Credits: The Guardian, Arizona Daily Star
The US economy has been perking along pretty well, until very recently. What changed that? The Don and Juan Iran War, that’s what. We think that’s a good name for this war. Yes, President Trump started it, continued it without any apparent endgame, and now claims victory where most observers see harm and an American embarrassment. But Juan Ciscomani and the other Republican House of Representatives members had a chance to approve a War Powers resolution that could have put some sort of control over the White House. They punted on that responsibility, so Juan owns what has come after that.
Trump threatened for a while to wipe out the Persian civilization, but just settled for killing more than 3,000 Iranians, with help from the air force of ally Israel. That casualty count included schoolgirls whose school was hit by an American missile fired by—well, somebody, likely not Iran.
Ciscomani, in one of his few utterances about the war, said “I support fighting for the freedom of the Iranian people, a fight that President Trump has the courage to lead.” As of now, the Iranian people are not free, although a lot of them are dead or wounded, their homes destroyed.
The US amassed its military might, including waves of bombers and the US Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf. But Iran had the ability to close off the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow connector between the Persian Gulf and the rest of the seagoing world. It’s been more than a month since ships, most importantly oil tankers, have been either trapped in the Gulf or floating around outside waiting to get through and load cargo.
The effect on gasoline prices, tied closely to the price of crude oil, now unavailable from most of the Middle East, was immediate. The price of crude went up at an unprecedented rate, and the price at the pump followed. The hit on pocketbooks was felt here—the average price per gallon for regular gas has jumped about $1.60 in Pima County since the middle of February. Thank goodness Representative Ciscomani has a Congressional mileage allowance.
The federal government released the Consumer Price Index for March last Friday, and as expected, the cost of living in an American household rose almost one percent, the biggest increase in a long time. Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, told CNN that “It’s going to get a lot worse before there’s any relief. Even if the war on Iran ends in two weeks, and there’s magically an agreement, inflation will continue to rise for months to come.”
Most folks have gotten that message. The monthly consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan shows “US consumer sentiment fell in recent weeks to a record low, indicating Americans’ increasing worries about mounting inflation due to the Iran War.” And they expect inflation to get worse.
Trump is now using the Navy to blockade the Strait, a move that, per the Military Times, “is a major, open-ended military endeavor that could trigger fresh retaliation from Tehran and put tremendous strain on an already fragile ceasefire.” The second-level effects of the oil price surge, such as the costs of travel and transportation of goods to stores, and a serious potential fertilizer shortage around the world at planting time (nitrogen used in making fertilizer is also blockaded), will soon be felt.
Economist Jared Bernstein concludes that “If higher prices were the cost of a just war that made sense to the American people, that protected our allies and innocent civilians against oppression, that disempowered a non-democratic aggressor, that would be a price that most of us would willingly pay. But this is not that.”
Thanks Donald. Thanks Juan.
Sources:
https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=AZ
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/10/economy/us-cpi-inflation-march
https://substack.com/home/post/p-193677566
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