Regional Wealth Shock: War in Iran Sends Energy Costs Skyrocketing for America’s Heartland

Energy price surges triggered by the Iran conflict are hitting American households with brutal regional disparities, with low-income families in the Midwest and South bearing the heaviest burden while coastal elites remain largely insulated. The economic shockwave—measured in 7-9% food inflation and 15-20% gas price spikes—exposes America’s geographic wealth fault lines as global supply chains convulse around the Strait of Hormuz.

Dispatch from Arthur Sterling (Macroeconomics Editor).