In the (so far) short military engagement with Iran, crude oil and gasoline prices have jumped significantly. The three-week change in gasoline prices at the pump for US consumers was 27 percent, the largest three-week increase consumers in the US have ever seen (with data back through the 1990s). The four-week increase is also a record.
Despite this sharp increase, gasoline prices remain near the long-run average in terms of affordability: it takes about 7 minutes of work at the average wage to purchase a gallon of gasoline. To be sure, this is a big jump of where it had been earlier in 2026, at about 5 minutes of labor. Nonetheless, gasoline is still (for now!) more affordable than it was, relative to wages, for almost all of 2022 and 2023.
Economist Writing Every Day 