks and bonds can deliver above-average returns, 58% own crypto, and 88% expect to increase allocations to alternatives. Family offices are moving the same way — 87% of family office wealth has yet to pass to the next generation, and 59% of it will move within the decade, according to a separate Bank of America Private Bank family office study.
The other reading
A rising share of inherited businesses is also a measure of concentration. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis puts the top 1% of American households at nearly one-third of national wealth — roughly $44 trillion, about what the bottom 90% holds combined. Businesses passing down rather than trading hands means fewer opportunities for outside buyers to acquire a going concern, and fewer entry points for the operator who has capital but no last name.
The methodology
Escalent conducted the online survey for Bank of America Private Bank, polling 1,431 respondents aged 21 and older with at least $3 million in investable assets excluding a primary residence. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 points at a 95% confidence level. Respondents are a nationally representative sample of high-net-worth Americans and not necessarily bank clients.
The takeaway for owners: the transfer is not coming. It is here, and four in five of you have not put it on paper.
JBizNews Desk | New York © JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.
