How soaring gas prices and disrupted supply chains will make everything you buy more expensive

The disruptions from the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran spread quickly to commercial aircraft, shipping lanes, and the world’s energy supply. Those repercussions have already hit fuel costs, including for motorists, truckers, and fishermen, and are set to spread even more widely to packaging, household goods, appliances, medicines, and electronics. I study global supply chains and how they interconnect and depend on each other around the world. There are several ways in which U.S. consumers will begin to feel the pinch of the war. Some of those effects have to do with domestic commerce, and some are a result of the interwoven nature of global trade, where raw materials from one place are shipped somewhere that they are manufactured into specific items that are then transported to consumers. Rising costs in the U.S. Here are the main categories in which costs will begin to rise. Fuel shortages and freight surcharges: From March 2-16, 2026, the average nationwide price of U.S. regular