Opinion | Are investors spooked by Iran violence? Market response suggests not

So, the Trump administration has now decapitated two governments, Venezuela and Iran. You can be sure most world leaders will be videoconferencing from secure bunkers from now on.

Such disruption is bad enough with conventional weapons; the possibility of hardliners controlling nuclear weapons is unthinkable. Iran’s stated intentions were always likely to attract attention and, in this case, a hardline response.

However, the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro taught us that if you only cut off the head of a government, the same bullying regime is likely to continue. An unarmed population, made poor by the selfish incompetence of its leaders, does not tend to overcome the status quo. The best hope for Iran is that it becomes less extremist, less militaristic and less prone to troublemaking.

Iran is a resource-rich country and religious, political and economic freedoms for its 93 million people would allow them to share in the enormous potential wealth of the country. That would make us all richer, and might in turn improve relations between the superpowers.

Assassinating a foreign leader is a big deal in geopolitics. In the last few years, several bitter wars have started – some of which US President Donald Trump has claimed to stop – yet most global asset classes continue to rise in value.