A few days ago, a friend complained that filling her Honda’s gas tank cost $80. As a retiree who doesn’t commute, she can probably absorb the rising costs. But think of the workers in those morning commutes you see on TV—thousands of cars stuck in massive traffic jams, creeping across bridges, repeating the same crawl home every workday of the year. For them, fuel price increases threaten their way of life.
This isn’t just happening in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s happening across every major US city and many minor ones too. And America has no monopoly on this crisis—it’s unfolding in nearly every city across the world. Put this in perspective, and you begin to understand how a President with little grasp of consequences has set the world economy ablaze in just five weeks.
Rising energy costs wash through every economic sector. Global transportation systems consume roughly 70% of hydrocarbon fuels, at over $100 per barrel. Diesel fuel, the dominant fuel for trains, trucks, and ships, has doubled to $200 per barrel. That means nearly every product we buy becomes more expensive because of rising transportation costs.
US tariffs on imported products have significantly compounded these costs. The result, according to the International Monetary Fund: rising inflation, slowing growth—is in a word, stagflation. Stock markets worldwide are crashing while investments in commodities—gold, silver, copper, and oil surge into what some experts call a supercycle.
These shortages create cascading impacts. Natural gas is the primary feedstock for fertilizer production. No gas, no fertilizer—just as the Northern Hemisphere verges on spring planting season. Farmers cannot wait for political solutions. The results will hit at harvest time with worldwide food shortages, terrible for the West, catastrophic for the Global South.
Politically, the US-Israeli war may shatter our eighty-year NATO alliance, with all major allies declining US pleas to join the conflict. The impact appears in unexpected places: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, one of Europe’s most unpopular leaders, sees his approval rising thanks to strident criticism of the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
As an emergency response, the International Energy Agency (IEA) members agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves to combat shortages and high prices. These numbers include the US release of 172 million barrels, Japan 80 million, South Korea 22 million—equivalent to roughly four days of global production.
Meanwhile, China accumulates oil, ordering its refineries to halt exports. Russia has stopped all gasoline exports for domestic purposes.
The world faces fundamental change. All because the US President accepted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s desperate plan—Netanyahu assured Trump Iran couldn’t close the Hormuz Strait—instead of heeding warnings from his top officials.
According to the New York Times, Trump’s military advisor, General Caine, called the Israeli plan “a desperate hard sell with little planning.” His top intelligence officer called it “farcical.” His Secretary of State called it “bullshit.” His Vice President warned the attack on Iran was too risky, his Administrative Chief warned that war could lose his MAGA vote.
Weeks before the war began, Tucker Carlson, a prominent right wing war skeptic, warned Trump that a war with Iran would destroy his presidency.
Trump tried to reassure him over the phone.
“I know you’re worried about it, but it’s going to be OK,” the President said.
Carlson asked how he knew.
“Because it always is,” Trump replied.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
(Bob Berke can be contacted at [email protected])