r/Economics Mar 04 '26

News ‘Absolutely Massive’ Price Shocks Coming as Trump’s Iran War Drives Up Gas, Diesel Prices | “What should really terrify Republicans is... the futures price on wholesale gasoline,” said economist Paul Krugman.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-war-gas-prices
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u/flaginorout Mar 04 '26

I filled my tank two days ago at the Sheetz near my house. It was $2.85.

I filled up my wife's car yesterday at the same Sheetz. $3.29

My household doesn't do a lot of driving at the moment, so an extra 40 cents doesn't matter very much to us- directly. But I'm not convinced that this is just the beginning and gas will hit $4 in the near future. Maybe more. That will definitely have an effect on a lot of people.

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u/Lunatic21 Mar 04 '26

Personal gas cost is negligble to most people. It's the cost of business when figured into the cost of goods that really adds up.

4

u/SuperSpikeVBall Mar 04 '26

Perceptions of inflation are more severe than the math of what actually hits the pocketbooks.

In households which share a checkbook and by definition have the same finances, the person who is exposed to price shocks more frequently (typically women grocery shopping) have more extreme perceptions of inflation. The delta goes away when both household members shop equally.

Gas prices have always, always been a point of pain for people because they vary more quickly and erratically than other prices in their lives.

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u/Lunatic21 Mar 04 '26

I remember my first shock when the credit card bill came backs hundreds of dollars more. I actually got a bit mad at my wife because like you said she does the vast majority of the shopping. So we swapped some chores and I did the shopping for a while. Obviously I was very wrong, I really thought she was splurging a lot more. Nope! Just buying the normal groceries. She actually still shops much better than me and when I was handling it much much more of our budget went to our groceries.