Quick Summary
• Aside from rising gasoline prices, the US still hasn’t seen much direct economic impact from disruption to Strait of Hormuz maritime traffic. However, it’s only a matter of time before...
Additional Context
Aside from rising gasoline prices, the US still hasn’t seen much direct economic impact from disruption to Strait of Hormuz maritime traffic. However, it’s only a matter of time before that situation changes, and other countries—especially in Asia—have already begun enacting emergency measures to help alleviate the pain of price shocks for businesses and consumers.
This isn’t a vague, hard-to-pin-down prospect. There’s one material that’s in virtually everything, for instance, which should be expected to lead to sustained inflation for some time, as the effects of the conflict in Iran filter into the broader economy: plastics. About 15 percent of the planet’s polyethylene (PE), for instance, which is the most common plastic on the market, comes from the Middle East.
From one perspective,