Conflict and chaos are nothing new to the Middle East. It is an unfortunate cycle that keeps popping up over and over again. The word unfortunate is really not correct to use here, catastrophic is more appropriate. To all those affected by this latest war, even the word catastrophic can't appropriately describe the human suffering. This is not isolated to the Middle East either, there is also the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. It seems to be a fact of life that we as humans just can't learn to live in peace. 

To clarify that statement, I believe that the vast majority of people in every country around the world want peace. I believe the vast majority of people are capable of showing tolerance, understanding, and acceptance of those with different beliefs. But, in my opinion it is the governments and smaller groups within each country that lead us into conflicts with each other. I believe because of greed and the desire to maintain or increase their power these groups or governments push us into conflict. The real tragic part of this is that most of the time the ones who lead us into conflict are not the ones who suffer. It is the inocent people of this world who are just trying to live their lives who suffer the most. 

Anyway, I just think it is incredibly sad but I got a bit sidetracked from what I really was writing about so I'll try to get back on topic. My main reason for writing is that I believe there are potential threats looming for the traditional and crypto markets. As I'm sure you can guess by how I opened this post the threats stem from the ongoing war in the Middle East. Besides the threat of the war escalating and spreading throughout the region, which one could argue is already happening. Another threat to the markets is one being created by the Houthi rebels in Yeman who continue to not only engage in attacks against the U.S. military but now are attacking merchant ships.

I think that if this continues or worsens it could really affect the tradfi markets and even the crypto markets. These attacks are already causing shipping prices to soar and causing some freight companies to reroute shipments to avoid the area.

Eighteen shipping companies are re-routing their vessels around Africa to avoid the Red Sea amid an upsurge in attacks on shipping. This will substantially increase transit times as well as costs. All of this if it continues could cause a spike in inflation just when the FED has indicated it might start cutting rates. If this causes the FED to back track on the rate cuts the tradfi markets would not take it well.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/houthis-claim-another-red-sea-attack-as-shipping-prices-soar/

This has the potential to get even worse if oil tankers are targeted in the Strait of Hormuz either by the Houthi rebels or Iran. This would cause oil prices to skyrocket and as a result gas prices would also skyrocket. This all would be very bad for markets around the world.

The U.S. in an attempt to put an end to the attacks has issued a final warning to the Houthi rebels. 

https://apnews.com/article/us-israel-hamas-houthis-red-sea-fef8d446852b6eae33d38ffd8f6b2d64

But it seems as though it fell on deaf ears because only hours after they issued the warning the rebels launched a sea drone to attack ships. 

https://apnews.com/article/houthis-drone-ships-navy-missile-79aca676da82a61ce4a8151951727973

The Houthi rebels seem to have little concern for the warning from the U.S. and it's allies. The Houthi rebels have stated that their intentions are to target any ship interacting with Israel, although several ships that have been targeted had no relationship with Israel. It appears as though the real goal of the Houthi rebels is not only attack ships linked to Israel but to also disrupt global trade. 

I believe anyone with investments in any market should keep a close eye on this situation. It's easy though to get complacent given that the markets over the last few months have been very bullish, but things can change quickly. This whole Middle East mess not only runs the risk of escalating and drawing other countries into the conflict. But it also has the potential to be very disruptive to global markets and that puts us all in financial danger.