The head of BlackRock, America’s behemoth investment firm, has remarked that a mere cessation of hostilities in Iran will not bring the Middle East crisis to heel, at least not from the view point of those who manage trillions of dollars in investment capital. For the ultra-rich, whether the wealth is concentrated in individuals, corporations, or nations, only the disarming and termination of the Iranian regime will relieve regional tension and end oil revenue losses. Otherwise, global recession looms. Since money makes policy, often to the exclusion of all else, the BlackRock message is clear, and it is a message both Washington and Jerusalem understand and appreciate. It perfectly suits this president’s favorite word, obliterate, and is likely to mean he will spare no effort, even the introduction of U.S. ground troops, to ensure BlackRock movers and shakers get their way. What during the Cold War was labeled imperialism and adventurism is now a kind of belligerent asset management. It is the globalization of rule by the one percent, the new dogma of a century so greedy that it knows to make sense of life only through overs, unders, and bottom lines. Some allege, the White House has been leaking information about its Iran maneuvers to permit stock market speculation and insider trading among its friends, an astonishing and treasonous charge if true. Call all this tyranny by portfolio, a dystopia in its own right.