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Consumer Spending, Engine of the U.S. Economy, Is Under Strain – The New York Times

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Consumer Spending, Engine of the U.S. Economy, Is Under Strain – The New York Times

Angie Howard lives in a walkable neighborhood in Portland, Ore., and works from home, so she has not had to shell out for higher gas prices since the war in the Middle East began. Still, Ms. Howard, who lives alone, said she had noticed costs jumping all around her anyway. “You go into the grocery store, you buy the things you normally would, and then all of a sudden it’s $20 or $30 more there, and you start to see additional fuel charges,” she said. “And at the end of the week, where you would normally have two nickels to rub together, now they’re not there.”

Global Food Supply Faces a Dangerous Bottleneck as Iran War Persists – The New York Times

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Global Food Supply Faces a Dangerous Bottleneck as Iran War Persists – The New York Times

One of the biggest economic casualties of the U.S.-led war in Iran has been the global fertilizer supply.

Shipments of it have piled up on the wrong side of the Strait of Hormuz. In India, Algeria and Slovakia, fertilizer plants have shut down or slowed their output because of rising natural gas prices. China has restricted fertilizer exports. Australian wheat farmers are planting less, and corn and soy farmers in the United States are begging President Trump for relief.

Energy-Price Shock Hits a World Already Buried in Debt – WSJ

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Energy-Price Shock Hits a World Already Buried in Debt – WSJ

The costs of shielding the global economy from the most severe energy shock in decades are adding up—just when governments can least afford it.

Authorities around the world are trying to cushion the blow to ordinary people from soaring prices. The state of Georgia suspended its 33 cents-a-gallon gas tax, with other U.S. states considering doing the same. The U.K. government has promised to help pay some consumers’ heating-fuel bills. China, Hungary and Japan have limited prices at the gas pump.

The efforts contain inflation but strain already-groaning government budgets. The longer the crisis in the Persian Gulf lasts, the more that governments will feel compelled to do.