Global stock markets fall like autumn leaves on Pētera Street — oil as expensive as a Liepāja tram ticket

Global financial markets have experienced such turmoil that even the café patrons on Pētera Street have stopped discussing the weather to talk about falling stock prices. While Riga analysts try to understand why oil prices are rising but stocks are falling, Liepāja residents simply shrug their shoulders — we've long known that nothing in the world happens logically.

Trump has given Iran a deadline until April to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, but investors are reacting like visitors to Pētera Street cafés when they hear that coffee will only be available in an hour — they panic and run to look for alternatives. 'It looks like Trump is losing his control over the markets,' says an analyst, but Liepāja residents have long known — you can only control whether you're dressed warmly enough for windy weather.

Oil prices have jumped to $112 per barrel, which is about as expensive as trying to fill up your car in Liepāja in winter, when fuel freezes faster than you can use it. Meanwhile, European exchanges have fallen less than the US — apparently Europeans have more experience surviving economic upheavals, just like we do with storm seasons.

'Investors no longer take Trump's announcements at face value,' explains an expert, but here, where every morning starts with looking at the thermometer and checking wind direction, we've long known — you can only trust what you see with your own eyes. And right now we see that the world is as unstable as our weather — sunshine one day, a storm the next.